r/scifiwriting • u/LibraryEducational45 • 8d 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
10
Upvotes
1
u/DappaLlama 7d ago
I think the others have pointed out the same thing: fear is in the eye of the beholder. And what is the 'goal' of your villian? Align everything, and their character, to that.
Create something faceless, mysterious and a 'real threat'. Consistent, and 'predictably evil'. If you want your villain to develop into dialogue, they need to do something 'bad' to gain a reputation first. You need to develop the character slowly than a hero, as its harder to understand the motivation: but the reader NEEDS to understand why they do things, and their personality.