Backstories are a powerful writing tool because they intrigue and hook readers, making them invested in a world or character with quick glimpses of history or motivations. However, there must be a balance; too much backstory threatens to drown out the current action. Too little backstory can leave the characters wooden or unsympathetic. So, I’ve created this series on how to write backstories to help us bring just enough of what is hidden onto the page.
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I’ve used a few techniques for thinking up and writing backstories, including daydreaming, randomizing, and retrofitting. You can also manage backstory notes in a few ways, in separate files or a story management system. 

Daydreaming is where I get many of the backstories for my major characters. I often think about my characters before I start writing about them. I might include them in half a dozen stories in my mind before solidifying my novel's focus or short story's focus. What doesn’t make the cut can become part of my character’s history. The “other stories” of my character get recorded on their notes sheet, which then turns into a timeline of their life along with a list of traits. See my Character Series for more info on this kind of character background.
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You don’t have to dream up your character’s backstory before you start writing, though. Thinking through substantive events in your character’s history can happen at any time in the character creation and writing process. 

I originally started randomizing characters while playing tabletop roleplaying games, and I needed to come up with a handful of non-player characters (NPCs). Still, I didn’t necessarily want to use up the mental space to dream up their whole lives.
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There are lots of methods for randomizing backstories, including websites that can generate either elements of a backstory or entire character histories. You can also use character sheets from an established gaming system, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Vampire the Gathering. These sheets can help you flesh out your character’s personality, skills, and history.  

Often, writers don’t know a character’s whole backstory or even most of the backstory when they begin writing them. Sometimes, characters “tell” me things about themselves as I write them. Occasionally, I’ll need to add something to a character’s history to make them mesh with the plot.

For example, maybe my ghost-hunting character Jennifer has to visit Texas and fly under the radar, so she’ll stay at her previously unmentioned sister’s house. At this point, the sister will need to become her own character, and I’ll need to develop her with a backstory that matches Jennifer’s. Or maybe I need to keep Jennifer out of Texas for a plot point, so I’ll add to her backstory that she’s not allowed in the state due to an old warrant.
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Whenever I include a bit of backstory, I need to make sure it doesn’t contradict previous details or leave plot holes. Jennifer can’t have a sister in Texas if I previously mentioned that she’s an only child. Similarly, Jennifer wouldn’t have a warrant out for her if she was the sort of person who wouldn’t break the law. All of this brings me to my next point -

I need to remember the people in my character’s backstories and when and how the backstories of multiple characters converge. I also have to know how much of each character’s backstory I already have fleshed out. It’s essential to know more about my character and world than what I put in the story, but it’s useless if I forget the details, so notes are essential.
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You may want a single document that keeps all your notes. I have a separate document for each of my main characters, which, aside from their backstories, also includes a bio, a stock image of what they look like, and a personality overview. I’ve heard of writers using notecards to store this info as well. There is also writing software and systems that can automate this information storage for you.

​Backstories are a powerful writing tool because they intrigue and hook readers, investing them in a world or character with quick glimpses of history or motivations. However, there must be a balance; too much backstory threatens to drown out the current action. Too little backstory can leave the characters wooden or unsympathetic. So, I’ve created this series on how to write backstories to help us bring just enough of what is hidden onto the page. 

A backstory is the personal history of a character. It can also be the history of a location in your setting, like the history of an inn or spaceship, or the history of your entire setting, as in the continent or world where the action occurs. Even items can have backstories, especially magic items and artifacts.
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As authors, we should have more of this backstory in our minds or notes than what makes it into the work. Revelation of the backstory should be pertinent to the current situation. As I’ve stated before, when discussing characters, too much backstory is no longer a backstory; it’s just the story.

Dusty, the Space Pirate, is afraid of tight spaces. During a raid, he gets stuck in a shipping container with Sophie and reveals to her that, as a child, he was trapped for two days in a collapsed mining tunnel. This is a formative piece of Dusty’s life and perhaps the reason he chose his vocation – all that open ocean. Dusty’s backstory will only get revealed at a time and place that makes sense for it to surface, in this case, when he’s in a similar situation. We also don’t want to dwell too much on the collapsed mining tunnel story. Dusty and Sophie are stuck in a shipping container, and their priority, along with the readers’ attention, is in the present. 

But most importantly, now that we know this about Dusty, we care about him a little more. If I don’t know a character, how can I care about them? Dialogue helps reveal inner thoughts, and action helps place them in the story, but personal history offers an understanding. Pieces of history humanize a character who is otherwise rooted in the present action of the story.
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Backstories also set the tone for the novel and the character. We can make Dusty somber and dramatic by adding that he was the only family member to survive the mine collapse. Or we could make it humorous -  maybe Dusty had to shimmy out of the mine, which destroys his clothes and leaves him hilariously compromised. In either case, poor Dusty. 

​There are two main issues with backstories, and they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. First, there can be no backstory because the author didn’t think of one. On the other hand, some authors leave too much of the backstory in our minds. Both situations make a confusing and unmoored world with one-dimensional characters. There’s a third issue, which is too much backstory in your story. That issue is more straightforward to remedy than the first two; edit it down or plan a long novel (or set of novels). Throughout this series, we’ll discuss techniques for when and how to reveal your backstories. 

Science fiction villains are unique due to their many avenues to enact villainy. Evil robots, bioweapons, clones, nano-tech, A.I and so on. Some of these even combine. Maybe the antagonist is a highly developed rogue A.I. who uses virus-infected nano-bots to mass murder an army of clones.

Often, featuring futuristic tech is the story's catalyst. And that’s not wrong. After all, who would Dr. Who be without time travel, or where would the Star Trek Enterprise go without warp speed. They’d be stuck in our boring solar system, trying to get water from rocks. No fun.
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However, the plot and the characters can’t get lost in the exciting technology because you’ll end up with all flash and no substance. 

The future is ripe for villains. In a post-apocalypse, they’ve already ruined the world, so you’ll need to chronicle the progression of destruction. On the other hand, post-apocalyptic characters are often fighting for survival, making the villains of these stories people who are just slightly more desperate than those who won’t resort to misdeeds.
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As I mentioned, science fiction plots often hinge on the new and developing. Villains using new technology to enact evil are often of the super-intelligent sort. So, following the rules for writing genius characters is essential if your villain is the mad-scientist type.

​Sci-fi villains come in many forms, and they are often alien or artificial intelligence. These bad guys can be hard to write about because their motivation may be incomprehensible e to humans. How you write this is a narrative choice and leaving the reason for the wrongdoing shrouded in mystery is an option. Conversely, aliens can have similar or the same motivations as humans, and A.I., having been programmed by us, can have built-in human desires. 

The Vorgon aliens in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are a menace destroying humanity as easily as you order lunch. As a race, they are in the love-to-hate category of villainy for their relentless bureaucracy. Though individual Vorgons each have their own flavor of malevolence.

The A.I. in Harlan Ellison’s short story (and later video game) “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” was built to battle in World War III. So, initially, the creators are the villains; however, once the A.I. gains sentience and begins killing indiscriminately, it becomes a villain in its own right.  

The ingredients for a well-written bad guy are timeless. The only thing that changes from genre to genre is their mode of evil. The villain might mean well and just be a little evil or be bent on world domination. The depth of their character is necessary, but it can be hard to ensure character stands out. Connect your readers to the villain the same way you connect your heroes. Give a reason why the villain is the way she is. Give your readers a reason to care, or barring that, a reason to hate.

Villains resonate with readers for three reasons: we see ourselves in them, or we like them despite their villainy, or they are so evil we want to see them defeated. The best villains are one of the two, but rarely all three.
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Think back to the Villain I started the series with – Long John Silver. He was likable but so treacherous that, in the end, we all wanted to see his comeuppance. And that’s the crux of it, Villains are made to be defeated, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love them a little along the way. 

Before I finish my Villains blog series, I wanted to give a quick note on why I vanished for six months from my blog and social media. I had a family emergency in March that’s still ongoing, so it’s moved from a crisis to a situation. Then, I started a new job in May doing technical communication for a civil engineering firm. I’m still teaching college courses, but I’ve reduced my course load.

I’ve been working on a schedule where I can fit my writing because I’m working on the edits for the next book in my Jade and Antigone series. Unfortunately, that has left blogging and social media dead last on my priorities list. However, I realize I have a large audience, and hundreds of people visit my blog daily. So, I know this blog connects with people, helps writers, and is important too.

So, I haven’t abandoned ya’ll. I’m slowly coming out of the chaos that hit me this spring and forming a schedule that works for my many, many, many spinning plates. I’m a working mom with two jobs, an author and a blogger, and I have side projects, including adult literacy and running the Honor Society, where I teach. But, as a gift to myself, I have to dedicate some time to what I love best, writing stories.
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On that note, I have some cool events this fall for those in New York

​First is the Flower City Comic Con, also known as F3C. This is the fourth year I’ve had a table at this event. They held it at this same location last year, and it was a blast, so I’m really looking forward to it. 

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/614229206567093​

Website: https://www.fc3roc.com/ 

This con was postponed last year due to COVID, so I’m excited to have a table for the first time this year.

Facebook Event Page: https://fb.me/e/2tcbOFiW6​

Website: http://www.astronomicon.info/index.html

Okay, folks, thanks for sticking with me, and hopefully, I’ll have the last blog in my Villains series up soon (it's on villains in sci-fi)!

​Some villains are exclusive to the fantasy realm or the sci-fi multiverse. Although, their powers and gadgets are what give them this designation, not their character traits. So, you can have an evil genius wizard or an artificial intelligence who is a supervillain. In my last two blogs in the series, I will discuss the villainy unique to these two genres.

Evil magicians and terrifying creatures are often the antagonists in the sword and sorcery fantasy subtype. However, a simple predatory creature often isn’t enough to be the main antagonist. Otherwise, they are just sword fodder. If they are predatory, they at least need some cunning. Dragons are an example of creatures intelligent enough to be evil.
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To be successful characters, evil wizards need a magical solid system. This is more part of worldbuilding, but the magic should have a source and abide by the rules you created for the world. Besides naturally occurring limits, evil magicians should have a weakness that aligns with the character’s backstory and personality.

​Urban fantasy veers into the paranormal realm with stories set in modern times that often feature ghosts, witches, vampires, and werewolves. Urban fantasy tends to feature antiheroes from one of these categories of supernatural creatures. Brooding vampires with hearts of gold and evil witches turned good are often the focal point of these stories, but an antihero isn’t an antagonist. These rogues need a truly nefarious villain to go up against to prove their secret virtues. 

​Evil magical practitioners often have access to spells and systems not available to “good” characters. It may be because the power is tied to evil in some way. The Dementors in Harry Potter, for example, feed on negative memories. But more often, it’s because a good character wouldn’t use evil magic because its methods or consequences are corrupt. You’d be hard-pressed to find a positively aligned necromancer or a lawful-good paladin who regularly engages in mind control. 

Grendel from Beowulf is one of the oldest fantasy villains. He’s a violent, gigantic creature who terrorized an ancient tavern by attacking, killing, and eating the patrons. He doesn’t have a great character arc or anything and exists to be slain by Beowulf.

The sorcerers affiliated with the Dark One in the Wheel of Time series are all magically evil. Power from the Dark One causes madness and can tap into forbidden magic subtypes, such as necromancy.
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Terry Pratchett’s novel Sourcery features two evil wizards and highlights some tropes we see in sword & sorcery narratives. Ipslore the Red defies wizard convention and has a wife and child, Coin. Coin becomes super-powerful (hence why wizards can’t have kids, but I digress), and Ipslore manipulates his child’s power for his own gain. The Grand Visor in the novel is an “insane” magician too unpredictable to learn at wizard school, but he fits right in at the royal court. 

The problems with supervillains who just want to take over the world are twofold. First, world domination is a boring motive. Second, world domination is brutal. Once you have the world, what will you do with it? Torture everyone? Boo, gross! There will be a coup next week. What else could you do? Create a functional society – that’s not very super-villainy, is it?

 The dull goal of takeover is often covered up by cool weapons of mass destruction and snazzy henchmen. But, for many, sparkling trappings don’t make up for the weak character. The best supervillains believe they are changing the world for good. However,  a more plausible situation is a shadowy group of dogmatics taking over the world, with the villain in the group's upper echelons. The Waterfords in Handmaid’s Tale are an excellent example of this kind of villain.
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On the other hand, a high-ranking bureaucrat is hardly a bombastic supervillain, and many writers want to include a grandiose antagonist in their stories. I suggest taking a tongue-in-cheek approach if this is your aim. The villain (and the writer) should know she’s over-the-top and own it. If you want to be on the more serious side, consider giving your supervillain an ulterior motive aside from world domination. Maybe they’re trying to take over a company, or a city, a-la the Superman supervillain Lex Luthor. 

Whether they are bombastic or shadowy, taking over the universe or taking over a park, supervillains must have a motive that makes sense. They cannot simply want power; they must want it for a reason, it could be an evil reason or a relatable one, but the lust for power must be justified.
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A basic motive makes sense, but it should be interesting as well. Perhaps your villain has a crushing fear of being powerless, which turned pathologic, and they must amass more and more money and power without the competency to manage the growing confederation of followers gathering beneath him. Or, maybe your villain’s daughter has an incurable disease, but instead of accepting fate, the villain believes that, with enough power, he can defy natural law. Whatever the reason for the villainy, it should be a good one, and it must be worth all the trouble. 

As is the case with many supervillains, Captain Hook’s trauma has corrupted him. He lost his hand to a crocodile in fight with Peter Pan, and now he has a pathological fear of the crocodile. Hook subsequently terrorizes the children of Neverland, determined to extract revenge on Peter.

Queen Jadis the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia is the “witch” in the most popular book in the series The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe remakes the magical realm in her own, cold, snowy image.
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Normally, I like to stick to literature for my examples, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t add Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars to the list of super bad bad guys. He’s one of the villains who are so vile he inspires other evildoers to repent and join the hero’s side.

Sometimes villains are justifiably selfish in trying to protect themselves and the people they love. Due to circumstances out of their control, they have to make tough choices that have bad outcomes. Many people look at the situation and realize they would do the same thing.
A sympathetic villain might sacrifice a handful of people to save their child, or they may unknowingly commit evil acts, either out of carelessness or ignorance. The antagonist in my latest book, Tripping the Multiverse, is, at first, unaware that her actions are causing rifts in multiple universes. After she finds out, she lies and conducts dangerous experiments, attempting to undo her previous mistakes. ​

The titular hunchback in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo is a genial, kind-hearted guy until his love for Ezmerlda drives him insane. The poor man has spent his life deformed and under the thumb of the much greater evil, Claude Frollo. Since Quasimodo committed most of his evil acts at the behest of Frollo, we can conclude that Frollo is the true monster here. 

Draco Malfoy from the world of Harry Potter lived his whole life immersed in a world of people committed to Lord Voldemort. He, arguably, didn’t know the difference between right and wrong because his parents raised him in the equivalent of a twisted cult. 

The Anti-Vampire coalition in Charlaine Harris’s series The Southern Vampire Mysteries (adapted into True Blood) has a point. Throughout her novels, many characters and a few groups form against vampires, citing that vampires are inherently dangerous to humans and their nature can’t be mitigated through medication. Spoilers - the anti-vampires were right. ​

Subcategories of evil genius include the mad scientist, the hacker, and the magic adept. Sometimes they are the ones who make the murderous technology used by criminal organizations, or they could be the designers of doomsday devices. On the other hand, their area of expertise might be politics or manipulation, leaving them the leaders of cults or malevolent armies. Evil geniuses are a fun addition to a story, and they make worthy foes, but they can be tricky to write.
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High-intelligence characters take a lot of research to write. Chances are, you’re not an expert hacker or an accomplished bioterrorist. But, you’ll have to think like one and have their knowledge to write the evil genius. I suggest reading at least a few books in the antagonist’s area of expertise, particularly ones by experts in their field. Not only will this give you a good knowledge base, but you will also get to know how someone in that field thinks and moves through the world.

 Nothing is more annoying than an easily foiled supposed genius. A genius should be more intelligent than all the other characters. Your protagonist can’t outsmart them; they’re going to have to find a weakness. Like every other aspect of the character, your antagonist’s weakness should make sense to their character. You should know or write it into your backstory notes, even if it doesn’t make it into the story.
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Maybe your evil genius is physically weak from a childhood illness, which leads him to focus on science above all else. Perhaps your studious wizard is socially inept after living as an outcast, so he can’t read people to tell when they’re lying. Both the genius’s strengths and failings should match the character. 

Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones built an empire on his political and financial savvy. He was also a solid military strategist. His weakness was his cruelty, particularly to his family members, whom he kept physically close.

Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series was of the master mage family of evil geniuses. He had the same weakness that any litch has, the vulnerability of his phylactery.
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The Sherlock Holmes nemesis Professor Moriarty is the brilliant boss of a criminal empire. His only real weakness is the existence of Holmes, who is the sole match for his intelligence. Moriarty and Holmes offer a notable exception to the rule that the protagonist should not outsmart the evil genius. 

Memorable Villains
Forgettable Villains
Sympathetic Villains
Evil Genius
​​Supervillains

Poorly written villains aren’t necessarily over-the-top evil or too traditional. You can have a mustache-twirling scoundrel who ties a lady to the train tracks and still offer personality and memorable dialogue. No, the worst villains are vicious for no reason, have evil as their only personality trait, and often commit crimes for dim reasons, such as “taking over the world.”

One such antagonist I’m going to highlight isn’t a literary villain but a cinematic one. The 2016 iteration of Ghostbusters could have been a fun addition to a nostalgic series. But, the film’s most prominent issue was a forgettable villain who fell flat. This villain was so poorly written and forgettable he sunk a reboot of one of my favorite movie franchises.
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A few people once mocked the Ghostbuster’s antagonist, Rowan North (remember him? of course not), for being an intelligent nerd inventor, so he decided to use his mastery of supernatural technology to create portals that allowed ghosts to take over New York City. To what end, you may ask? To “cleanse” the world of humans and leave just ghosts and Rowan, who will also be a ghost by then. Yawn. 

The ultimate destruction of the world for either no reason (see the Marvel Cinematic Universe) or for weak reasons (like being mocked) is a terrible basis for villainy. The Korean film Old Boy was the only time the whole “revenge of the bullied” worked, and it can’t be replicated.
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So, how to avoid the common pitfall of the afterthought bad guy? Remember that they are characters too. A good writer would not give their protagonist a flimsy motive and a one-dimensional personality. The villain needs the same treatment and development as the hero.

His villainy inspired countless movies, series, plays, and even a restaurant franchise. I mentioned Long John Silver, Treasure Island’s pirate menace, before in my Greatest Villains blog post, but today I’m going to deep dive into what makes this peg-legged ship’s cook the best villain in history.

Long John Silver is your friend. He will cook you a passable meal and then spend the evening patiently teaching you stellar cartography. He’s funny and likable. In fact, he’s so pleasant that Jim Hawkins completely discounts him as a danger even though Billy Bones used his dying breath to tell Jim, “beware the one-legged man.”

Yes, Long John loves children and animals, but when a treasure is involved, anyone, and everyone, will find themselves on the business end of his pistol. He would sell out his grandma for a prize That’s what makes him such a tremendous villain. We want to like him because he’s mostly nice and usually fun, but we can’t because he turns vile as soon as treasure is involved. That 1% makes him evil.

Sometimes, well-written villains are relatable, meaning we can understand why they make their choices, or we may even make the same choice we were in their circumstances. The X-Men antagonist, Magneto, and his crew come to mind. They are fighting discrimination and injustice.  However, Long John isn’t a sympathetic character. Almost no one would make the same decisions as him if we were in his shoes (or shoe, as it is). He’s just a bad guy with a likable personality.
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Should all villains be the same “flavor” as Long John? No, because that would be boring and predictable. But, Long John’s enduring place in our culture highlights the importance of writing antagonists with multifaceted personalities. Later in this series, I’ll discuss some of the more popular villain templates.