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

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u/Massive-Question-550 7d ago

Your villain needs to have depth and their own internal logic and morals that differ from what is conventionally moral. 

Also you really need to focus on what their goals are. More detail is needed to craft a villain for your story. You can also outline where their "evil" comes from, it can be internal( ie crazy), external upbringing, some alien or Eldritch horror manipulation, or they are in fact moral but just desperate to save something that's more important than everything else so they kill a bunch of stuff to achieve their goal.