Ever found yourself at the end of a draft only to realize your villain feels more like a paper figure than a formidable adversary?
It’s a common pitfall that even the best of us dread.
But with a thoughtful approach—and an understanding of what makes characters resonate with readers—you can ensure your villains and other characters leap from the page and captivate your reader.
Hello, Jane Cleland here.
Do you ever reach the end of a draft and realize the villain isn’t convincing? Oh, that would be a shame and really upsetting, I should think. Well, it hasn’t happened to me. I can certainly relate to it because, as you may be aware, I consider myself very strong in plotting and not as strong in characterization.
So, what that has led me to do is really spend time with characters and make sure their motivations align with the plot. In other words, there’s two ways that you structure a story, that you construct a story:
One is you plot first, and then figure out what people would do those things. The other is you come up with the people first, and then you figure out what those people would do. They’re both effective. They both work. I plot first, and then I figure out the people. So it is an ongoing, continuous process for me.
And if I get the sense that the villain or any character isn’t convincing or credible, I stop right there, and I do remedial work. And by that I mean, I figure out why. Is it that I’m having them do things that they wouldn’t do? Am I not revealing enough about their inner reflections, their motivations? That it becomes convincing.
Those really are the options, right? Either they’re doing the wrong things or I’m not sharing their motivations properly. And that’s what I would invite you to consider. What, when you say it’s not convincing, he or she is not convincing, why? Are they not convincing because they’re not doing things that would work? Or are they not convincing because you, the author, are not communicating their motivations sufficiently?
Food for thought. How about you? How do you make sure your villain and other characters are convincing? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
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Thank you.
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