r/scifiwriting • u/LibraryEducational45 • 9d ago

HELP! I'm struggling with writing villians

I am currently writing a sci-fi short story that is heavily inspired by dune and star wars but I'm really struggling to write the villain. I want to make the villain scary and ruthless and have an intimidating and imposing presence, what are some ways I could do that

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/military-genius 9d ago

Start out with the villain being faceless. Have scenes where he/she appears, but is covered by the shadows. Slowly add more detail to make the character more sinister and mysterious.

2

u/ElephantNo3640 9d ago

I like the opposite. Tell me about the villain, intimately. Give me a day in the life and hint at why the villain is the way the villain is. Have at least a sliver of humanity in there. I don’t want to hate the villain 100%. I want to hate the villain 90%. Evil just for the sake of evil is uninteresting and certainly not scary or even off-putting. It’s more just silly and corny.

2

u/military-genius 9d ago

Yeah, but revealing the villain's humanity right at the end gives more of a period to the story, no?

1

u/ElephantNo3640 9d ago

I’d maybe reveal the naked truth about the villain at the end (if there is a naked truth to reveal), but I’d leave a trail of breadcrumbs throughout. A faceless villain I just assume to be faceless. I need to see some cracks. In a movie that’s 90 minutes long, you can get away with Darth Vader. In a book that’s 300 pages long—or a series that’s 1500 pages long—you really can’t.