The Anatomy of a Villain for Authors, Part Four: As a Teen
After being a tween, your villain hits the teen years.
Known as the rebellious years, teens are now old enough to start exercising a large amount of control over their lives. While not yet fully mature, they have minds of their own, and finally have a certain amount of freedom - given or taken - to make their own choices.
At this point, your villain's environment is taking a backseat. It's still important, in that it can influence them, but you're primarily dealing with the emotional differences that crop up during adolescence, and that new level of independence. You also have the conclusions that they've drawn based on their lives so far, and how they think.
Environment:
While not as large of a factor now that your villain is older, the environment will still have some kind of bearing on their development. If they are not quite where you need them to be for your story yet, choosing an environment to support the necessary changes in them is one simple way of accomplishing your goal.
Emotions:
Puberty is the time that hormones go a little crazy. A good example of this is girls who have hit their teen years. They're known for being moodswingy and dramatic for a reason. It wouldn't be a stereotype if it wasn't true to some extent.
How is puberty and hormonal change manifesting in your teenage villain? Does his voice crack? Does she feel impatient because she's not as physically developed as her peers? Does he feel self-conscious because he has a problem with acne?
This is also about the time that most kids discover that the opposite sex isn't, as might have previously been believed, infested with cooties. The discovery that they find other people physically attractive results in the budding of young romance. Does your villain have a crush on someone? If yes, what do they do about it? If no, why not?
How first loves and the awkwardness of being stuck between child and adult interact with the emotional instability of an adolescent can give you an infinite number of choices for manipulating their circumstances. If your villain is still teetering between good and bad choices, this is a prime opportunity to make what you need happen.
Independence:
Your teenage villain may have varying levels of independence. If they have loving, protective parents, then they may have less freedom to do as they please, or more, depending on how responsible said parents deem them to be. If they don't have parents, they may have far more freedom than is good for them.
But it's not the amount of freedom that necessarily makes a difference. It's what they do with what they have that really matters. If you have a character that spends their free time volunteering at an animal shelter because they love animals, great. Is that something your villain needs? This can either help or hinder you in your journey to make a believable villain. If that's something they do, then perhaps it's the humanizing element to them - but that depends on the character and what you need from them. If, for example, you need them to be cruel to animals, that's probably not going to serve your purpose except possibly as contrast, if you're using it as backstory for before their motives turned dark.
If your villain chooses to take drugs in their free time, shoplift, steal cars, vandalize, or other such things, then it's pretty obvious that they're not making the best of this freedom. Their use of freedom needs to tie in with their personality (if they hate the thought of mind-altering anything, drugs or alcohol are likely not a good choice) their background (if they come from a rich family and develop an alcohol habit or addiction they'll probably have a taste for the spendy stuff) and what they believe (if they don't think that stealing is wrong or they've rationalized it into being okay, chances are they'll engage in it).
How They Think:
In my experience this is the most important section this far. Your teen villain is old enough to start drawing their own conclusions based on their lives. These conclusions are shaped by their experiences and their personalities, and is where the first real difference between a hero and a villain crops up.
Circumstances won't turn your character into a villain. The same circumstances you've written for them can be used to shape a hero. What makes your character a villain is how they react to it. How they think of it. What they choose to do. All of these things start in the mind.
How does your character think? How do they see the world? What mental habits do they have that separate them from the heroes?
Bad stuff happens to everyone. Bad stuff happens to heroes. That's part of what makes them heroes. They have the ability to choose badly, and in a lot of cases those bad choices are tempting. But they don't choose them. So why does your villain choose their path? They likely wouldn't realize, as a teen, the end result of their path. It may just be a misguided attempt to get attention in their own minds - at least at first.
What do they need, what do they want, and how do they plan to get it? What do they fear, and how do they avoid or eliminate it?
Known as the rebellious years, teens are now old enough to start exercising a large amount of control over their lives. While not yet fully mature, they have minds of their own, and finally have a certain amount of freedom - given or taken - to make their own choices.
At this point, your villain's environment is taking a backseat. It's still important, in that it can influence them, but you're primarily dealing with the emotional differences that crop up during adolescence, and that new level of independence. You also have the conclusions that they've drawn based on their lives so far, and how they think.
Environment:
While not as large of a factor now that your villain is older, the environment will still have some kind of bearing on their development. If they are not quite where you need them to be for your story yet, choosing an environment to support the necessary changes in them is one simple way of accomplishing your goal.
Emotions:
Puberty is the time that hormones go a little crazy. A good example of this is girls who have hit their teen years. They're known for being moodswingy and dramatic for a reason. It wouldn't be a stereotype if it wasn't true to some extent.
How is puberty and hormonal change manifesting in your teenage villain? Does his voice crack? Does she feel impatient because she's not as physically developed as her peers? Does he feel self-conscious because he has a problem with acne?
This is also about the time that most kids discover that the opposite sex isn't, as might have previously been believed, infested with cooties. The discovery that they find other people physically attractive results in the budding of young romance. Does your villain have a crush on someone? If yes, what do they do about it? If no, why not?
How first loves and the awkwardness of being stuck between child and adult interact with the emotional instability of an adolescent can give you an infinite number of choices for manipulating their circumstances. If your villain is still teetering between good and bad choices, this is a prime opportunity to make what you need happen.
Independence:
Your teenage villain may have varying levels of independence. If they have loving, protective parents, then they may have less freedom to do as they please, or more, depending on how responsible said parents deem them to be. If they don't have parents, they may have far more freedom than is good for them.
But it's not the amount of freedom that necessarily makes a difference. It's what they do with what they have that really matters. If you have a character that spends their free time volunteering at an animal shelter because they love animals, great. Is that something your villain needs? This can either help or hinder you in your journey to make a believable villain. If that's something they do, then perhaps it's the humanizing element to them - but that depends on the character and what you need from them. If, for example, you need them to be cruel to animals, that's probably not going to serve your purpose except possibly as contrast, if you're using it as backstory for before their motives turned dark.
If your villain chooses to take drugs in their free time, shoplift, steal cars, vandalize, or other such things, then it's pretty obvious that they're not making the best of this freedom. Their use of freedom needs to tie in with their personality (if they hate the thought of mind-altering anything, drugs or alcohol are likely not a good choice) their background (if they come from a rich family and develop an alcohol habit or addiction they'll probably have a taste for the spendy stuff) and what they believe (if they don't think that stealing is wrong or they've rationalized it into being okay, chances are they'll engage in it).
How They Think:
In my experience this is the most important section this far. Your teen villain is old enough to start drawing their own conclusions based on their lives. These conclusions are shaped by their experiences and their personalities, and is where the first real difference between a hero and a villain crops up.
Circumstances won't turn your character into a villain. The same circumstances you've written for them can be used to shape a hero. What makes your character a villain is how they react to it. How they think of it. What they choose to do. All of these things start in the mind.
How does your character think? How do they see the world? What mental habits do they have that separate them from the heroes?
Bad stuff happens to everyone. Bad stuff happens to heroes. That's part of what makes them heroes. They have the ability to choose badly, and in a lot of cases those bad choices are tempting. But they don't choose them. So why does your villain choose their path? They likely wouldn't realize, as a teen, the end result of their path. It may just be a misguided attempt to get attention in their own minds - at least at first.
What do they need, what do they want, and how do they plan to get it? What do they fear, and how do they avoid or eliminate it?
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