Villains - Part 1

by Elva Cobb Martin

As an author I have to admit I often spend more time thinking about and creating my hero than I do my villain. But the best stories and movies I've enjoyed have had well-crafted villains.

What powerful villains come to your mind? One villain I loved to hate is in the Netflix series, Kurt Seyit and Sura. This romantic historical drama is set beginning in 1916, and takes place in Russia, Crimea and British-occupied Istanbul. The hero and heroine's love story is to die for.

The villain, Petro, is the best friend of the hero, and he wants the heroine, Sura, for himself. What makes him so hate worthy is his lying deception as a best friend and his total disloyalty and cruelty whenever it suits his purpose of trying to break up Seyit and Sura. Neither of them realize what he is doing until it's almost too late.

Petro is a good-looking, kind of harmless-looking guy and a gentleman, but he's also a devious liar and murderer. This author put as much time in creating this villain as she did her hero and heroine and this is a big part of what makes this series spellbinding. It's actually based on a true story.

Here are this villain's characteristics so far:



Good-Looking, harmless-looking guy, gentleman
Motivated by love or lust for best friend's sweetheart
Disloyal
Liar
Murderer
Deceptive/devious

Thanks for stopping by. What villains have you loved to hate and why? As authors we have to work on creating three-dimensional villains. We are way past how the old westerns handled it. The good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black. LOL

In Part 2 we will talk about some questions you can ask yourself when creating a great villain readers won't soon forget.

Blessings,
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is vice-president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels published with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com,on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

 Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon:http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI