A final possibility is that the villain’s dysfunctional behavior is personally satisfying to the extent that he’s not willing to give it up. Vices are ultimately destructive, but on a base level they’re enjoyable; for someone who is in denial or is mentally imbalanced, these activities can act as motivators that make it difficult to sacrifice them in favor of lifelong changes for the better.
Self-Blame
As we’ve discussed, self-blame is a natural result of the majority of wounding events, even if the character was in no way at fault. The process of working through self-blame is part of the healing journey. It is also the crucible that turns many heroes into villains.
In the aftermath of trauma, some characters either don’t struggle with guilt or they turn it outward. Whether it’s warranted or not, they blame someone else for what happened, be that an individual, organization, or existing system. Their goal becomes getting back at the responsible party, no matter what it takes.
Alternatively, many villains start out as good guys trying to come to grips with their pasts, but they’re never able to see the circumstances realistically; they just can’t forgive themselves or accept that they weren’t to blame. Unable to break the lie that binds them, they fall deeper into self-loathing, self-centeredness, and darkness. Their morals shift to accommodate this view of themselves, and they end up pursuing a motivation that won’t fulfill their need.
Pursuing the Wrong Motivation
The fulfillment of the unmet need is at the heart of the character’s story goal; he believes that achieving that outer motivation will fill the void, which is why he has chosen to pursue it. In fiction we do see instances of both protagonists and antagonists initially pursuing a false goal, but their paths differ in that protagonists will recognize their mistake and correct their course while antagonists do not.
Two characters could suffer the same devastating circumstance—say, one of their children dying in a hit-and-run accident. Though they end up with the same missing need of safety and security, depending on the character’s personality, support system, mental state, and a slew of other factors, they could go about filling this need in different ways. One character might pursue a career in law enforcement, seek to change the law regarding drunk-driving offenses, or open a rehab center to make it easier for alcoholics to receive treatment. Goals like these are inherently positive pursuits and make sense for a protagonist seeking security.
Another character could go a completely different direction: stalking and ultimately murdering his child’s killer or going on an arson spree and burning down bars around town. He thinks that eradicating the responsible person or establishments from his neighborhood will make the world safer. But because the character refuses to work through grief and instead allows fear to dictate his behavior, these goals are ultimately dissatisfying, leading him to commit bigger offenses in a desperate effort to find peace.
The character’s steps for achieving the story goal are tied to his personal moral code because there are only certain things he’s willing to do. This is often the biggest difference between protagonists and villains; while the hero will stop short when something really challenges his morals, the villain keeps right on charging. His do-not-cross line, if he has one at all, is set much farther back than the protagonist’s, enabling him to do unthinkable things to get what he wants. And the more he wanders from his moral center, the harder it is to find his way back, which virtually ensures that he will never be truly fulfilled and will remain stuck.
The State of Their Character Arc
Another big difference between the hero and the villain is that the antagonist’s character arc doesn’t typically play out during the course of the story. By the time your story begins, the villain is typically uninterested in examining or dealing with his past. He may be ignoring or denying his wound, with no intention of ever doing anything about it. Some villains actually embrace their past; they take the attitude that their wounds have made them stronger, more capable individuals, and they tell themselves that they prefer who they are now to the weak and vulnerable people they used to be.
In other cases, the villain attempted at one point to overcome the wounding event but failed. This character is no longer interested in addressing the pains of his past to become a better person and is now moving ahead as a wounded, deeply dissatisfied individual—still pursuing goals that he thinks will fulfill him in some way.
Redemption Is Nigh
Exceptions to the above come when the villain’s arc is featured within the main storyline. Mostly, this happens in a tale of redemption. While the protagonist is undergoing his own transformation, an event occurs that causes the antagonist to examine his trajectory and reconsider his path, resulting in him returning to his arc. Whatever form this catalyst takes, it will trigger deep and unexpected emotions that lead to a change of heart. The villain sees a future in which the long-suppressed need can at last be met or redemption is possible. Another option is that his eyes are opened to a cause that is greater than himself and justifies the sacrifice of personal desires. The villain either turns back to the light or fails to defeat his demons.
For a villain choosing redemption, the process is often condensed, and like a switch being flipped, he turns away from darkness in the final pages of the story. This type of reversal usually requires self-sacrifice and may end with the villain’s own death.
Regardless of how the story finishes for them, characters like Darth Vader (Star Wars) and Benjamin Linus (LOST) prove that recovery through the character arc is as much a possibility for the bad guy as it is for the hero.
Villains are products of their past, just like everyone else. Genetics and anomalies can play a part, but the overwhelming majority of deranged individuals are that way because of the negative people and events they were exposed to. This is why it’s so important for you, the author, to understand your villain’s history and consider his arc, even if it doesn’t figure into the story. Knowing what’s driving him and why he’s chosen his particular goal helps you to portray a villain who is credible. Again, most of those backstory details won’t be shared with readers, but the more you know, the better you’ll be able to write them so their actions, though reprehensible, will ring true.
BRAINSTORMING YOUR CHARACTER’S WOUND
Because wounds are invasive, shaking even the strongest character’s foundation, choosing the right one is no small (or easy) task. While some authors prefer to let a protagonist’s fears and wounds emerge as they write, spending some time up front to dig around in her backstory can save countless hours of revision.
Many writers fear the word backstory because of generalized advice telling them that it should be avoided. These unfortunate statements fail to acknowledge the different types of backstory. The kind discussed here—character brainstorming—is one of the most vital parts of writing. No matter what your genre, characters should come across as well rounded and authentic, with clear motivations. Everything they do, say, and decide should result from whatever is driving them, be it a fear, unmet need, or other catalyst. What your character wants (outer motivation) and why she wants it (inner motivation) will both be rooted in her past.
Unless your character introduces herself to you fully formed and ready to go, you’ll need to poke around in her darker places to uncover the emotional trauma she has experienced. As you brainstorm, rather than dredging up every hurtful situation, look for sore spots and a pattern of events that follow a theme. For example, if a character’s past was speckled with sibling rivalry, a need to be the best, and achievement confused with parental acceptance, it may point to a wound involving conditional love in her early years.
Not all characters will need the same amount of backstory research; depending on who they are and the role they play, you’ll have to decide how much is necessary to write them accurately. When it comes to brainstorming backstory, think of it as an island that can be reached by a variety of routes, including the ones that follow.
PAST INFLUENCERS
It’s unfortunately true that those closest to us are in a position to inflict the most pain. In this way, the people our characters interacted with prior to the start of the story are often tied to their wounding events. Caregivers top the list, with their maltreatment birthing deep fears, generating irrational beliefs or biases, creating a legacy of abuse, or even causing unintentional parental failings to be passed through the generations.
For example, imagine a girl who helplessly watched her four-year-old sibling choke and die. She, in turn, could become a controlling mother, her fear causing her to hover over her own child to keep him safe. She may choose his friends and make most of his decisions for him because she believes she knows what’s best. And her son, growing up in this tightly monitored environment, will likely have lower self-esteem because he doesn’t trust his ability to make good decisions. Place this young man into your story as the main character and you have someone who struggles to be independent, obsesses about what others think, is hypersensitive to criticism, and avoids responsibility because he thinks he’ll screw up.
The ability to inflict pain is not just reserved for parents and caregivers or even family in general. Think about people who left a negative mark on your character, perhaps restricting her growth, sabotaging her self-worth, inflicting a humiliation, or undermining her self-confidence. Mentors, past lovers, ex-friends, and people in positions of power may have imparted negative life lessons or acted as bad role models, which could have led to a wound. To prompt ideas about possible influencers, look for the answer to this question: Whom from your character’s past would she never want to run into again and why?
UNPLEASANT MEMORIES
Wounds hide within negative past experiences, such as a particular time of hardship, an event that cannot be forgotten, or a moment your character wishes she could utterly erase. Don’t be afraid to interview her about difficult situations she’s endured. Every person’s past is littered with mistakes, failures, disappointments, feelings of inferiority, and fear, so try your best to learn about these painful memories.
PERSONALITY FLAWS
Some writers find that as they brainstorm a character, personality is the first thing to emerge. Maybe she has an amazing sense of humor, loves to learn, and is the most unmaterialistic person you might meet. But along with these qualities, she’s incredibly temperamental, going from hot to cold in a flash and taking offense when none was meant. Do some digging to uncover the why behind this flaw. What causes that reactiveness and hypersensitivity? Why is she so quick to see enemies where none exist? Identifying the situations that lead to this knee-jerk response will help you spot the emotions the character doesn’t want to feel, which will help you brainstorm the wounds that could be the cause of her emotional armor. This can also be a helpful exercise to determine a character’s fatal flaw, the lynchpin in her emotional shielding that holds her back more than anything else—the one problematic aspect of herself that she must overcome in order to have a chance at achieving her goal.
FEARS
Fear is something most people hate, or at the very least are reluctant to experience, because while it can push us to strive harder for what we want, it also comes with a host of uncomfortable emotions. Clearly, your character will have a deep fear sitting at the heart of the defining wound that must be faced, but other fears and worries can also be markers of a wounding event. If during the character brainstorming process you realize that your protagonist is afraid of water, why is this? If she tenses every time she encounters a stranger on the sidewalk, or her heart rate picks up when her sister calls, delve into that response for more information. Fears don’t manifest by themselves, so search for their underlying reasons.
UNMET NEEDS
A quick flip back to Maslow’s pyramid can reveal what’s missing from your character’s life, which can be a signpost for an emotional wound. If you know what need is going unmet, think about why that is. Is it being sacrificed for another need, or is it merely absent? If the character is avoiding a need (such as love and belonging), there’s a reason she’s convinced herself she’s better off without it.
If you’re beginning to get to know your character and don’t see a missing need right away, ask yourself what might be causing her to feel dissatisfaction. Is there an aspect of her life that she dislikes, avoids, or even dreads? Chances are this touches on an unmet need, which can help guide you to the type of wound she may bear. When ferreting out a character’s missing need, it can also be helpful to first identify the outer motivation. If you know what she’s overtly pursuing, you can then figure out why she’s pursuing it, which will point to the lack she’s seeking to fill.
SECRETS
One thing experience teaches us is that everyone keeps secrets. It’s second nature to hide the things that embarrass us, cause shame and guilt, or leave us feeling exposed and vulnerable. Often a character’s secret will mask her wound, so ask yourself what your character is hiding. What information does she guard closely and would never want others to discover? This most likely touches on a shard of emotional trauma that she wishes to keep buried in the past.
INSECURITIES
Self-doubt is, to some degree, a problem for everyone. Worrying about not measuring up, making a mistake that impacts others, and disappointing loved ones can eat away at our self-worth. If your character is insecure about fitting in and being accepted, why is that? In which situations is she reluctant to make decisions or take risks? Thinking about her doubts and worries will create a starting point for brainstorming the negative experiences and influencers who left her feeling this way.
BIASES OR A JADED OUTLOOK
Even the most optimistic and open-minded individual can’t display tolerance and patience all the time. Most likely, she’ll have a few built-in prejudices. Some characters have an entire closet of biases and negative beliefs based on their past experiences and observations. Think about what skewed viewpoints your character may have, the types of people she has no patience for, and the situations that cause her to disengage. Every effect has a cause, so follow these trails and find the negative experience or exposure that encouraged this dark outlook to form.
OVERCOMPENSATION
Another way to unearth painful backstory elements is to look for ways your character overcompensates. Does she work hard to please a certain person, putting more time and energy into the relationship than the other party? Does she make excuses for someone, shrugging off bad behavior or “rescuing” them by continually solving their problems and fighting their battles? Overcompensation can come in other varieties, too, such as falling over backward to be generous, working extra hard to fit in, or doing anything to win the approval of someone important. If your character overcompensates, look for the why to see if self-blame or fear is at the heart of her actions.
DYSFUNCTION
No one has a perfect life, least of all our characters, and thanks to their dysfunctional emotional shielding, they are often the source of their own problems. Think about the areas of friction in your character’s life. Is she bad with money? Does she have problems with authority that get her into trouble at work? Does she drink too much? Does she lie about trivial things without understanding why she does it? Negative behaviors and friction points aren’t the result of some random cosmic machine; it starts and ends with the character. Look at how she gets in her own way, and follow this string to a past moment that created her reflexive responses or negative coping mechanisms.
EXPLORING WOUND CATEGORIES
A sad fact of the human experience is that there are seemingly innumerable ways for people to inflict emotional pain on one another and themselves. The wounds we profile in this book are by no means exhaustive and can play out in endless variations to suit a character’s backstory. They’ve been grouped into categories of universally painful themes, so if you’re struggling to choose a particular wound for your character, it can help to understand the common areas of psychological damage.
Disabilities and Disfigurements
This kind of wound centers on a condition outside of the perceived societal norm that the character believes puts him at a disadvantage. It may be physical, cognitive, or a mixture of both and can result from an accident, a birth defect, a condition or disease, or an act of violence. A character with this type of wound often feels “less” or different and questions his self-worth, especially if the disability is not something he’s always had.
This wound’s impact will depend on the individual trials the character faces in the story, how old he was when it happened, and the severity of the disfigurement or disability. Many people with these types of wounds feel a sense of shame and try to hide the extent of their impairment. They fear being labeled, ridiculed, and rejected, and have the added burden of needing to function in a world that isn’t always accommodating to their particular challenges.
Injustice and Hardship
These emotional traumas shine a light on inequities and differences, making the character feel targeted. This impacts his self-worth, and because he suffers in ways others do not, it causes him to question the moral fiber of humanity, can challenge his religious faith (if it exists), and in some cases may damage his ability to empathize with others. These wounds usually lead to disillusionment and bitterness rather than self-blame, since the fault lies with others and is beyond the individual’s control.
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma Page 5