being scared by your own villains

Allow me to start by saying:

Really, they should. What's the point if they don't? I love to see how scary I can make mine(*ahem* admittedly to the point of scaring myself silly in the dark, but we're not mentioning that).

And I'll tell you why. Villains should be scary because they're supposed to be like real-life bad guys. Do you think Attila the Hun or any of the historical gang bosses were hilarious, bumbling idiots? Yeah, no. They were not. They were terrifying people. And since fiction is meant to be just like real life, the bad guys should be as such. They should be terrifying.

In my mind, your villains should either be someone you're scared of or someone you hate. If I had to choose, a scary villain is better than a loathsome villain, but if you can't make the readers fear them, at least make the readers hate them. And don't let them forget it.

I'm not saying the villain can't be likable either. Villains like Loki are fan favorites, but you still understand they're in the wrong. And it's not like Loki isn't scary. Just think about him doing basically anything in the first Avengers movie. In fact, Loki's a pretty good example of a villain in general. He's scary, very bad, powerful, and has an excellent motivation. He's an all-around good antagonist.

If the scary just isn't coming to me, I listen to scary music. This works for any kind of mood in a scene, not just a scary mood. Music matching the feeling of the scene immerses you in the mood or feeling and helps you write in that feeling easily. For me, it's a major writing hack. So, while writing scary villain scenes, listen to scary music. It'll make you feel a bit more scared yourself, so your writing will be more unsettling and should scare the reader more efficiently. In novel writing, if you don't feel the emotion yourself, the readers probably won't either. Unless you're scared of the villain, they won't be.

Finally, a reminder that the most important thing to remember with your villains is that no matter how terrifying the they are, all of them have a reason to do what they do, and all of them think they're doing the right thing.

And now, some of the scariest villains I can think of outside of the horror genre.

And lastly allow me to suggest you follow me on Instagram and Twitter, since I post writer humor there all the time (I mean, who doesn't like writer humor?), and to follow this blog as well. Who knows, you might like it. ;) That's all for today! See ya!