Embracing My Dark Side

Do you ever like your villain more than your hero? Which is easier for you to write?

Mwa ha ha! I love, love, love some of the villains I’ve created in my books. (“Love” in the sense that I think they are especially evil or maniacal or twisted. But, no, PeeWee, I wouldn’t want to marry any of them.)

For me, I enjoy creating a diabolical villain. Fictionwise, the stronger the villain, the more difficult it is for the hero to triumph, and the more opportunity for great conflict. But even better, writing for a villain is a lot of fun.

You can be mean. You can be crude. You can be truly evil. You can have your villain do things that a law-abiding, moral human would never do. And it’s all acceptable! Encouraged even! There are many things you can do with your villain that would get you thrown out of the author’s guild, if you tried it with your hero.

I’m not sure it’s any easier writing from a bad guy’s perspective, but it does provide me with an outlet for my aggression. Rather than kick the cat, I can live vicariously through my villains’ heinous actions. (Please, no letters. I don’t own a cat and I would never kick an animal. Heck, I take bugs outside rather than squish them.)

Of course, not all villains are over-the-top Darth Vader types. Still, there’s usually some aspect of their personality that my id can relate to and, um, enjoy. (I’m not sure what that says about me, but we’ll leave that for another blog post: When Good People Write Bad Things and the People Who Love Them.)

Besides, don’t readers like reading about evil villains?

(This entry is “simul-posted” on Criminal Minds.)