On Being Evil--Without Becoming a Villain

The actual title should be something more like How to Write a Villain Into Your Story Without Becoming One in the Process. Writing is often a balancing act. You must tell enough to keep the reader interested without giving away the plot line too soon. Your characters must be touchable, human and believable. At times they must seem almost superhuman or super evil, while remaining believable. That is where the tight rope walking comes into play.

What makes a good villain? (Now there is an oxymoron, if ever there was one!) What makes a villain memorable to a reader? What would make a person want to continue reading? Often the only incentive to read on may be that the reader has a sense of justice that makes him or her want a valid punishment for the trouble-maker in the story. Not that your other characters can be lackluster, but the villain, if portrayed effectively, can be a huge part of what carries the story. Tension and opposition are a part of life and add to the thrill of a good read.

While I was writing Shining Armor (read five chapters here), the character of Ted Randall seemed to take a route all his own. He came to life in such a way that he began to "tell" me who and what he was and I wrote it down as I "watched" the play unfold. Ted was not just a jealous boyfriend. He was not just an abusive, spoiled child in a mans' body. He was the very embodiment of evil--unpredictable to the extreme, mentally unstable and capable of doing great harm while taking deep pleasure in the act. His persistence was absolutely frightening in scope, but almost admirable, in a strange sort of way. He just would not give up. Where other men would take a hint and weigh the pros and cons, Ted did not. It was all about him, all about winning, all about revenge if it came to that. He did not quit until his goal was reached--ever--and by whatever means was deemed necessary. It was this singleness of sight and his belief that he was always right that made him so formidable a threat to the safety of Ron and Denise in the story. The reader wants Ted to get his due come-uppance, without any doubt. At the same time, the reader cannot wait to see what he will do next. Ted is a fascinating character, due in great part to the fact that he is so evil. If Ted were to expire from the story too soon, the story would be anti-climactic. If he were to win totally and unquestionably, the story would be a disappointment also. Again, the balancing act. An equitable answer must be found to the dilemma.

Ted was the kind to push his weight around and bully others, something Denise Payton does not discover until she is already in a relationship with him. He is the type to be dangerously jealous, which she also determines later. He does not tolerate losing, even to a family member, as they are soon to find out. This in no way implies he is stupid, for he is very clever and insightful in his own warped way. He uses people to his own ends and says what he pleases, when he pleases. This was a point of discovery for me as a writer--how to give the impression of foul language without actually using the language that would make the book objectionable to the reader (and to the author). What I did was what many others have had to resort to--description instead of dialogue. This was followed by a stream of blue invective that shook the diner from one end to the other--or some such treatment. The reader may wonder why the invective is blue, or even what invective is, but the words seem to suggest that whatever he did was not nice and upset everyone within earshot. The implication is there and that is usually far more effective than the language itself.

Ted is not your average bully, either. He has no self-esteem problems in the normal sense of the word. If anything, he has too much self-esteem and none for his peers. He does not cower when pressure is put on him by others, though he may bide his time and wait for the appropriate opportunity to act. He sees this as a challenge to his own authority. One cannot help but wonder what miracles this man could accomplish if only he would harness this intense power for good.

Another aspect of portraying a villain is how to appropriately illustrate the violence he may do, without the description becoming too gory or objectionable to the reader. I truly believe that a major part of any authors' story has to be allowing the reader liberty to use his imagination to the maximum possible extent. An active imagination is what allows the writer to do the story in the first place. Why would not an active imagination be essential to the reader as well? It is the vital connection that the author and the audience have in common. You have no movie screen to place your cinematography on, except the readers' mind alone. You have no soundtrack that can allow the reader to hear the crush of leaves as the villain chases the woman into the dark woods. The reader supplies this and more. The reader is (and must be) an active participant in the unfolding of the tale. If you don't believe this fully and firmly, you will never get the reaction you want from your audience. The reader will always wonder where it is you are trying to go with this work. I think that is why I always had a problem with the writings of Charles Dickens. He wrote for the stage director and the manager in charge of props and costumes, but he never wrote for me. By way of comparison, Edgar Rice Burroughs fast became my favorite author at an early point in my development as a consumer of novels. He utilized all the most effective techniques, such as cliffhangers, etc. The difference between him and Dickens was that he was not so hung up on the peripheral and useless details that he forgot to tell the story and let me supply the imagination. (In all fairness to Dickens, he wrote at a time when authors were paid by the word, hence the incentive to be wordy).

I think that is about all for now. Experiment in your own way with these suggestions. You may be an author and use them firsthand, or you may be a reader and have just been made aware that this is the process that was taking place in your own reading. Either way, have fun--and good imagination to you!