TECH: Bad as He Wants to Be (moldy oldie!)

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Original Posting Oct. 20, 2015

Writer's Digest, April 2003, p. 28-31, have an article by Earl Murphy with the title Bad as He Wants to Be (which makes me think about a line from somewhere "Bad to the Bone!" Oh, no, google turned up the old rock and roll on YouTube, so now I've got an earworm... B.b.b.b.b.ad to the BONE!)

Anyway, Earl wants us to pay attention to the villains! That's right, the bad guy. "... the polar opposite. Either he has already acquired power and position and seeks to acquire more, or he is bent on maintaining some behavioral pattern that, if not stopped, is destructive enough to change lives."

So, what's the role the antagonist plays? Right -- force the hero to act, making the hero move! Powerful, aggressive, nearly invincible... driving the hero to transform, to become strong enough to beat those impossible odds. Make sure you know why the bad guy is doing this! "this person must be an individual who has made the choice to pursue the darkest elements of life."

Believably bad? Yes. To make them interesting, they need to be deep, complicated, and understandable. Sometimes having two (or more) bad drives can help -- which one is stronger?

Basic bad? Simple, well-defined? Take ye old western. That simple bad guy may not seem big enough for today's novels, but... it provides a pattern you can use where you need it. He needs to be good at what he does and driven to achieve those goals.

How do you understand bad? Get to know him. Why does he do these things? What gets under his skin? Read about real-life criminals and abnormal psych. Then pick and choose what you want to include in your story, so that we all know Mr. Bad is bad to the bone...

"If you follow through with everything you can must to make your antagonist real and believable, you'll discover that, quite naturally, he is also very, very bad."

Exercise? Well, consider the story you are writing. What can you add to make the antagonist a bit darker, a bit more real, a bit scarier? How does that make your hero react?

Did he really tie Nell to the railroad tracks? And kick the dog, too?