SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

 Are you sleeping with the enemy? uh, what? Sleeping with who? No, I'm not being literal here, just asking, who is the enemy in your books? Most stories have at least one 'bad guy', or villain, antagonist, whatever you choose to call him...or her. And if you are not sleeping with that person, maybe you should be. Yes, I know...the hero/heroine is your prime focus, but still...

Tell me this...and be honest...would you ever accept a dinner invitation from Hannibal Lector? Or go sailing with Captain Ahab? What about spending a weekend with Voldemort? What is the most important part about these three villains? Hmm...well, you're not going to forget any one of them soon, are you?

Two of these men are three-dimensional. Those two have a history behind them, and that history tells you about them as human beings, and enhances their character. Remember, no one is ever born 100% good or evil, and being evil for the sake of evil can become dull and boring in a story. If your villain, or antagonist, is the way he/she is without anything to explain why, he doesn't become real.

Notice I said TWO of the three men above are three dimensional. The one who isn't is Voldemort. He is the perfect example of someone who is totally evil, and is the exact opposite of what most writers want in a "good" villain/antagonist. Yet...he was written that way in order to accomplish a theme within the Harry Potter stories. His one mission in life is to kill Harry Potter. He was born evil, he has accomplished only evil in his entire life, and once he met Harry, killing him became his sole mission. However...Voldemort is the exception to the rule of three-dimensional, because no one will ever forget Voldemort!

Putting him aside for a moment, "they" say a villain is born ever minute. True or not, in real life no one is ever born a villain. They are born with the same qualities that most humans are born with: intelligence, sensitivity, compassion, integrity, empathy, ability to work hard, capable of love and affection. But somewhere along the walk of life, something happens to those who become evil to disconnect him/her from these qualities, and causes them to turn into a despicable person. So...what are these things? What happens to a person to cause him/her to lose the best qualities of human nature? The most memorable villains are those who do what they do for reasons that seem perfectly logical to them, no matter how illogical those reasons would be in real life, and seem to be to your reader.  But do we need to know something about those very reasons?

Take Wurthering Heights and Heathcliff. What makes Heathcliff so memorable is his history: abandonment as a child, taken in by a family who promised to give him a safe home and an education, but was then abused by them and never allowed that education. He was both despised and feared by this family. Then the love of his life marries another, and he becomes a cruel man bent on revenge. Yet, the reader feels drawn to him because of his history. We can look into his heart and mind and see the reasons he became the evil person he was, even if he was wrong. He wanted to get back at those he had loved and trusted, and who had betrayed him in the worst ways, which in turn made his life a living hell. His reasons become logical to us, the readers, and we can understand his reasons and his logic, even if that made us hate him.

you don't want a villain or antagonist who is friendly and likeable. Someone who might give the protagonist a run for their money in terms of "who do I like best." But you do want him or her to be credible and believable, and to be that, he/she has to have a history. He has to be portrayed as a complex person who does what he does, thinks the way he does, out of a logic and reality that, to him, is perfectly reasonable...no matter how twisted that reality is. We don't want to like him...or her....but we do need to understand this person.

Your villain/antagonist, male or female, should be as compelling as your protagonist, in his/her own way, even though it is a less-than-pleasant way. You are creating this character first and foremost as a human being, not as the villain. Therefore, you need to know how he thinks, what he thinks, why his beliefs are as they are, and WHY all of that, in turn, leads him/her to commit the acts he or she does.

And to do that, to know him that well, you must sleep with the enemy.

Think about it.

Until next time, that's a wrap.