Introducing the Villain

It can be quite fun to introduce the villain in the story. The story of Coyote and Bear uses a villain who has fallen from grace. He used to have it all and now he is the but of jokes. This villain resents his new place in the world and want to bring everyone else down.

Coyote used to be the guy who could create stars and brings things into being and now all he seemed to be able to do was run around getting into predicaments. Coyote was not generally happy and because of this he tended to go around behaving quite peculiarly. This made him difficult to deal with. He didn’t ply well with others. He looked at Rabbit and cursed her for running so fast.

“You are so week!” He said. “All you ever do is run away.” Coyote reached down and picked up flint rock chips. Coyote liked the way flint felt because it was sharp and dangerous. Coyote threw the flint with great strength at Rabbit because he thought this emphasized his point. Rabbit ran and the shards missed their mark.

Coyote looked at Woodpecker and he said, “Only an idiot would spend all day banging his beak into a tree!” Then he picked up the flint and let it fly. Woodpecker would fly to another tree and never got hit by any shards either.

Butterfly was chided for not having perspective since his head was always in a flower. Porcupine was snubbed for being a prickly mess. Coyote was filled with bad feelings for all the other animals and most of the animals didn’t pay any attention to this nasty behavior because when he threw flint, they moved fast and he never really aimed he just threw. He usually missed hitting anyone. So no one bothered much about him.

This kind of villain aims at everyone until he gets a hit. He just wants to hurt someone. Causing pain makes him feel powerful.

In the next installment we will see what happens when Coyote and Bear cross paths.

The Villain

A narrative is driven by the behavior of the villain. The villain defines the nature of the conflict. Every story has a villain. When you can identify your villain, this nasty character who tricks you into being less than yourself, then you can begin to defeat him.

I was going to write about the Trickster archetype. But when I did some research I found that he is an anti-hero who wins the day by using wise deception. The prominent example is Prometheus. Prometheus is the Greek God who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to human kind. Much good came from his actions.

So I am not talking about Tricksters, I am talking about villains. Villains mean you no good. We have all had interactions with a bully and some have met with the Devil. This guy is charming and gives people what he thinks they deserve. There are also outcasts and others with malevolent motivations.

To write your story using traditional stories as a template. You can make your Villain be anything you want. He or she can be a dragon, troll, queen or black wizard. The important thing to remember is that the motivation of your villain is key to his power and your struggle. The Villains motivation is part if the concerto that is your narrative. Villains are motivated by feelings of being outcast. This is often combined with a fervent belief in a cause. Many times villains are just mean because they are mean.

If for example, your story was about a struggle with drug abuse, the villain might be a dark magician who a skilled at slight of hand. He offers glitter and joy but delivers only smoke and mirrors. Often a villain will begin by providing a needed service and end up trying to take your most precious possessions. Just as Rumplestiltskin help the hero spin straw into gold but then demanded her first-born child in payment. Sometimes he villain is just greedy and wants what the hero has.

Bringing the Villain into your story brings the narrative to life and provides you with the chance to identify the problem without identifying with the problem.

The next challenge then is to identify and develop the tools that the hero needs to overcome the villain.