Q&A for How to Make a Purely Evil Villain Interesting

That only makes the story more interesting and realistic. Life is all about blurred lines and shades of grey. Also, a well written redemption arc for a villain (or the opposite for a hero) is something that definitely attracts readers.

How about if the protagonist doesn't know the villain is evil and the villain is able to trick him/her into killing the colleagues? You could even make the protagonist be in love with the villain.

Firstly, let the villain join the rest of the villains. Then, let the villains order the main villain to destroy a thing the hero loves the most. This would make the hero run behind the main villain and enable him to find out about the villains' club. Then, he will try to destroy it as a revenge, killing the main villain in the end.

It's cliched, but you could have some sort of tragic event happen that turns your villain evil. While this won't make them purely evil, it will give a reason to their madness, so to say. Tell the readers the villain's thoughts and motivations when committing the act. For example, the villain could believe someone is a a threat to his/her safety and have the person killed. Make your villain have emotions, not tan emotionless void (unless it's part of the personality), revealing those emotions as you progress through the story.

Making sadism a motivation for the villain makes them no better than a mustache-twirling "generic doomsday villain". A much more believable motivator for a truly evil villain would be greed or revenge.

Yes! Having both protagonist and antagonist be good people is a great idea! Plenty of heroes are willing to kill villains. Of course, you still have to provide an explanation for the misunderstanding. Perhaps a third villain, this one truly evil, was responsible for the crimes. Or perhaps what your villain thought were the hero's crimes were actually just her attempts to protect someone or something, possibly from the villain.

Destruction isn't always a bad thing - for example, the destruction of a big business which is making money off the exploitation of others. He is unable to distinguish between 'good' destruction and 'evil' destruction.

Yes. Often sociopaths are good with people, because they are able to put on a mask of emotion when in reality they don't feel anything at all. The villain is simply pretending, in effect, to feel emotion for their family. They may care for the family a little, but they don't feel the love that one would normally expect for a family person.

It's ok if your villain is similar to another villain. There have been so many novels and short stories written that it would be impossible for you to come up with something completely original. Just make sure that your villain has enough distinguishable traits/ways that they are different from the other story and you should be fine!

Actually, that's one of the best villains. A villain may not know that they're evil, because everyone is a hero in their own story. They might also have a moral code that justifies their actions ( even if they are wrong).

Try to give their creepiness some kind of mystery, like some kind of ritualistic make-up that you don't show the readers until later, or a disfigured face, or even something like bloody clothes. Also keep in mind the audience, and what would be creepy for them.

Consider your villain's motives, personality, goals, and background. What motivates your villain? Is it greed, jealousy, unrequited love, revenge, a thirst for power and control? Maybe a couple of these work together. You are the author, so you get to choose. Also consider the differences between your villain and the protagonist. That might give you more ideas as to how to develop your villain. The bottom line is: make the characters believable.

Don't confuse the protagonist and the villain. A protagonist by definition is not evil. A tragic hero has a flaw that leads to his ultimate demise, but he remains a good person. Examine the character of Jay in The Great Gatsby. Jay's downfall is blind love. Think about the message you want to convey. If all the characters are evil, where is the struggle? A story must have conflict from two opposing sides; otherwise, you have no plot.

Yes! That would be an interesting plot twist and could be very exciting to read.

Of course. It would be interesting to have someone raised in a cult-style life and then turn out villainous as a result.

You can give him a superpower. Maybe he has magical powers which he got from an object, and he can be defeated by destroying that object. A villain can aldo be a mad scientist who has invented a powerful device that can destroy the world. Or, maybe he is a normal evil person who has got a lot of followers and people working for him.

Try to have the evil version do the opposite of what the hero does. For example, if the hero is always faithful to his/her promises, the bad guy may make many promises, but never keep them. Making the villains powerful can be intriguing, but often makes for a complicated win for the hero and risks being not as believable. Try having the two equally balanced for a more interesting battle.

Of course! When you think about it, some heroes have no sympathy for the villains either because they are too fixated on doing "what's right."

Depends on the kind of thing you are going for, but I suppose the simplest way is to show them as they are when they are not being villainous and, either intentionally or just by happy accident, doing their evil deeds behind the hero's back. Now, this does not mean do a "twist villain" where it turns out to be a grand lie, unless you have something to show that their good act is just a deception, and even then, you should add in hints about your villain's true nature before the grand reveal. Then again, perhaps you can consider going the route of a lost hero, someone who has lost their way or lost their faith in the hero, which drives them down a dark path. There are plenty of options

That actually might be an interesting plot twist!