5 Reason to Write with Villains

Today I have a post up at The Insecure Writers Support Group Site on Writing Realistic Antagonists.
It's a more serious post.

For here, for now, let's take a quick look at 5 Reasons to Write with Villains (the antagonists we love to hate):

1. Villains enjoy themselves. If they want to have cake and eat it and bathe in it, they'll find a way, even if if means taking all the cake in the world and enslaving all the cake bakers.

2. Villains see themselves as righteous and they worry a lot less than heroes. Villains don't ask, "Should I do this?" They just do whatever they want.

3. Villains rule absolutely. Hence, they have less paperwork to fill out.

4. Villains have henchmen, sometimes even cute ones like Minions.

5. Villains have cool toys, weapons, and transportation.

Seriously, though, these traits are just the beginning of villainous behavior. Realistic villains aren't that simple. If they were, they could never be redeemed, have henchmen issues, or feel anguish over the sacrifices they make or have made. If villains were truly simple, we wouldn't have Darth Vader, Loki, Bucky, Kylo Ren, Thanos (according to the latest Avengers movie), or Gru and his Minions.

Realistic villains and antagonists need a reason to be who they are and that's what my more serious post at IWSG is all about.

Click here to read Writing Realistic Antagonists.

BTW, I do plan to visit around the web and comment today, but as I write this ahead of time, I am experiencing dizziness with bouts of full vertigo, headaches, and ear ringing. The docs (plural) are working on a diagnosis (probably Miniere's Disease) as I am working on getting better. This has been ongoing for nearly three weeks as of the date of this post, so I am ready, really ready, to get all the way better or have a plan to solve it.