I know I’ve already posted on villains, multiple times, but the subject begged just one more treatment. And it probably will, yet again.
When you’re writing a villain–a very evil, nonredeemable villain–there is another good, surefire way, other than having the villain mistreat a helpless person, of getting the villain to seem like a total psychopath and garner hate for him in every corner.
You take something the audience holds as sacred, and then have your villain desecrate it. The more depraved, the better–unless you have to censor it for young audiences. (I may write a post on writing specifically for children later on.)
You may have to build up the one thing that the audience holds as sacred, however; especially if you can not count that they hold similar beliefs as you. It’s better to establish that this is the morality of the novel first before having the villains violate something that is key to it. It’s better to build things up well before trying to use them, I find.
Hope you all enjoyed this post. 🙂 Thanks for reading, and God Bless!
(Oh, and one quick note. I may be a bit remiss in posting for a while, until I get used to the new college campus. Please forgive me if I’m a bit more absent than usual. That’s all.)
The Upstairs Archives 
What you said about villains is right on.
Enjoy the campus, and I understand!
Thank you… *sigh*
Excellent advice. And take your time with posts, we all understand i’m sure 🙂
Thanks… *sigh*
I’ll be praying for you!!! And now you’re making me think I need to have one of my villains burn an American flag, because it would fit right in with my story… and everyone would get it, too.
What kind of story are you writing?
A villain burning an american flag… the horror… *shivers*
I think she’s writing post-modern drama? Set in the near future, anyway. From what it seems. (I read the excerpt from somewhere, I remember…)
It was kind of like a sci-fi story, but not really. It was more like a boring predictable story, but at least I finished it. I’m working on the editing now. 😛
Well, it won’t be boring for long! 😉
Thanks for the prayers–I need all the help I can get.
Awesome. 🙂 I’m glad this helped.
It would also help if you noted on flag etiquette in your story and reverence for the flag before the burning incident, just because. 😉 Even if some people are familiar with it, you can be certain there will be idiots in the audience who don’t take this stuff seriously (Iris will probably be furious if she meets one of those people. I’d probably give them a Mycroft look, like “You’re all idiots and I am above you.” :-P)
You bet I would be!
I was once at a baseball game where the colors were ridden in by an equestrian color guard. The horse rider carrying the US flag was bucked off, and the horse went crazy! So of course everyone, wranglers and riders alike, ran for the horse, and left the flag there on the ground. There was no immediate danger to anybody, as the horse just trotted around the diamond, so I was going crazy in the stands until someone finally picked up the flag.
Never having been a color guard member, I surprise myself sometimes at how insistent I am on proper flag etiquette. 🙂
Wow. That is crazy. I’m assuming those people weren’t very professional.
Haha, yeah. Raltan’s such a jerk, he needs to do something to prove it.
Indeed. That’s how villains are. ;-P They have to prove their evilness. It’s like they’re all insecure or something! ;-P
Pingback: The Villains’ Table: Antagonists Who Made the Biggest Impression On Me | The Upstairs Archives
Pingback: “Big Hero Six” Review! | The Upstairs Archives