Stories With Great Heroes Demand Quality Villains To Make Them Phenomenal

Villains do fiction a great big, delicious favour. Without a particular kind of evil present in stories, heroes can’t develop into what they are meant to become. Thank God for the darker elements of humanity and the baddest of bad boys (or girls) to show our heroes (and readers) the way into the light.

That’s good and well, but what about the reverse storyline, y’know, the one where a brilliant hero loses to a fantastic villain, with evil winning the day and leading readers to the dark side?

Too hard to envision?

I could talk about happy-ever-afters and how our brains are wired to look for the good in everything. I’d include something about existentialism’s desire to fix what it sees as breakages, but that’s not me. Sunshine endings don’t interest me. I live closer to the darkness. My work is to tease out intriguing plots from morally questionable ideas and turn long strings of words into entertainment. I live and breathe dark fiction. My quest is to create a villain who can be loved and hated equally, with the reader challenged to accept evil winning the day.

Are we talking of monsters, witches and villains of the supernatural?

No.

The real monster we must fear most is the one inside us. It dwells beneath an older part of our subconsciousness. When the conditions are right, this creature can breach the upper consciousness, find the surface, and enter this world to cause damage. If you believe this is possible, you, too, can accept the kind of evil I write.

SEETHINGS include storms. Some are weather events, while others are psychological. When those arcs meet, disaster occurs. Police recognise the timing, but there are few clues. Who is one mystery, but the greater mystery is why. The answer is deeply unsettling. It’s a crime that anyone could’ve committed—even you.

–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)