Giving the villain a chance to explain their world view to the hero\u2014usually while holding the hero or heroine at bay with a gun, bomb, or other weapon and often as part of the climax<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIn the two stories to be released shortly, I chose the third method for both.<\/p>\n
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In my Russian thriller, Saving Hope<\/em>, the villain is someone the heroine trusted, and she finds herself negotiating with him to save her daughter\u2019s life. At one point, he explains his actions as:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I finally had all I wanted, but you ran away. When I saw you with Ahmed and those other men, I knew I had to fight for you, or lose you again. I was the one who told them about the FSB. It almost cost me my deal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In \u201cThe Case of the Tainted Blood,\u201d my alternate universe Sherlock Holmes tale, the detective and Dr. Watson search for a murderer in a world inhabited by vampyres. When they discover him, he describes the wrong he sees himself as correcting:<\/p>\n
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\u201cHow ever did we come to this point? Two species fighting for control of the planet? Especially when you consider your species was our species only a few years ago. And what has yours accomplished? Stagnation and decay. Nothing has been created or achieved except the hunting of all mammals almost to extinction. And what will become of the world once extinction is achieved? What will your species do then? You may live forever, but where? And how? Revert to caves and learn to live on reptilian blood? It is the humans that created civilization. What will your species contribute?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Story conflict arises from a villain\u2019s strong motivation, which puts his\/her actions in direct opposition to the hero or heroine\u2019s. The more the two characters believe their cause is the only true one, the higher the conflict and the more tension in the story. Giving the villain a chance to tell his story ups the stakes for both.<\/p>\n
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Can you think of a story you seen or read lately that had a compelling villain? What was the motivation behind him\/her?<\/p>\n
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Liese Sherwood-Fabre is currently hosting a giveaway of her collection of essays on “The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes” over at Goodreads. You can sign up here:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/giveaway<\/a><\/p>\nAnd:<\/p>\n
Liese offers a FREE short story for those who sign up for her newsletter at:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.liesesherwoodfabre.com\/contact.html#newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n
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In more than one of the many writing classes I completed, the instructor would note at some point, \u201cthe villain is the hero of his own story,\u201d the antagonist has as strong a motivation as that of the hero. In the opponent\u2019s mind, what\u2019s behind his\/her actions is as compelling and just and right\u2014albeit sometimes quite twisted\u2014as that of the hero or heroine\u2019s. This point is usually followed with a reminder to give the villain a chance to explain his\/her deeds. A number of ways exist to do this:<\/p>\n