Writing Your Way [Writing Tutorial]

Characterisation: Archtypes

Show them doing a good deed

Okay, so good people do bad things, right? Bad people can do good things as well. Imagine a plausible good deed that your villain would perform in the context of their backstory. Example; if your villain's sibling was a civilian causality during a wartime attack, they may refrain from attacking your protagonist when an innocent civilian entres the line of fire.

Now that wasn't so much, now was it? Next we have the anti-hero which is a lot more popular nowadays along with the sympathetic villain when it comes to movies in general.

So, this is how to make the anti-hero.

An anti-hero is a central character who lacks the characteristics an audience associates with a conventional hero. They are deeply flawed, conflicted characters who often has a cloudy moral compass, but that's what makes them realistic, complex, and sometimes likeable.

This is where it gets a little complicated and lengthy because there are actually 3 types of antiheroes. The pragmatic rebel, the unscrupulous type and the "by any means necessary" hero. Don't worry, I'll explain...

The pragmatic rebel is a realist. They might associate with both good guys and bad guys and take whatever action they deem necessary to accomplish their mission. Their morals are, for the most part, good but they won't hesitate to do what's needed to be heroic—even if that means taking out a few bad guys. They won't intentionally cross a line unless it's for the greater good, and they may still follow the stepson the hero's journey. That's a whole other thing.

The unscrupulous antihero is an antihero whose morals fall into a grey area. They have good intentions but are driven more out of self-interest rather than the greater good. They can be cynical and have a jaded view of the world. Their actions are often dictated by past trauma and inner conflict revealed via their backstory. They don't think twice about how they achieve their goal and who they need to push out of the way and they sometimes even enjoy the dark side. Annaliese Keating, the antihero played by Viola Davis (Aka one of my favourite women actresses) at the heart of the show How to Get Away With Murder, is cutthroat and morally compromised, but her motives begin to make sense once the audience knows her inner life.

The "by any means necessary" hero. The titular antihero protagonist of the TV series Dexter (or the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsey), borders on being a villain. Antiheroes like Dexter Morgan justify their behaviour because it results in something that benefits society, even though their actions are questionable and sometimes even psychotic.

Now despite their flaws, antiheroes are realistic characters that readers can relate to. So, here's some tips on how to solidify your antihero.

Create a complex main character

Think of how you would write a traditional hero. Create your antihero by giving them the opposite attributes. If a hero is an idealist, your antihero is a cynic. Make them mysterious so their character gets revealed a bit little by little. A great antihero has flaws but despite their weaknesses, their good side is illuminated as the story progresses. These contrasting qualities make an antihero more interesting and complex.

Give your antihero internal complex

Every great antihero has an internal struggle driving their actions. Just remember that you'll eventually need to explain the behaviour. As you write, slowly reveal the backstory to let readers know what makes them tick.

Don't confused the antihero for the antagonist

For the antiheroes with misguided morals, the ends justify the means. They can explain away the bad things they do if the result is ultimately good and they emerge a hero. When writing an anti-hero, you can bring them to the edge of evil, but they're never as evil as the true villain. Unlike the antagonist, the antihero ultimately believes they are acting for a noble cause.

Use supporting characters

Create a side character who can illuminate your antihero's redeeming qualities. The best antiheroes are the ones readers can't believe they're rooting for.

Okay, I'm starting think think this is gonna be a long chapter but moving on. Next is the opposite of the antihero, the anti-villain.

An anti-villain, unlike their evil counterparts, are not complete monsters. This makes them particularly hard to hate, despite all their terrible deeds. In the character's minds, they have justifiable, noble goals—how they go about achieving those goals is what eventually becomes a problem for the hero. Their means don't justify their desired ends.

Every villain has their own morality. A key principle to remember is that making a decision between good and evil is never really a choice: All humans will choose good as they see it. Your villain chooses their own good, which to readers, and the hero, appears evil in opposition. This creates a moral dilemma at the heart of the novel's conflict. Now, here are the different types of Anti-Villains you can choose from;

One that starts out good. This anti-villain is a good person who has been pushed to the brink of their personal limits. Good boy gone bad due to circumstances in the plot.

The one you feel for. A sympathetic anti-villain may do bad things, but they are ultimately a product of their circumstances or environment. They may have had a terrible upbringing, where people acted evil towards them as children making them evil as adults. They deserve to seek different circumstances, and were their means not so terrible, you might root for them.

The one who means well. When good intentions go crooked, and heroic qualities like tenacity and cleverness are aimed at the wrong target, you get your "well-meaning" anti-villain, who often takes things a step too far in pursuit of a noble goal. These anti-villains typically have a plan to save the world, with many, many casualties along the way in the name of the "greater good." Think of Marvel's "Mad Titan" Thanos and his plan to clear half the universe in order for the remaining half to thrive.

The one in the wrong place at the wrong time. This designated "villain" in name only typically falls into this category as a result of the existence of the hero. Their acts might be totally justified—vengeance for a loved one, or carrying out the corruption required of them by their job—but the protagonist doesn't give them a free pass.

And there you have it, your different characters and protagonist for your story...

But then you have the character who is just plain annoying. These characters are just annoying and for some good reasons like, they motivate your beloved characters with their arrogance or that they are for comic relief or to ease the tension by redirecting it towards this particular character. These characters are mostly used as a scapegoat but they can also be great characters to give an overall arc to.

Note this, there are pros and cons to this type of character:

Cons: Testing the patience of your reader

Being insensitive or belligerent that may offend your audience

Triggering towards the audience

Entitled and seen as more of an inconvenience rather than an important character (while they seem useless, these annoying characters can be useful)

But there are pros like: they can annoying point out details relevant to the story that the reader may not catch

Can be persuasive towards characters and the audience

They can help solve problems within the story and be a plot device in the story

Annoying characters have the common traits like being rude, inconsiderate, hypocritical, and selfish. These characters aren't supposed to be likable, they need to be annoying. But note as well that these annoying characters can become any of the other types of characters as well, they are malleable.

Happy writing!