Walk on the Dark Side

by C.L. Phillips

Is fact stranger than fiction?  When you develop your villains and take a walk on the dark side of life, how do you create those nefarious creatures?

Let's say for example, that you are a pleasant mild mannered person, always careful to treat others with respect and consideration.  How do you craft the nasty, ill-tempered thug who beats your heroine within an inch of her life?  How do you walk a mile in those shoes?

Where do you find your inspiration?   

I'm asking the question because I'd like to get a better understanding of how a writer travels to the dark places with authenticity and credibility.  For example, when I look at Steven King, I'd never imagine that mild mannered man would write what he writes.  Not in a million years.

Most of my bad guys are extrapolations of people I've known.  I recently read Acts of the Apostles by John Sundman (who I met at SXSW this year), and I swear I worked for his antagonist.  I even called John on the phone and asked him, "Is your antagonist based on He-Who-I-Refuse-to-Name?"  John laughed and said people ask him that question over and over.  Everyone thinks they know this bad guy.

Now that sounds like a ringing endorsement of an excellent character study.

So who is your favorite villain and why?  Better yet, introduce us to your current villain and tell us how you developed the character.

In my novel FIRST MISTAKE, Quattro Anderson, father of the murdered U.S. Senator wants vengeance.  Not because his son is dead, but because his plans for family legacy are in jeopardy.  Quattro thinks money and muscle can fix all of his problems because he's family has "owned" that Senate seat for as long as anyone can remember.

How did Quattro come to life?  I took an overbearing image of a public figure, added a dash of "the rules don't apply to me", mixed in a little Sixth Generation Texan, and baked it with a sprinkle of long forgotten humility.  Then I added a problem he couldn't resolve without help from the one person he couldn't buy.

Please share - one of your villains, and how you brought them to life.

Scary Characters

By Martha Reed

I’ve come upon something in my new novel that I think is worth sharing. When I got my manuscript back from the independent editor I hired, she suggested that I bring one of my secondary characters forward, more into the limelight. Honestly, I think I already knew that in the back of my mind, but having someone else say it made me focus on it and so that’s what I’ve been doing lately. And I have to say I love what is being revealed to me because my secondary character is suddenly a primary bad guy.

Now I’m not saying that all bad guys are men; there are some real doozy bad girls out there too; it’s just in this case my bad guy is male. But once I started thinking about other fictional characters who are bad (versus bad fictional characters), I decided to make a list of my Top Five Scary Characters of All Time:

Dr. Hannibal Lecter – Silence of the Lambs, Thom Harris, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Simply bad to the bone:

Niles and Holland Perry – The Other, Thomas Tryon. I read this one in junior high school. Thinking about it still gives me the shivers!

Mrs. Danvers - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier.

Cold as the grave.

Baby Jane Hudson – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? - Betty Davis. 

Was it the pancake makeup? Or the beauty mark?

Rhoda Penmark – The Bad Seed – story written by Maxwell Anderson, play by William March. 

I’m willing to bet it’s the perfect braids with this one!

Which brings me to my question: 

Who is your scariest psychopath or villain? Male or female characters, please, and most of all, why?