How to be (or Write) a Villain




  • Shooting is not too good for my enemies.




Anonymous said...

I love the Evil Overlord List! *goes off to read yet another time*

Dumb things MCs do: when they have a fight (often with their love interest) and storm off for a nice night-time walk in the woods, despite knowing the enemy's out there. You just know they're going to get kidnapped.

lotusgirl said...

Fun list. How about when the MC knows he shouldn't, tells himself he shouldn't but does anyway and lands in a heap of trouble? Of course, teenagers do that all the time, so maybe it's not so much cliché as reality.

Mara Nash said...

I've seen this list before, and it's hysterical. And I can't help but read it with the voice of Hans Doofenshmirtz in my head.

Sierra Gardner said...

My pet peeve cliche for a bad guy is to assume that he/she is all bad, totally evil, bent on destroying the world. Bad guys can be complex characters as well. As for MC's - why does an MC always check out the scary house, long hallway, deserted room, etc in the dark? I'd be flipping on every light I could find.

Janet Johnson said...

Funny! I'm with lotusgirl. Why do it when they already know it's going to be bad? . . . Or they know it's a trap, but go anyway because they "have to."

Melody said...


Anonymous said...

Oh, the Evil Overlord List!! I loves it. Two of my favorites:




oh LOL!

Colene Murphy said...

Love it! So worth the read.

Nicole Zoltack said...

LOL It must be villain day today because I posted about this list on my blog this morning! How ironic. :)

Katrina L. Lantz said...

Hee hee. That's awesome. Of course, reading your list made me nervous because if he marries the girl right away and shoots all the heroes, he wins. Scary, scary thought. You have to make your heroes even more clever, meaning as a writer you have to BE more clever.

And that's scary, too.

dirtywhitecandy said...

Thank you for finding this. I also loved:

Okie said...

what a great list.

it's often hard not to fall into cliches and stereotypes when writing. Sometimes it's acceptable...but most of the time it's just so much more fun to turn the cliches on their heads and do something totally unexpected. :)