 Horror/Scary: February 09, 2022 Issue [#11196] |
This week: Female Villains Edited by: Lilli 🧿 ☕  
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| There just don't seem to be enough credible female villains! They tend to be overshadowed by their male counterparts. This week we will discuss a few ideas for creating awesome female villains and hopefully change that disparity. |
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The same core values that create good male villains also create good female villains. Not least of which is credibility. Female villains don’t have much of a reputation, they’re harder to market and less believable. It’s a sad fact, but it is true. But, credibility creates believability which means awesome female villains. So how do we create credibility?
1. Core values
Women as mothers (fathers too but I’m focusing on women) embody values. They teach and rear children and impart those values to their kids. Strong core values are therefore crucial to a credible female villain.
That doesn’t mean a juicy villain’s values aren’t messed up and insane. It means that whatever their values are, they need to stick to them like glue. If they do, then they will be consistent which builds character. It also means your female villain has a reason to fight and villains will defend their values to the death just as much as your hero will.
2. Integrity
Although integrity is about doing the right things for the right reasons if your female villain has core values (even if they seem illogical) she fights for them anyway, so she has integrity.
A villain fighting with integrity and thinking what they are doing is right for the right reasons is terrifying. Especially if what they are doing is horrific like mass genocide or torture, and here goes an inbuilt stereotype but, doesn’t it seem worst if it’s a woman doing it?
Your female villain should be able to give reasoned logical explanations for why they are doing what they are doing. If it’s good enough, their reason and logic might occasionally even make you believe what they are doing is right too!
3. Authenticity
Your villain needs to do exactly what they say they are going to do. Especially if that means torturing your main character or killing off a couple of characters. Without following through on their convictions they become weak and flaky, another cliche for a female villain, but worse—it means they can be defeated.
4. Expertise
Having an intelligent villain with expertise in a particular area means they know more than you do, especially more than your main character, and this makes them unbeatable. Villains need to challenge the hero. If they are experts at something, the hero will have a hard time defeating them. This produces conflict and drives the plot.
It is possibly more essential that a female villain seem unbeatable in order to give them credibility. This is because you are starting from a lower baseline of audience perception and assumed reputation.
5. Believability
Play on real-life fears that readers have. Give the villain a realistic journey to their villainy. The villain has a story just as much as the hero/protagonist. I always think some of the scariest things in life are those that are the closest to reality, the ones that could almost be true.
A mother who lost her child and then lost everything else…driven to insanity, to murder…to villainy. Torture your female villains with their history. Make it intricate and detailed enough that their motives are believable and credible.
Food for thought:
 Be sure to give your villain some positive traits too.
A villain that loves something makes the reader empathize with them; drawing them into the story.
Villains, whether they are good or bad, need some core values and they need to stick with them.
Psychopathic villains are cliched; so is giving your female villain Borderline Personality Disorder.
Despite everyone seeing villains as bad, they see themselves as good and just. This gives them integrity when they fight for their beliefs.
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"Horror/Scary Newsletter (January 12, 2022)"
oldgreywolf on wheels  said:
Religious, regional, cultural beliefs, are only three factors that can make a difference. Use lycanthropy for our example (which is not limited to wereWOLF): East Europeans, Western Europeans (and their American descendants) have different details, whereas Native Americans and Africans have totally different ideas. Man-eating wolves didn't plague Native Americans (we still have Skinchangers), but they ran in packs from France to Russia (and still feast on longpig in India). Africa has wereleopards, werehyenas, and werelions (no wolves). There possibly were jaguars, but don't quote me. Bear in mind, yesterday's gods are today's demons.
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