(Squid Game theme playing)
Hellooo, everybody!
Halloween is right around the corner,
which means we are tackling all things spooky, dark, and evil. And today we're talking about
everyone's favorite characters.
VILLAINS!
Villains are the baddies of our novels. They're there to thwart
the heroes plan, and basically fuck shit up. A while back I broke down the ten best tips
for writing your villains and today in true Halloween fashion, I am breaking down the ten
worst tips for writing your villains. All the shit that will ruin your poor defenseless book.
Now usually I present these lists sarcastically, however today, I’m gonna do things a little bit
differently. One, because a lot of you guys are really sensitive about villains, god damn! Two,
because some of these tips aren't necessarily bad, it's just how they are interpreted and
presented that causes a problem. People are out here acting like you have to write your
villains a certain way, when that couldn't be further from the truth. Let me know which
tips you find aggravating. Personally, number eight makes me roll my eyes so hard I can see my brain.
Let's give this topic the green light, shall we?
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
Before we get started I wanted to give all my love to Milanote for sponsoring today's video.
Milanote is an easy to use tool that allows you to organize all of your thoughts and ideas into visual boards.
It's not the famous traditional software, which typically exists as a linear document. Instead,
Milanote works like a studio wall or a poster board. Which makes way more sense, because
creativity is anything but linear. Milanote allows you to take your mess of ideas and move
them around however you please. Which is perfect for organizing your thoughts, brainstorming, and
for acting as a creative hub for whatever you're working on. I literally use Milanote every single
day. I use it to plan my YouTube content, and of course I use it to brainstorm all aspects of my
writing, world building, plotting, structure, and especially all my characters: from my heroes to my
villains. And on top of that, you can use Milanote for FREE. Literally $0. It doesn't get much better
than that. But wait, there's more. Milanote is hosting a giveaway, just for you guys. If
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for free, using the link in the description below, and five lucky winners will be walking away with a
free pro subscription! Click the link, try them out for free, and you might be walking away with
a pro subscription for $0. It's that easy. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new
videos on Wednesdays and if you wanna be alerted as SOON as I upload, and I know that you do,
ring that bell. Do it, I'm giving you the green light. The Savior’s Champion and The
Savior’s Sister are available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audiobook. They’re available all
over the place. You can get ‘em on Amazon. You can get ‘em on Barnes & Noble. You can get ‘em
at Book Depository. I've got ‘em linked below, so check them out. Come on, what are you waiting for?
Just do it. Now. I am breaking down the ten worst tips for writing villains in 3, 2, 1, go! Number
One (1): Give your villain a tragic backstory. This is the most common piece of advice I see
floating around about villains. So many people believe that evil needs to come from somewhere,
typically a horrible, tragic experience. That isn't how this works. Can someone become evil due
to hardship? Absolutely, it's totally possible. But psychologically speaking, the odds are higher
that hardship breeds empathy in a human being. Basically, it's more realistic for your hero
to have a tragic backstory, than your villain. Research also suggests that a lack of hardship
can create colder, unfulfilled human beings. It's the whole spoiled brat ideology. You've
never had to work for anything in your life, so nothing really holds value to you. That's not to
say that none of your villains should have tragic backstories, of all the antagonists I've written,
I think about two of them had a really fucked up childhood. But a vast majority of them probably
shouldn't. And to claim that villains need to have a traumatic past to justify their evil is both
negligent and ignorant. On a related note, Number Two (2): All villains are mentally ill.
People villainize mental illness all the time. A huge bulk of antagonists in fiction are craaazy.
Probably because of their tragic backstory, am I right? But statistically speaking, mentally
ill people are far more likely to be victims of a crime. Mental illness isn't a strength or a
superpower. It leaves people vulnerable. It's a struggle to deal with. You can absolutely write
a mentally ill villain if you want to, so long as you also have a bunch of mentally ill heroes,
and mentally ill good guys, and mentally ill great characters. You know, mix it up. And at the very
least, do your research. Sensationalizing PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and anxiety,
is trite, tired, and harmful. Number Three (3): All villains think they're the good guy. There's
a common saying that every villain is the hero of their own story. I’d argue that the statement is
true, if you say that SOME villains are the hero of their own story. You absolutely can
write about a villain who believes that what they’re fighting for is just and good. That
sounds like a very compelling read. But to claim that all villains believe themselves to be good,
is factually incorrect. Plenty of people are willing to do terrible things for their own
benefit. Their personal advancement, and comfort matter much more to them than whatever collateral
damage happens along the way. Narcissism, greed, and ambition are all perfectly logical motivators
that have nothing to do with goodness. Stay away from absolutes, like ‘all villains think they're
good’ because that just breeds one dimensional stiff characters. Number Four (4): Give the
villain their own point of view. A lot of writers want to devote entire chapters to their villain’s
point of view for an obvious reason, they're really fun to write. That doesn't mean their
point of view adds any benefit to your novel. I've read a lot of books in my lifetime, and I can only
think of two novels where reading the villain's point of view, added any kind of depth or benefit
to the overall story. Quite often, the villain's point of view reads as self indulgent, it's an
opportunity for the writer to show just how bad the villain really is, or for us to see the tragic
backstory we really didn't need. “But Jennaaa, readers need to know the villain's motivation.”
More often than not, that should be clear through the characters actions and characterization.
Motivation doesn't have to be written out in neon lights. If the character behaves in a selfish
manner, then the readers know they're selfish. If they have a grandiose, arrogant personality,
the reader can tell they're narcissistic. It's not your job to treat the reader like they're stupid,
and that's exactly what you're doing if you're giving them a point of view they don't need.
Number Five (5): Your villain is MORE important than your main character. False. Your villain
is AS important as your main character, and should be crafted with equal attention
and care. But when you treat your villain as if they're more important than the main character,
you create a compelling, engaging villain, and then a lifeless turd of an MC. That's a problem.
The main character is usually the point of view of the novel. The reader is following them throughout
the entire story. You want them to be engaging. You want them to hook the reader. “But Jennaaa,
villains are just more fun to write than main characters.” Then maybe your main character
fucking sucks. If you're having trouble making the main character entertaining, maybe it's time to
put the villain down for a second, and flush that hero out. Create a main character the readers can
rally behind, that way they don't reach the end of the story wishing that the hero died and the
villain succeeded. Number Six (6): Killed the wife. I know I talk a lot about fridging a woman,
but that's because this cliche is so prevalent and so awful. Fridging a woman is when a female
character, usually a romantic partner, is killed off in order to motivate and thus advance the plot
of a male character. This is commonly used in reference to heroes. However, if you take
a look at a lot of villains throughout fictional media, you will notice that a lot of them became
evil because of what, that's right, a dead wife. Look guys, if I have to explain why breaking down
the literal mortality of a woman as nothing more than a plot device for a man is annoying, then
I've got nothing for you. You're beyond hope. But internalized sexism aside, this trope is overdone
and boring. You're better than that. You can think of something else. I believe in you. Number
Seven (7): All the female villains want Juvederm. While a huge bulk of male villains are motivated
by the death of a wife, an equally large, if not larger group of female villains, are motivated
by beauty and youth. They are resorting to evil tactics for the sole purpose of staying young and
pretty forever. I'm not gonna say that women don't care about physical appearance, because some do.
Hell, a lot of people period, care about aesthetic appearance. But the reason this is on the list is
because the whole ‘beauty and youth’ thing has become the go to motivator for female villains.
People can't think of anything else. What if I told you, women could have the same motivations
as men. Greed, power, ego, making the world their idealized version of a better place? The beauty
cliche has been done to death. Leave it behind in fairy tales, you are creative enough to dig
deeper. Number Eight (8): Don't read into it. Biases can leak into our writing, even ones we
didn't realize we had. This is never more apparent than when writing villains. A lot of writers
will say “Don't read into it, these are just the characters that popped into my mind.” But if all
of your heroes are caucasian coded, and then all of your villains have a darker complexion…readers
are gonna notice. If all of your heroes are straight or able bodied, and all of your
villains are disabled or queer coded…readers are also gonna notice. “But Jennaaa, does that mean
all of my villains have to be straight, white, able bodied people?” Of course not. It just means
your entire cast should be realistically diverse. A queer villain is fine if you've got queer heroes
and queer supporting cast as well. Just remember, you're the writer. You don't get to hover over
each and every reader's shoulder, and tell them not to read into it. They're reading into it,
and you look like a douche. Number Nine (9): You HAVE to make them redeemable. God,
more of this shit. Redemption arcs are very much in style. It's fine. They're not my fave, but
I'll go with it. However, due to the redemption arc trend, it's also become popular to tell all
writers that they MUST make all of their villains redeemable. I'm gonna give that a big fat fuck
no. They can be redeemable if you want, If that's the direction you plan to go in. But sometimes a
villain needs to commit genocide, and there's no coming back from that. The problem with a lot of
tips on this list is that they are absolutes. The villain MUST be redeemable. The villain MUST think
they're the good guy. There are some absolutes in writing. Like, you MUST have an editor,
and your story MUST have structure. But this ain't one of those situations! If you plan on exploring
the redemption path, make sure your villain does shit that can be redeemed. And Number Ten (10):
Emulate your favorites. As writers we're often told to look to our favorites in order to inspire
our creativity. And while this can be helpful, it can also be dangerous. For many, emulation turns
into imitation, and then regurgitation. Which leads to watered down, one dimensional versions
of characters we already love. Never is this more prevalent than when it comes to villains.
The issue with emulating your favorites is that a lot of our favorite villains come from sources
of media that do not translate well into novels. I know a lot of people who love anime, and model
their fictional villains after anime villains. But a lot of anime has a very over the top, grandiose
vibe, that would be considered stale or trite if written into a novel. Instead of emulating
your favorite villains, I would encourage you to research some of the biggest villains throughout
history. Real life baddies, who actually did bad shit. This will give you a better idea
of how to craft an antagonist who is layered and believable. So that's all I got for you today. A
huge thank you to Milanote for sponsoring today's video. I've got a link listed below for you to try
Milanote out for free, right now. And even better, they are hosting a huge giveaway. So if you sign
up for free, you might be walking away with a pro subscription. Five lucky winners are gonna hit it
big. So click the link, sign up for free, you won't regret it. Don't forget to subscribe to
my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you wanna be alerted as SOON as I upload,
ring that bell. The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister are available in ebook, paperback,
hardback and audiobook. They are available wide, all over the place. I've got ‘em linked below.
Click and buy, do it now. And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram,
Tumblr, Facebook and BookBub. And of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!
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