Writing villain is one of my favorite parts of writing fiction. It’s just so exciting I must control myself my protagonist should be as exciting as the villain. But it’s also one of the challenging parts of writing. We want to craft a villain that feels real, relatable to a certain degree, but also powerful, but how?
If you’re here for that question, you’ve come to the right place. This article will learn how to write an irresistible villain using the emotional layers method. What the heck is that? Well, it is a method that I’ve developed to help me write a more interesting villain. I’m sure I’ve subconsciously learned that from stories or other writing tips, but the method itself is mine.
The idea of creating emotional layers is to create an exciting villain and create meanings that resonate with readers. So, it’s not writing an emotion for the sake of being an emotion, but something that holds meaning to the character.
1. One core belief of a villain
The first step you need is to find a core belief or foundational belief of your villain. Consider something that is very broad and can manifest in other ways. This core belief can be an established philosophy, a value in a religion, a simple basic assumption, etc.
Let’s look at Johan Liebert from Monster as my favorite villain ever. Johan is a powerful, scary sociopath whom people are afraid of. He was a product of a eugenic experiment of the East Germany government to create a perfect soldier, basically a soldier who isn’t afraid of anything. But Johan turned to be scarier than that. He’s a monster, someone who is worshipped by Right-Wing extremists to be the new Hitler.
Johan is an irresistibly scary and complex character. He can kill people without lifting his fingers, meaning he can manipulate people into their own deaths. His motive is unclear, and it seems the writer wants him to be so, but a little dig into his character will unfold his one core belief, and that is Nihilism.
Johan never believes in anything, but one thing that he believes for sure is, “Only one thing is equal for all, and that is death.”
This core belief becomes his foundation to kill people. He doesn’t believe in the assumption that human lives are equals.
But it’s not enough just to have one core belief, it has to be meaningful to the character, and it has to play a big part in the story. In Johan’s case, his nihilism is the product of his lacking identity (he’s never given a name by his mother). His nihilism also plays a big part in the story as a contradiction to Dr. Tenma (the protagonist) who believes that human lives are equals.
Not all character needs a philosophy. I have a background in philosophy, it’s no wonder Johan fascinates me, but you don’t need to. Another example you can learn from is Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender.
What do you think is his core belief? Yep, worth is measured by honor. To Zuko, being worthy is everything. That’s why throughout the story, he is portrayed to always do things on his own, he thinks he doesn’t need help, and it is all to prove that he’s worthy.
His belief of being worthy is the result of Ozai’s bad parenting. And this belief becomes his motivation to hunt Aang all over the world.
See how this one core belief becomes an important part of a story?
2. Manifest that belief
After a long work of finding your character’s core belief, it’s time to manifest it in the story. All you need to do is take a look back at the core belief and think about how to twist that into different emotions. The villain will not know that their emotions are manifestations of their core belief, but once you write it, your villain becomes a deeper and more complex character. The bonus is it also gives you a character guideline.
Usually, writers don’t say their character’s core belief, it usually manifests in other forms such as emotions. Consider basic emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness, joy, hatred, fears, etc. How can a belief in worthiness manifest as anger? How will a nihilist perceive happiness?
List some basic emotions, then start layering from that. Think about what if one emotion is unfolded? What if anger is lifted from a nihilist? Will it result in joy or sadness? What if happiness is given to a nihilist? Will it result in joy or anger?
Let the emotions unfold as the story progresses. One scenario unfolds one emotion or some emotions, one emotion brings to another.
Now after you establish the core belief, it’s time to write, and your villain will be a character who fulfills these checklists.
a. Give them basic personalities, desires, fears, weaknesses, strengths
I’m not going to talk about it here because I’ve posted how to write realistic characters. The basic is the same for a villain, so check that post out if you’re interested.
b. Avoid writing a bad person for the sake of being a bad person
A villain doesn’t need to be evil, but when you’re writing a bad person, make sure don’t write them for the sake of being bad.
Ask yourself—or your character, why is your villain a bad person? What makes him/her/them so?
c. Humanize them a little
You want to create the most powerful villain, I get that. But you need to make them a little human so your readers can connect with them—even though they’re not humans. This way you can get your readers’ empathy, so they want to follow your villain's journey.
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