Bad to the Bone: Writing Villains and Nefarious Characters

Ahab, Nurse Ratched, Kurtz, Professor Moriarty, Cruella DeVil, Voldemort, Satan...No matter the genre, a great villain is a key ingredient to a badass story. But what if you don’t know who your villain is, or if it’s even a person at all? This class will outline types of villains and tips for creating the best (yet worst) ones. We’ll explore adversarial “worth,” antagonist agency and power, alternative value systems and character motivations, and villainous codes, quests, and wounds. Prepare to get bad so your story can get good. Open to all prose writers.