What makes a villain? Does someone like the mustache twirling character from cartoons come to mind? Or perhaps it’s Mr. Goldfinger (pictured here)? Is your villain a thoroughly evil character or just someone who wants to ensure your protagonist doesn’t get what they want either because they want it too or for some other reason either benign or not?
If you want your villain to be like the cartoon character, that’s fine, just know that your readers will be very aware that the character is not real and possibly not believable. But if you’d like to have a villain who is as “real” to your readers as your protagonist then you’ve got to put a little more effort into creating the person.
I always like to talk about the “fuzzy socks” of a character—that would be one thing that makes them warm, nice, or makes people feel good. Every character should have some “fuzzy socks,” even your villain.
So, what is it that will make your readers understand your villain?
They must have a GMC (goal, motivation, and conflict) just like your other major characters. They can’t simply be evil for evil’s sake—although if they get pleasure out of seeing others get hurt then that is their goal, to get pleasure for themselves.
Beyond GMC, there needs to be one characteristic of your villain that your reader can either relate to or understand. This can be anything from revenge for a wrong done to loving their cat.
Importantly, you should not neglect your villain’s backstory. What made them such a horrible person? Did they actually grow up in a loving home and then something happened to make them snap? Or were they abused or neglected? (Although, please note that not all people who were abused as children become villains and not all villains were abused—there are some very wonderful heroes who came from such a horrible background and rose above it.)
Your villain’s background will round them out as people in your mind allowing you to understand them and write them as real people. And if you share some of that background with your readers, they will see them the same way.
So make a list of all of the characteristics of your villain — all the bad things and all the good. Just like not everything about your hero is good, so too not everything about your villain is bad.
Readers love a good villain. Making your villain as well rounded a character as your hero will add depth to your story and give your readers a reason why they should root for the hero.