64. What Makes a Great Villain
05/20/21 • 20 min
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
EPISODE 64 – What Makes a Great Villain
Follow along with the cheat sheet below, or DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website.
EPISODE DESCRIPTION –
Recently, a long-time listener of The Storyteller's Mission reached out to ask my opinion as to the best movie villains and why, so this podcast episode is dedicated to Donna Mumma as I attempt to answer her question. In essence, I argue that three main areas to concern yourself with as a writer when it comes to constructing your villains include:
- What motivates your villain? Justify their choices. We don't do things just because we're evil. We always have a reason.
- What past event has twisted his or her morality (because Villains proceed from a flawed sense of justice and morality
- What qualities make him or her a worthy opponent? They can't be idiots. They must be smart, clever, brilliant, relentless -- they must be as good or better than the hero in order to be a worthy foe.
UP NEXT - TBD
OUR ONLINE PLATFORM
The Storyteller’s Mission online platform is finally up and running! Sign up for one-on-one COACHING, get a SCRIPT CRITIQUE, or register for one of our highly anticipated ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING today!
TOPIC REQUESTS?
If you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing in a future podcast, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL recording with your problem, question, or issue!
SPECIAL THANKS -The Storyteller’s Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer CARLA PATULLO for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to www.carlapatullo.com
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
EPISODE 64 – What Makes a Great Villain
Follow along with the cheat sheet below, or DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website.
EPISODE DESCRIPTION –
Recently, a long-time listener of The Storyteller's Mission reached out to ask my opinion as to the best movie villains and why, so this podcast episode is dedicated to Donna Mumma as I attempt to answer her question. In essence, I argue that three main areas to concern yourself with as a writer when it comes to constructing your villains include:
- What motivates your villain? Justify their choices. We don't do things just because we're evil. We always have a reason.
- What past event has twisted his or her morality (because Villains proceed from a flawed sense of justice and morality
- What qualities make him or her a worthy opponent? They can't be idiots. They must be smart, clever, brilliant, relentless -- they must be as good or better than the hero in order to be a worthy foe.
UP NEXT - TBD
OUR ONLINE PLATFORM
The Storyteller’s Mission online platform is finally up and running! Sign up for one-on-one COACHING, get a SCRIPT CRITIQUE, or register for one of our highly anticipated ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING today!
TOPIC REQUESTS?
If you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing in a future podcast, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL recording with your problem, question, or issue!
SPECIAL THANKS -The Storyteller’s Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer CARLA PATULLO for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to www.carlapatullo.com
Previous Episode
63. Three Essential Elements of a Well-Constructed Scene
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
EPISODE 63 – Three Essential Elements of a Well-Constructed Scene
Follow along with the cheat sheet below, or DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website.
EPISODE DESCRIPTION –
One of the things I notice a lot in the work I critique or evaluate is that writers have difficulty gauging when to end their scenes. Often they go on too long, or sometimes, they cut out too soon. How can we know when to cut out of our scenes, and what are some things we need to accomplish before doing so?
In this episode, we discuss three key elements of how to construct a scene, including:
1. How there needs to be some kind of emotional shift in each scene
2. These are best accomplished using visual cues
3. In so far as possible, each scene should end on one of the characters – whoever is most jangled up or emotionally changed as a result of what’s transpired
UP NEXT - TBD
OUR ONLINE PLATFORM
The Storyteller’s Mission online platform is finally up and running! Sign up for one-on-one COACHING, get a SCRIPT CRITIQUE, or register for one of our highly anticipated ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING today!
TOPIC REQUESTS?
If you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing in a future podcast, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL recording with your problem, question, or issue!
SPECIAL THANKS -The Storyteller’s Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer CARLA PATULLO for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to www.carlapatullo.com
Next Episode
65. The Distorted Character Qualities of a Villain
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
EPISODE 65 – The Distorted Character Qualities of Villains
Follow along with the cheat sheet below, or DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPTS FOR FREE on the podcast page of our website.
EPISODE DESCRIPTION –
Last week, we launched into a discussion about what makes a great villain since villains must be formidable foes for your heroes. If you don't have a great villain, then you won't be able to show the heroism of your main character.
In Episode 57 of this podcast: 21 heroic character qualities that you can reveal in story, I shared 21 traits that most heroes have. But the interesting thing about this is that many of those character qualities apply to villains as well. Today, we go through traits 1-5 of that very same list from the villain's point of view. How does that character trait change if the character to whom it applies is the villain?
Trait number one: Villains must be able to think fast under pressure.
Trait number two: Villains must be good at one or more things. Moreover, they have to be better at those things than anybody else in the story world.
Trait number three: Villains must be able to think outside of the box. They come up with clever plans; things that the hero never saw coming.
Trait number four: Villains stuff their personal issues, not for the good of others, but for their personal goals. Or, if they don’t stuff their feelings, they give full vent to their rage and incorporate personal vengeance into their already formulated plans.
Trait number five: For villains, no matter how bad it gets, they do what they intended to do, for the reasons they intended to do it. In other words, they just don't give up. They keep going. They're relentless.
UP NEXT – Next week, we’ll start with heroic character quality number six and continue going through the list to compare how these heroic traits are distorted when it comes to the villain.
OUR ONLINE PLATFORM
The Storyteller’s Mission online platform is finally up and running! Sign up for one-on-one COACHING, get a SCRIPT CRITIQUE, or register for one of our highly anticipated ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING today!
TOPIC REQUESTS?
If you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing in a future podcast, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL recording with your problem, question, or issue!
SPECIAL THANKS -The Storyteller’s Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer CARLA PATULLO for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to www.carlapatullo.com
The Storyteller’s Mission with Zena Dell Lowe - 64. What Makes a Great Villain
Transcript
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
EP. 64: What Makes a Great Villain
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Published May 20, 2021
00:00
INTRO: Hello, and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.
00:11
PRESENTATION: Recently, I did an episode that was dedicated to questions from particula
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