Quantum Storytelling

Melly had an interesting post on which characters are hardest to write. In the comments I said villains were the hardest for me.

I often find myself thinking of evil acts for the villain to pull. But then I think, “Why would anyone do that?”

And the obvious reasons are of course, power, greed, arrogance, etc. But a person doesn’t say, “I want to be powerful. I’m going to hurt someone.”

It’s just something they do along the way, a byproduct of the way they live their life.

So crafting a villain is less about creating an evil person, and more about creating negative patterns in that character’s life that affect other people, including the hero.

It is that creation of believable negative patterns that makes the villain, not the arbitrary labeling of evil.

When somebody goes on a murderous rampage, they don’t often say beforehand, “Hmm. I think I’ll go on a murderous rampage.”

They may find themselves at wit’s end or under strain in their life, and they crack a little. Their behavior becomes erratic or antagonistic towards others. They may lash out. And in the course of ratcheting tension and pressure, they find themselves sitting in their car outside the pawn shop, contemplating the purchase of a gun.

So it is a series of little steps that are part of a bigger pattern. We all go through these patterns in our lives. We are all both heroes and villains.

It is the people who reach the peak of that negative or positive pattern and make it the defining moment of their life–that is what makes them either a hero or a villain.

Characters are patterns mapped out on the page.