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Give them a want. vital for a villain to have a motive. So, I usually take a normal human thing and amplify it to obsession. Normal person wants a hat, Mad Hatter can't function WITHOUT thinking about hats.
Normal person wants admiration, bad guy kills when he doesn't get it. 1/
Normal person wants admiration, bad guy kills when he doesn't get it. 1/
OR, take a ridiculous, huge motivation and EXPRESS it in human terms. Bad guy wants to destroy all life is just a bigger version of guy who wants to be alone. Bad guy wants to conquer worlds is bigger version of angry neighbor or ruthlessly ambitious co-worker.
Even the impossible, world-beating fantasy characters are usually best expressed with a relatable human element. Thanos is in love with death, we have ALL wanted something or someone unattainable.
Find a thing that people want, amplify it, it almost always works.
Find a thing that people want, amplify it, it almost always works.
Make it an obsession or higher calling or delusion; cats, riddles, hats, pranks, ecology, science, faith, ambition, love, hate, bigotry, ALL of these and a million more emotions make pretty great villains when empathy is not a concern.
Don't listen to the 'every bad guy thinks he's the hero of his own story,' this simply isn't true. Some people WANT to be bad, some want to be punished, some want to be infamous. Don't be trite, dig a bit, find the humanity.
That's it for me, other writers want to add?
That's it for me, other writers want to add?
