How do you make a believable villain? @jjh1234

You made my day by asking this. Villains are one of my favorite parts to write of any story.

But to make a villain believable, we have to get down to the basics.

What do we know about villains?

They're scary looking.

They have an evil laugh.

They are always male.

They hate everyone.

They never do a single good thing.

They have fun being bad.

They don't ever sincerely smile, unless it's for sinister purposes.

*Yawn* Bored yet?

The previous traits weren't complex, and they were cliche.

How about this?

A villain in a white sun dress. Her laugh sounds so sweet and girlish. She takes care of her siblings. She does whatever she has to do to take care of them. But what if there was an accident? What if the hero made a mistake that unknowingly killed one of her little siblings? And now she's forced into revenge?

Do you kind of see what I mean?

No one is just bad. There is always a reason. And that is called backstory. No, not just the main character has it. The villain and your secondary characters should have it as well. If the world was perfect, every character would have backstory.

Their back story needs to coralate with their goals. World domination is really exciting even if it is cliche. But with the right back story, it being cliche doesn't matter as much. Maybe their goal is wanting to kill the hero. But why?

Another thing to consider is the villain cannot just lose. A little to predictable, right? They have to get a little bit of what they want. The hero can't completely win. The hero has to suffer a blow.

Let your villain be in love-- though not necessarily in love with the main character's love. The villain needs stakes too. He has to make tough choices that have consequences.

When creating the antagonist, think like you are creating a protagonist, but this time he's reasons are not as righteous as the hero's. Though not every hero's reason is pure.

Show a little good to them. No one is completely bad. And it gives them a bit more of a personality.

I hope this helps! Thanks for your question!