What Happens When Your Villain is Smarter than You?

by Janis Patterson

I’m having a problem. I’m 60,000 words into A KILLING AT EL KAB (and loving it!), just at the point where my sleuth should start to pin down who the villain is. Only thing is, my villain has so far proved himself much smarter than I. There are clues (breadcrumbs, if you will) pointing to him, but there are more pointing to just about everyone else. At this particular point, I could probably make any one of half a dozen people the killer with equal ease.

I know who the killer is. I know why, and where, and how he killed. He is a very smart man – so smart that he hasn’t made a mistake yet. I know I have to find some flaw in his behavior, some crack where his villainy becomes obvious, but as of yet I haven’t. He has covered his tracks brilliantly, made no mistakes, and my semi-psychic but denying it sleuth is totally clueless as to how to handle a crime.

Okay, during a totally unrelated meeting this morning a thought of how to expose him hit me (good thing) but it means there is a lot of tweaking to be done in the stuff I've already written. I'll do it, though, if only to ensure my triumph over him. He's an arrogant, condescending so and so, and besting him will make me feel very good.

So I can hear y'all asking, why did I create him like that? Believe me, I didn't!

Every so often one local writing group or another will offer a workshop on creating characters, and for many years I attended every one. Some were pretty basic – physical description, work/hobby/whatever, dark secret in their past (and they all had to have a dark secret in their past) etc. Others were detailed to a ridiculous degree – all the above plus things like their favorite flavor of Jello, favorite movie star, who were they closest to in their family, their favorite teacher in elementary school, who would they be if they were a figure in history, what would they be if they were a food... Things I'm not even sure of even in myself! I remember one character interview that went on for seven single-spaced pages

All these workshops did was instill in me a great sense of envy for those who could follow whatever recipe was being taught. Oh, I followed every step with alacrity, made everything just as it should be... and bored myself to tears. After making up so much stuff about a character I found they had all the life and reality of a cheap paper doll. I feel the same way about detailed outlines. Ho-hum. No surprises for the writer, no surprises for the reader.

In case you haven't twigged to it yet, I'm a pantser. When I start a book I have a shadowy idea of the storyline and a couple of stick-figure characters that are more archetypal placeholders than anything else. The rest is done on the fly, and it often surprises even me. My characters walk in almost fully fledged (though they do change and expand and sometimes surprise the heck out of me as I write) and tell me what I'm to do, and if I dare to change what they have decided, they often get huffy and refuse to talk to me sometimes for days.

I tried to explain this to The Husband (a science rather than a word person) without much success. He listened politely, then asked a question or two, then shook his head, murmuring that writing sounded more like possession than it did creation.

He might be right. But I did figure out how to defeat my villain... and please don't tell anyone. Word does get around, and I do want to surprise him!

Nothing Better to Do

My dog, Rascal, gets easily bored. She also craves attention. On nice weather days she's content to sun herself in our backyard.  However, on the not so nice days, especially the rainy ones, she's got nothing better to do than to get into devilment.

I watch her casing the house, searching for targets. Her favorite is paper. At times, I'll purposely leave unneeded papers on the floor under my desk to prevent her from finding  more important ones and destroying them. Okay, I'm not the neatest person in the world, but I do try. Still, she's adept at foraging into odd spots and finding bounty.

Today, she discovered a gauze bandage complete with wrapper, which had apparently fallen under the dining room table, or perhaps onto one of the chairs. I didn't notice it beforehand, but her x-rays vision did!

Don't feel sorry for her. She's got plenty of toys to play with, but they sit neglected. To her, something new is always better. Not only is it fun to chew, but it also gains my attention.


This time I was able to offer her one of her marrow bones, plus a few stuffed animals in exchange for the papers, and she actually played with them  for a few minutes. Right now, she's decided to sleep and give me some peace. I'm not sure how long that will last.



What does Rascal have to do with mysteries? Well, to paint a well-rounded villain, the author should in some way hint at or present a reason why that person chose the wrong path. A few that fit with Rascal's scenario might also apply to your villain. Perhaps that person, with nothing compelling enough to hold interest, such as a hobby, a job, or a cause, sought to relieve boredom by going down the wrong path. Or, perhaps, that person as a child was ignored by parents or guardians. Or, later, for some reason that person went unnoticed by peers. Performing an illegal act, even going so far as to murder one or more people, may seem the perfect solution for gaining attention. The media only feeds the frenzy, by highlighting abnormal behavior, almost to the point of rewarding the perpetrator.

Of course, there are tons of other motives for villains to commit crimes. Maybe you'd like to name one and offer a book or real life example.

Morgan Mandel writes when she gets bored and at other
times. Find excerpts from her mysteries and romances
at http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Website: http://www.morganmandel.com

Twitter: @MorganMandel