A Goodreads user
asked
Stacey T. Hunt:
Do you have any tips for writing bad guys?
Stacey T. Hunt
It's often easy for to make a villain evil-for-the-sake-of-evil, but that's not very interesting, and doesn't win them any sympathy. I think you should know WHY they're evil. Ask yourself what happened in their past to make them the way that they are, and what are their motivations for doing the things that they do? A famous writer (I think it was Shakespeare, but I'm not sure...) once said that the villain believes they are the hero of the story, and I think it's important to keep that in mind.
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