I live in one province in my country of South Africa, while my entire family lives in another. Because of this, I find myself travelling on planes often. I hate flying, so I always try to find a way to distract myself, and the one thing I always do is that I will watch other people and try to figure out their stories. Or, more accurately, make up their stories. Why are they flying to this part of the world? Are they native-born or a tourist? Are they with people? Are they alone? If the plane had to crash on an island, would they be a liability?
Yes, this is how I pass time.
The other way I pass time is to work on my own writing. Because someone has to write the stories I want to write, and my wish for these books to magically appear hasn’t come through yet, so I’m stuck doing them.
Then, one day, while trying to brainstorm a story, I combined my two pastimes.
You see, I was stuck with working out the plot of the sequel to my first book because, for this specific story, I needed to know exactly what the villain was doing so that the rest of the story could make sense. You see, it wasn’t that I needed to know what the villain was doing at certain points, but more at certain stretches of time, because I needed to know why they appeared at some points and not at others. Because of this, I created a timeline for my villain before figuring out what my main characters were even doing.
Now, this was done because of a specific story, but I decided to try it out for other ideas that I was working on, ideas that didn’t need this specific type of planning. And what I found was something I loved. This way of thinking gave me the chance to spend more time with my villains, to create them to be more sympathetic, and if not more sympathetic, at least more understandable. It also gave me time to give them obstacles to climb over, and faults, and weaknesses, and set-backs, and real emotional reactions to those setbacks that wouldn’t have been there. It gave me time to get to know these characters I created, and to make them well-rounded, to nail down their voice.
And so, that’s what I want this session to be about. I want you to make a timeline for your villain. Think about how your story progresses, think about what your main characters are doing in the different points in your story. When you’re done thinking about that, write down the timeline of your story from your main character’s point of view. If you don’t have it all set in stone, that’s fine. Write down the big plot points.
Then, write down a different timeline, one of your villains, and work out what they’re doing at the exact same time. Why aren’t they on the battlefield, or in pursuit? If they’re not at all of the big moments, what are they doing at that time? How is what they are doing moving toward their ultimate goal? What obstacles are they running into when the main character is on their journey? Are they in a power struggle? Are other people causing problems for them? Is it their own incompetence, or reluctance, or pride, or arrogance that causes their problems? Are they secretly not the villain of the story, but just doing what needs to be done?
Everyone is always so focused on the main character, but you should see the other guy.
You, as the author, should know your own villain too. No one else needs to see the background, no one else needs to know everything, but it can only help if you do. You created this character, this person who is ‘evil’. Give them a reason to be. Understand what they are doing in the story so that we, the readers, can understand what drives them. Give them a struggle to overcome, and (probably) fail at. Make them a person.
Show yourself what the other guy is up to.
With that said, I hope you get to know your villains, fellow writers!
And remember, every great story started with just one line.
Thanks for Reading, Fellow Writers!
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