#the writing life

[anexperimentallife]

[overthinkingwritershub]

How to Write Believable Villains - A guide to writers

Villains aren’t just obstacles for the protagonist—they should be fully realized characters with depth, purpose, and their own internal logic. A strong villain can elevate a story, making the hero’s journey more compelling and adding layers of moral complexity. Here’s how to make them believable and unforgettable:

1. They Should Believe They’re the Hero of Their Own Story

A great villain doesn’t wake up in the morning thinking, I’m going to be evil today. They act based on their beliefs, desires, and personal logic—no matter how twisted.

Example:

Killmonger (Black Panther) believes he’s liberating oppressed people, not just seizing power.

Light Yagami (Death Note) sees himself as a force of justice, eliminating criminals to create a "better" world.

Magneto (X-Men) fights for mutant supremacy because of his experiences with human cruelty.

What to Avoid:

A villain who does bad things just because. ("I want to destroy the world for no reason!")

Over-the-top mustache-twirling evil.

Ask Yourself:

If your villain were telling the story, how would they justify their actions?

What’s their version of "doing the right thing"?

2. Give Them a Personal Code of Ethics (Even If Twisted)

Even villains have rules they follow. Their moral code might be flawed or extreme, but it’s consistent.

Example:

Jigsaw (Saw series) doesn’t kill for fun—he forces people to appreciate life through twisted "games."

Hannibal Lecter is a cannibal, but he only eats the "rude" and has a refined sense of culture.

Walter White (Breaking Bad) starts with the rule "no innocent people," but his morals erode over time.

What to Avoid:

A villain whose actions are random and contradictory.

A villain who has no limits—real people have boundaries, even bad ones.

Ask Yourself:

What is one thing your villain refuses to do, no matter what?

How does their moral code shape their decisions?

3. Their Motivation Should Be Relatable (Even If Their Actions Aren’t)

Your villain’s goal should make sense, even if their methods are extreme. Readers should understand why they’re doing what they do—even if they don’t agree with it.

Example:

Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War) believes overpopulation will destroy the universe, so he wants to "fix" it.

Dr. Octopus (Spider-Man 2) wants to complete his scientific work, but his obsession turns him into a villain.

The Phantom (Phantom of the Opera) longs for love and acceptance, but his jealousy drives him to violence.

What to Avoid:

A villain who is evil "for the sake of it."

A villain with an overdone revenge plot unless it has deeper layers.

Ask Yourself:

If the villain had chosen a different path, could they have been the hero?

What’s their core belief that fuels their actions?

4. Make Them Competent (Nothing’s Scarier Than a Villain Who Actually Wins)

A weak villain is forgettable. A great villain is dangerous because they’re smart, powerful, and capable.

Example:

Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes) is a criminal mastermind who outsmarts Sherlock multiple times.

Darth Vader is feared for a reason—he’s powerful, strategic, and ruthless.

The Joker (The Dark Knight) doesn’t have superpowers, but he manipulates people and turns society against Batman.

What to Avoid:

A villain who gets defeated too easily.

A villain who constantly makes dumb mistakes.

Ask Yourself:

What is the villain better at than the hero?

How do they outmaneuver the protagonist?

5. Don’t Forget Their Human Side—What Do They Love? What Are They Afraid Of?

Even villains have emotions, relationships, and vulnerabilities. Giving them a human side makes them more three-dimensional.

Example:

Lord Voldemort fears death more than anything, driving all his actions.

Loki craves attention and validation from his family.

The Wicked Witch (Wizard of Oz) isn’t just evil—she’s grieving her sister’s death.

What to Avoid:

A villain with nothing to lose—stakes make them more dangerous.

A villain who is just a killing machine with no depth.

Ask Yourself:

What does your villain secretly love?

What keeps them up at night?

Final Thought - Make the Villain’s Presence Felt

Even when the villain isn’t on the page, their influence should loom over the story. A great villain challenges everyone and everything in the story and the theories everyone else believe in.

[zannolin]

every time

[naomilibicki]

When you're writing a cute bit of character interaction/worldbuilding exposition that is also foreshadowing tragic events that you have planned for later

[jeannereames]

I do a lot of talking about the novels here on Tumblr, in asks. So I expect there's not a lot in this video that's new to anyone who's been reading my blog here for a while. But I've been so busy I didn't have time to prep a history video, ergo I pivoted to the books. I start with a question a colleague of mine once asked, as to how writing historical fiction affects me as a historian, and riffed from there.

So if you enjoy videos of authors talking about their books, here you go.

It also includes a little tour around the Dancing with the Lion website, if you've not been there.

[shealwaysreads]

So - how to add collaborators on ellipsus!

I’ve made a mock-up document and made screenshots of the process which I think make sense - I hope this helps! This is all on mobile, as I’m away from the laptop at the minute but it’s the same process on desktop - and it syncs so you can still access your docs and any collab edits while you’re out and about too (which is what has always kept me using gdocs but now I’m free!)

1) In your new doc, go to the menu in the top right.

2) Create a new draft - on ellipsus collaborators can only edit a draft version of the main document.

3) This is what your draft will look like once it’s made, click in.

4) Go to the menu on the top right again, and select ‘collaborators’.

5) You can invite by popping their email in - you can choose the level of access you grant.

6) You can also invite by generating an access link - again you can choose level of access.

7) To comment, go again to the top right menu and select comment - this is the instruction it’ll give.

8) This is what comments look like when they’re made - you can collapse this side bar if you’re working in the doc and don’t want distraction.

9) When you’re ready to check over your beta’s suggestions go again to the menu, select ‘compare changes’ and it will have the draft and the original doc side by side (you have to navigate between them on mobile, on desktop you see them next to each other).

10) Any beta edits will show as highlighted in green! You can leave the ones you accept, delete the ones you don’t, and once you’re done you click ‘merge’ at the top and it’ll update the main doc to add it all!

[junemermaid]

that one ot3 post about the relationship between two people who both put the third above all else is making the rounds again, and I respect all the v fuckers, it's not that, but—

one day I'm gonna write a loving and scathing rebuttal about how that is not a sustainable basis for an actual triad and also, if you actually want the described dynamic, how I never see that relationship between the other two delved into because fandom has no real ability or willingness to dig into the complexity

anyway, this is today's tired throupleposting interlude, june out

[beaconfeels]

I’m so grateful to @nickcharleswife for getting me started on a “100 words a day” goal. Before that, I always thought a low goal would be maybe 300-500 words a day, and that’s usually the lowest I would set it.

However, it turns out that it often still created too big of a hurdle for my brain to get over. 100 words makes it much easier for me to pick up my phone and just add at least 100 words to a WIP on any given day. I still miss days and I still don’t always want to do it, but knowing it will only take a few minutes makes a huge difference.

I often go a decent amount over 100 words even on my least productive days, and that’s also motivating. It makes me feel like I’m not just hitting my goal, but blowing it out of the water. That’s a real treat for my brain which is, frankly, way too used to me failing to reach creative goals. 🧠��

So far this month my word count looks like this:

Those are really low word counts, right? And yet it means in the first five days of this month I added over a thousand words to my WIP! As someone who sometimes goes whole months without adding anything to my projects, it feels really good to be moving forward.

It’s also really surprising to me how much even 100 words can move a story forward. When I’m feeling stuck, it helps to just get those few words out. Little by little the story moves forward, and I get through those sticky places that tended to stall me out for weeks before.

Anyway, I just wanted to share about this in case it helps someone else. I know so many of us have stories in us that we want to get out, and it can be frustrating to go long stretches of time without making progress. Happy writing to you, and good luck!

[frinsstudios]

When you badly want to write that one scene now but you're still in this one boring scene that has to happen in order for that one scene to make sense

[aconflagrationofmyown]

Writing Captain Presley nudging his boat into a tributary from the main river has become shockingly…suggestive.

I was not prepared for this, they don’t teach you this in fanfic school, y’all.

[space-blue]

Peeping at the process...

So I've been *struggling* with my current fic chapter, and I wanted to show readers and people at large [waves at my adoring mob of followers, yes, you] an insight into the writing process on such painful fics, and also the amount of crap my friend @spicedrobot deals with (angelic levels of patience + reciprocity in bitching opportunities)

Presenting, in no particular order: "I only have 3 commenters so I can make it weird and fun, but I hope they enjoy it. Anyway, no need for this to be complicated or anything—"

You have a void of a couple of weeks, then an email ping the weird fic updated... this is what was happening during that time.

Also it's about the 2nd chapter of this fic, and it's currently 2x longer than chapter 1 and please someone send a rescue team before I die

[anexperimentallife]

[irish-urn]

tagged: @2mad4plaid tagging: @venturismcdonald, @ironduke10, @cacophonous-noise

number of stories posted to ao3 for 2024: 7. I'm so disappointed in myself.

word counted posted for last year: 109,586, which is pretty decent... But I was hoping for 200k. Alas.

fandoms i wrote for: Teen Titans and Life with Derek

pairings: RobStar and Dasey. Also I think we could call McTuri Mercenaries gen-ish...

stories with the most

KUDOS: To Have and To Hold (122) BOOKMARKS: To Have and To Hold (52) COMMENT THREADS: To Have and To Hold (45)

work i’m most proud of (and why): "What a Good Boy, What a Smart Boy". I called it the 'therapy fic' while I was working on it, and it's almost 30k of Derek hurt/comfort. I spent a lot of time in my blorbo's mind and POV and I really think I did a good job showing his growth.

share or describe a favorite review you received: I actually am super lucky and get lovely reviews a lot???? BUT, there was one from "There Must be 50 Ways to Become Consort" where someone told me they usually didn't like established relationships because they found them boring, but they really loved how I wrote this couple and played with it, so that was VERY flattering.

a time when writing was really, really hard: I actually struggled a LOT this year with writing. Especially this summer -- work was a pain and very stressful and I was just too exhausted to write. I've tried a couple different ways to encourage myself to write consistently, but I still haven't figured it out. Alas.

a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: There's a small scene in To Have and To Hold where Casey calls Derek "baby" out of nowhere, and I was NOT expecting it. Neither was Derek. Neither was Casey. But we went with it.

a favorite excerpt of your writing: From "What a Good Boy, What a Smart Boy"

“Uh, because she was a prissy little brat who was trying to take over my territory?” Duh. Wasn’t it obvious? “She just, like, barged into my life and tried to take over my space. As if it wasn’t my house and my school and my life.” Mae raised her eyebrows. “Truly, how unforgivable.” “And,” Derek stressed, leaning forward a little. “She was fucking cute about it all too! And, like, hot sometimes. She took dance classes — she would exercise in the backyard sometimes and get all snippy if you interrupted her like her stupid music wasn’t making my ears bleed. And she liked my best friend, and then the captain of the football team — she had no loyalty. Zero. And she kept, like, demanding equal treatment and wanted to make schedules for everything, and she’d just storm into my room and scold me for living my life, and then would give me those goddamn eyes whenever I did something nice.” He rolled his eyes and dropped his head against the back of the couch again. “It was exhausting.” There was nearly a minute of silence and then: “You’re the kind of person that feels things very strongly, aren’t you?” He raised a finger into the air, but closed his eyes, because he really was very tired. “She’s still a pain, let me be clear.”

how did you grow as a writer last year: Did I???? I don't think I did???? I mean, I'm probably 100k worth of words better than I was last year, but... Eh????

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): @2mad4plaid and @rubberchknpurseee. The former was a truly EXCELLENT sounding board for the vast majority of my fics and always willing to listen; and the latter was a truly excellent prompter. Literally half of the words I wrote this year were fics for her.

anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: ...I don't think so? Except maybe that my friend was suffering from migraines, so I gave Derek a migraine in one fic...

any new wisdom you can share with other writers: If you can, find a friend who is really excited about your writing. They don't have to know the fandom or the characters, but find someone that you can talk to about your projects. Not only will they help you figure out plot holes and outlines, but they will encourage you and help you reach the finish line. It's so easy to say "Well, I know how this ends, so why bother writing it?"; but if you have ONE person who wants to read it... Then you have one person to write it for.

any projects you’re looking to starting (or finishing) this year: NOTHING IN 2024. I GIVE UP. But in 2025, I wanna finish my two LWL series, my Teen Titans story, and two other LWD fics -- a sequel to one of my other monsters, and hopefully an AU. If I could manage that? I'd be satisfied (especially since I'm pretty sure that's gonna be a LOT of words...)

[bettsfic]

Can’t seem to write without considering what I would want my author career to be like or what readers are looking for and I feel like to a certain extent this crippled creativity. I’m in no way saying there things should never be considered but sometimes, especially in the beginning it can feel like too much. Thoughts?

it is definitely too much. i used to feel it too. but once i started getting some wins, once i started really listening to the kind things people were telling me over the criticisms, i started to take myself more seriously. and then once i was on the other side of the mentor/mentee divide, when i realized i had been lifted up by writers who believed in me and my work and that i could lift others by believing in them and theirs, i started to see myself as one link in a long chain. and when you're part of a chain, nobody can move faster than you or slower than you; you all move together.

it's natural to consider your audience when writing. it's also natural to consider your market. every artist in history has experienced to some degree this same anxiety. it's the anxiety of creating something that you want to be see welcomed into the world. that fear abates but it never goes away entirely, so you've got to build up defenses against it. mine was 1 part hope, 1 part blind (possibly unearned) faith in myself, and 7 parts spite. hope, faith, and spite can take you a long way. "i hope this will happen," then "i have faith this will happen," then "fuck you, this is going to happen."

an audience isn't something that already exists. you're not a performer walking on stage for a theater of people waiting for you. you're a busker, or a mime, or one of those human statue guys. you're on the street trying to grab the attention of people who don't want to acknowledge you. you're saying, "hey, look at me, i've got something worth seeing," and you wave it around in front of them until they're finally forced to look at you. you're not just a creator of your work, you're also a salesman of it. success is all about the footwork.

and lastly, although novels are made from inspiration and skill, author careers are made of boring administrative tasks. sending your work out, receiving rejections, tracking rejections, finding more places to send your work out, replying to emails, applying for funding, querying agents, filling boxes of text labeled "please describe your current project" but only give you 250 characters to do so. the sooner you separate the ideas of "careers" and "audience," i think the happier you'll be. stories take creativity; careers take tenacity. writing is about words; publishing is about numbers. if you can't have hope for your work, or faith in yourself, or a simmering pool of spite, you can always rely on organizational tedium. you never have to learn how to Be A Writer. you only have to learn how to attach a PDF to a form and hit "submit."

[jeannereames]

I will add that my publisher has a (much) more generous royalty scheme for ebooks at least, but without an advance. So publisher and author takes the gamble together. It's still not enough money to live on. I save it and use that to buy things for the house when they break, like the dishwasher.