antagonists – USA Today Bestselling Author DelSheree Gladden

Villains and Secondary Characters: Secondary Characters with Impact

While secondary characters are typically less integral to a story, that doesn’t mean they should be any less real.

Secondary characters should still have some level of a character arc, though it will necessarily be less complex than the main character’s arc.

Even though much of a secondary character’s backstory may never see page time, it’s important that you know their story and personality so you can weave it into their interactions with the main characters. This will not only make them more memorable, it will also make the interactions more meaningful and provide a fuller scene with the main character.

Secondary characters should also have a purpose. They should, in some way, help to progress the storyline through their presence or interactions with the main characters. This may come in the form of providing assistance, revealing information, being an emotional support, etc. How a secondary character progresses the story depends greatly on the type of story it is, but be mindful that they should be serving a purpose and not be acting a page filler or a basic sounding board.

It’s also important to consider a secondary character’s motivation. Why is he or she helping this character? Because you, as the author, need them to is not a good enough reason. Reach into their backstory to find and then develop their motivation. Help doesn’t have to be entirely altruistic either. The secondary character should have mixed feelings about providing help, or be reluctant to offer it. It could also be self-serving or their presence could act as a hindrance or barrier rather than being helpful.

Secondary characters exist on either side of the protagonist-antagonist spectrum. Don’t short change secondary characters involved with the villain/antagonist. These characters can be important cogs in the overall mechanism of how the antagonist’s path and ultimate resolution unfold. An antagonist taking something too far could prompt a secondary character to walk away, leading to him or her reconsidering what they are doing. Alternately, a secondary character who wants the antagonist to fail could give the final nudge to push him or her over the edge and initiate a chain of events that leads to his or her downfall.

Secondary characters may have less page time than main characters, but their influence on other characters and events can be profound when the time is taken to full develop them and integrate them into the story.

Villains and Secondary Characters: Show vs. Tell with Villains

Because is it so important for readers to connect with the villain or antagonist, show vs. tell is a necessary discussion.

The two extremes of the show vs. tell villain spectrum are the Throne-Sitting Villain and the Hands-Dirty Villain. There are, of course, myriad points between these two on the spectrum, but finding the right balance for a particular story can make or break a reader’s ability to make and maintain a connection to the villain.

The Throne-Sitting Villain

This type of villain rules tyrannically, but never takes direct action. He or she remains apart from the hands-on aspects of the plan or journey. He or she makes decisions and delegates the dirty work.

Readers never “see” this type of villain actually being evil. The reader must rely on author “telling” him or her that the villain is bad news. This creates a weaker connection with the reader, in most cases, and makes the hero’s connection to the villain more abstract.

Secondary antagonists become more important barriers or stumbling blocks than the main villain and readers typically form stronger bonds with those characters instead. This may be an effective tactic over the course of a series, where individual lower-level antagonists are featured in specific books or sections with the overall villain remaining in a “throne-sitting” role until entering the story for a final confrontation.

A good example of this type of villain is Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. Minor villains such as Saruman, Gollum, The Witch King, the Goblin King, etc. present multiple barriers along the heroes’ journey to keep them from destroying the One Ring, all while Sauron quietly directs things from his tower. Sauron never really presents as an embodied, physical villain the heroes need to fight, leading to a weak connection with the readers as actual main villain of the story.

The Hands Dirty Villain

This type of villain takes direct action against characters who the reader cares about, creating an immediate and recognizable sense of threat and dislike in the reader’s mind.

Direct action by a villain against a hero creates an emotional investment for readers. Rather than simply an overarching feeling of conflict, every action and decision matters to the reader because it could directly impact the characters who the reader is emotionally bonded to.

The close conflict between and hands-dirty villain and the hero creates an intensity in the story that is hard to match with a non-present villain. Tensions run higher with more frequent or up close interactions or battles.

A good example of this type of villain is Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series. Umbridge is an agent of Voldemort, but while Voldemort rarely makes appearances in the series, villains like Umbridge inflict physical and emotional pain on Harry on a regular basis, constantly reminding the reader how much he or she dislikes the villain and wants him or her to fail and be punished.

Finding Balance

A villain in a story doesn’t have to be only one or the other. It’s important to evaluate a story carefully in order to determine what point on the spectrum will work best. A villain may also move along the spectrum during the story in order to control pacing. When planning interactions between heroes and villains, consider how that reaction will impact the reader’s connection to both the hero and the villain.

Villains and Secondary Characters: Characteristics of a Villain

AMC ranked the Top 20 villains from films, which I think gives writers a good starting point when considering what characteristics make for a good villain. Let’s take a took…

Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho (1960)
Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) in It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction (1987)
Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity (1944)
Regan MacNeil (Satan) (Linda Blair) in The Exorcist (1973)
The Queen (voice of Lucille LaVerne) in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) in A Clockwork Orange (1971)
HAL 9000 (voice of Douglas Rain) in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968
The Alien (Bolaji Badejo) in Alien (1979)
Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) in Schindler’s List (1993)
Noah Cross (John Huston) in Chinatown (1974)
Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery (1990)
The Shark in Jaws (1975)
Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Man in Bambi (1942)

What characteristics do all or most of these villains share?

POWER

Villains shouldn’t be easily defeated. It must be challenging for the hero to overcome the villain or it won’t be an interesting or fulfilling quest. This could be physical, mental, emotional, or some combination of power.

A villain can’t be unbeatable, though. Develop valid reasons that the villain is difficult to defeat, such as having more experience, knowledge, physical ability, connections, etc.

Vary the types of power a villain has in order to create interest and multiple avenues of challenge. Types of power might include, physical strength, magic, intelligence, money/influence, resources, etc.

Make use of opposing powers. The villain should have power that corresponds to a hero’s weaknesses. This will push the hero to develop and grow and create a more interesting storyline and character arc.

Changeability

It is important that a villain be changeable. A villain having the ability to change threatens the opposition and has the potential to stall the hero’s progress. A stagnant villain is boring and easier to defeat.

Possibility of change also opens up avenues for a villain or antagonist becoming a reluctant ally. An unexpected turn can increase reader interest and allow for the goals of the hero and villain to temporarily align before returning to battling against each other.

The villain achieving his or her goal is often more important than individual conflict with the hero and can break ties and push him or her to accept temporary alliances in order to further a goal.

Personality

Villains must have rounded personalities with depth in order to be believable and interesting.

To be rounded, a villain cannot be all evil or do evil things for evil’s sake. He or she should have multiple motivations, which are often conflicting and a source of inner struggle.

To create depth, villains should have a complex history and challenging experiences. Often he or she will have suffered some level of psychological or emotional damage that has skewed his or her perception of love, power, and/or right and wrong. The villain’s initial state at the beginning of the story should be shaped by past experiences without relying too heavily on common tropes.

Evolution

A villain must evolve and have a definable character arc. His or her goals, motives, and agendas should change throughout the story depending on what is experienced.

Evolving doesn’t necessarily mean “seeing the light” or changing for the better. Villains can become worse or more damaged if that is what the experiences dictate.

Villains should also learn from his or her mistakes. Do not allow a villain to repeatedly make the same stupid mistakes. It will be seen as unbelievable and irritating. Villains should be trying to defeat the hero just as hard as the hero is trying to defeat the villain.

Questionable Morality

Villains are rarely completely immoral. They simply have a warped sense of morality due to past experiences. This atypical morality may be derived from superior intelligence that makes a villain believe he or she knows better and sees more clearly than others.

This leads a villain to develop their own moral code. The villain usually believes in the “rightness” of his or her own code and believes that societal or religious morality does not apply because he or she is above it.

Determination

Well-crafted villains don’t give up easily. A villain is most often single-mindedly driven or obsessed with achieving a goal. However, it’s important that a villain still have moment away from this drive where the reader can learn more above him or her and see more deeply into his or her psyche. Truly obsessed characters are tiresome to read.

A driven personality is one the focuses intently on the idea of winning, and this attitude can be a consuming aspect of a villain’s nature because it ties the self to the achievement of the goal. It also pushes a villain to refuse to fail, which can push a person well beyond what a regular person would be willing to do.

When developing a villain, consider these elements and go beyond concepts of good and evil or right and wrong and focus on making a villain as interesting and, in some ways, relatable and likable, as your hero.

Villains and Secondary Characters: Basic Traits of Villains

This writing craft series will focus on tips for making readers love the villain and remember the side characters.

What is a villain?

“A cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness and crime; a scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.“
Random House Dictionary

“Villain” is a simplified term. These tips apply not only to writing villains, but to developing antagonists, oppositional characters, and those characters whose purpose is to act as a stumbling block or interference. For simplicity, I will use the term villain.

These types of characters are important because they often set the tone of the conflict and influence how and why the hero or protagonist is struggling.

Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a great triumph.
Roger Ebert

Basic Traits of Villains

Villains have a negative effect on other characters. The type of negative effect can be wide ranging depending on the type of story. He or she might cause emotional, physical, or mental damage, act as a hindrance to the hero’s goals, actively work against the hero’s mission, etc.

The villain provides conflict for the hero through his or her negative influence or impact. Whatever actions a villain takes should have a purpose directed toward making the hero’s goals more difficult to achieve. These can be very subtle actions or direct and apparent actions.

A villain most often “mirrors” or “contrasts” the hero by exhibiting characteristics which oppose the hero’s desirable characteristics. This shines a light on the development of the hero and provides an example of what the hero may become should he or she not fulfill their goals.

A villain’s motives for doing wrong must be GOOD motives. Being evil or evil’s sake is not a good motive. Every villain must have good reason for thwarting the hero, even if he or she doesn’t fully understand those reasons. The villain may believe he or she is right in what they are doing, may despise the hero and actively wish to harm them, etc. Developing a good reason for a villain’s behavior stems from a great backstory.

“In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil… Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus of what they know in life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them.“
Ben Bova

Next week we’ll dive deeper into what characteristics are important in developing a villain!