Today we create the bad guy and the good guy of your story. There are some tips we’ll go through regarding what should not be done, and then regarding what should be done.
Creating the Villain—The Antagonist
WHAT SHOULD NOT BE DONE:
- Always giving them backstories: I mean, sure, you should know where your villain came from, but trust me, sometimes, the villains DON’T have backstories. Sometimes the bad guy is the bad guy just for the sake of being the bad guy. Villains don’t always need backstories, and they really don’t need the authors constantly justifying all their bad actions and providing excuses for them in the form of backstories so that the readers pity them.
- Don’t always make them exceptionally good-looking. Don’t always make them exceptionally ugly either. Take examples: From the Harry Potter world, Draco Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge. Draco’s the bad guy (kinda) and Umbridge is…uhh. Draco is likeable because people tend to dig bad guys. Umbridge is hateable because she’s got a disgusting personality, and a toad-like face. So the thing is, readers are bound to like Draco and hate Umbridge. JK Rowling decided that for herself. Who’d you think is going to decide that for your story?
- When I say make villains, I don’t mean make soft cuddly toys your readers want to marry. There are many villains out there who are being regarded as unintimidating because of being played by goodlooking actors. There are many villains, even in books, for who the readers always form a soft spot. That had its time. Now it’s called cliche.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE:
- Create a normal looking person, but stop just short of giving them an obnoxious voice or any other such trait. Villainize them through thir actions. Make the readers hate them. Make them fear them.
- Do the literary world a favour and make a villain your readers can’t help but hate. Make them racist, sexist, whatever you story might be compatible with. Then have someone punch them in the face.
- Make your villain scary. Make them freaking crazy. Do them justice such that they are frightening not only for the character who’s facing them, but also for the reader who’s reading them
- Last but not the least. Give them small little flaws too, not just big fatal ones. Allow them to be human sometimes, make little mistakes, fall in love not just for the sake of the story. And yeah, DON’T make them fall for the hero’s girl. No, not the hero either. That’s primitive, man. Show the readers that this villain is a monster at work, but he has a family and his kids look upto him.
Creating the Hero—The Protagonist
Today we’ll create the perfect good guy your story needs. And guess what, he isn’t supposed to be perfect. First we discuss what things aren’t suitable for your story’s hero, then we’ll discuss what is preferable instead.
WHAT IS NOT SUITABLE:
- Always wanting to have a love interest. It’s okay if your story has a hero but no heroine. It’s also okay if your story has a heroine but no hero. They don’t come in pairs, you know. You can keep them single during the span of the novel and not think about the love interest for once.
- Giving them the perfect morals and that straight-backed, alpha male personality. Seriously, that’s centuries old. Now what heroes need are not the perfect idealistic approach towards the problem, but the slight change and the protagonist no one thougth was capable of a rebellion wavering away and out of the good predetermined orbit.
- Giving the protagonist some kind of tragedy or disability to provide for that major event that happened before birth that would somehow help shape the storyline. What mean to say is, for once, your protagonist can have both the parents alive and well, and they can NOT have any big, life-threatening disability or something, and let’s just say they have a perfect life indeed.
WHAT IS PREFERABLE INSTEAD:
- Let’s just say your protagonist has friends and family that have no connection with the plot. How awesome is that. They are not used in blackmailing the protagonist or anything, and they are just family and friends the hero made before they got stuck into all this fiasco that we call the main storyline.
- Let your protagonist have faults, I repeat, not major, life-threatening ones, but small, little, cute ones that show they are human. And okay, if you want to take it up a notch. Let them have faults that question their ideals. Let them have a life outside the story.
That’s it for this post! Comment if you found this helpful and also do suggest me what you’d like to see next!
