As writers
and readers of romantic suspense, thrillers and mysteries we’re all familiar
with villains. They come in varied shapes and sizes, from different
backgrounds, and can be male or female.
When a writer builds a villain they:
1. Give them
motivation for their actions (even if the character’s thinking is skewed).
2. Give them
a few good points to go with all the bad stuff because this makes the character
more rounded and maybe a bit likeable.
3. Give them
a great name because every character deserves a great name.
4. Give them
a similar conflict to the hero or heroine, but a different way to solve their
problems.
5. Steer
clear of clichés!
But when it
comes to sex, that’s when a writer can change things up. After all, men are
from Mars and women come from Venus. J
A female villain:
1. She can
use her sex appeal, her feminine wiles to get exactly what she wants. Seduction
and sex as a weapon.
2. She can
exert force and use guns, knives and other weapons to meet her goal, but she’s
more likely to use subtlety.
3. She can
act ruthlessly and without remorse.
4. She can
be cute and sweet and have an inner core of steel. Think of some of those
Southern Belles!
5. She does
manipulation with flare.
6. She’s
excellent at multi-tasking and is extremely intelligent.
Examples of Female Villains:
1. Annie
Wilkies in Misery (movie and book)
2. Cruella
de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians
3. Alex
Forrest in Fatal Attraction – that poor bunny!
4. The Evil
Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
5. Miranda
Priestly in The Devil Wars Prada
A male
villain:
1. He’s more
likely to be upfront rather than sneaky. In most circumstances he won’t beat
around the bush or aim for subtlety.
2. He’s more
likely to carry out the tasks himself rather than delegate because he likes to
control the situation.
3. He’s good
at planning and strategy, especially if he has a military/police background.
4. He’s
usually experienced with different types of weapons.
5. He’s
intelligent and doesn’t make the same mistake twice.
6. He’s more
likely to use brute force.
Examples of Male Villains:
1. Jack
Randall in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.
2. Darth
Vador in Star Wars.
3. Lash in
JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood.
4. James
Ardmore in The Pirate Next Door by Jennifer Ashley.
5. Dr.
Zachary Smith in Lost in Space.
6. Gollum in
Lord of the Rings
Male or
female, I’m sure we agree that the character needs to be multi-faceted,
motivated and interesting. He or she shouldn’t become a laughable cardboard
cutout. Here’s a link to an article on Creating a Credible
Villain that gives some great tips and another link about questions
to ask your villain character.
Do you prefer reading/writing male or
female villains? Do you have any fictional favorites? Is there anything that
makes you cringe when it comes to villains?
Note – This post was inspired by a
guest post at my blog written by Carol Van Atta, The Female Villain: She’s Alive, Well and Ready to bite.
Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand with her husband and a rambunctious puppy. To learn more about Shelley and her books visit her website at www.shelleymunro.com
15 comments:
I like reading male villains better than females but I do have to say that the first one that came to mind was Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.
Great post, Shelly. I think authors need to love their villains. Even the ones who do terrible things. I think my favourite villain is still Hannibal Lecter. I think it's due to his wicked intelligence and Anthony Hopkins :)
Oh I LOVE villains LOL, they're so often more fun to read and write than the heroes. And if they're written well, you can understand their motivation and angst even while you're rooting for them to be defeated.
Just for interest, I write m/m where there's often an unpleasant tendency to make the female character the bad-guy! I admit I've had female villains, but not *because* they were female :).
I'm with Clare - writing villains is fun. It allows me to explore the dark side of humanity, and what could happen if one chose a different path. I've been toying with the idea of making a female serial killer in my Mindhunters series...they're not as common (or maybe they just don't get caught - heh!). What I came up with for my recent WIP is so much fun - a mother-son duo. It's been interesting fleshing out that twisted pair...
I tend to LOVE my villains. I'm writing a female villain right now and having a blast.
Chelsea Cain's "Gretchen Lowell" is one of my faces!
Sorry I’m late to the party. It’s National Nap Day and I was participating.
Villains are the bestist. I like them all. Yay villains!
Love those battles, Shelly. What's more fun for an author than creating a villain? In your piece here you nailed so many salient points. I'm writin''em down.
Mary,
Nurse Ratchet fits the bill all right. Most of my villains seem to be male. I was thinking as I wrote this post that it's time for me to try a female one.
Toni,
Hannibal Lector always gives me the chills. He's a great villain.
Clare,
That's interesting about the m/m genre. I've read quite a few and haven't noticed this. I have several in my to-read pile. I'll have to pay closer attention.
Anne Marie - I read some statistics in a blog recently that said female serial killers are common, but they're smarter about it and don't get caught as much. I don't know how true this is.
JB - writing villains allows us to walk on the dark side :)
Rita,
I need to celebrate this National day. I could really do with a nap right now!
Jean,
I'm glad the post was useful.
I like villains who are exceptionally clever. For some reason, female villains tend to come off exceedingly chilling. Maybe because women tend to be nurturers.
All I know is that I wouldn't want to meet them.
Post a Comment