One thing is simple and clear from the very beginning. It’s not difficult to understand how Tom Riddle became the Dark Lord, motivated by power and hatred.īut these are complicated, abstract ideas we learn gradually over the course of seven books. He was born into a dark world under dark circumstances and grew up in a loveless environment. This guy’s very existence was a direct result of magical manipulation.

Your reader should have no trouble understanding how your villain’s motivation results in their goal and subsequent actions. Good villain motivations typically meet these five standards. There’s an art to finding the reason behind your character’s evil-doings. Now, it’s not enough to slap any ol’ motivation on your villain and call it a day. What Counts as a Good Villain Motivation? When you give your villain an excellent reason to want what they want, they become more powerful and much scarier. …or the guy who threatens to get you fired because you were chosen for the promotion he needed to save his marriage? Think about it this way: would you be more worried about the guy who threatens to get you fired just because he’s mean…

Or how compelled they are to pursue it, whether they’re compelled by past trauma or demonic possession.

It doesn’t just tell your reader what the villain wants it tells them how badly they want it. They simply ask themselves what villainous intention would create the biggest problem for their protagonist (a great question!) and… you know… do that.Īnd why does it matter? Why is motivation so important? Their motivation is the reason that goal is important to them in the first place.Ī lot of beginning writers give their baddies dastardly objectives without any reason for those goals. Before we can get into the matter of good villain motivations, we need to clear something up.Ī motivation is not the same thing as a goal.Ī goal is what your character wants to accomplish.

Dabble writer for mobile