What's the difference between a hero, and a villain?
Easy, right?
The hero is the good guy, the villain is the bad guy.
No.
Not easy at all.
We often write our heroes as guys with many faults, bad habits, a temper.
Thing is, we write our villains exactly the same way. They have flaws, lots of them, but most are inherently redeemable.
Our villains often kill — but so do our heroes. What makes one more acceptable than the other? Nothing. Or rather, perception. If we perceive the hero as having no other choice, then we deem his actions acceptable. We're less forgiving where the villain is concerned, but often only because we don't know his reasons for doing what he does.
I have read books where at the end, I wondered what went through the author's mind when she wrote her "hero". Because, believe it or not – the real hero of the story wasn't the man the author built up as the hero.
The real hero was… the villain.
He was the one who had the most to lose, he was the one thwarted at every turn, he was the one who suffered the most and had the most to gain.
He lost, in the end, bested by the guy he battled the entire length of the book, had to watch that man ride into the sunset with the girl — and I sat there feeling for him. My heart broke for him, because he was more real than the goody goody "hero" who was really the villain of the entire piece.
You need to know where to draw the line. And like genius and madness, this line is so fine, it's difficult not to overstep it.
No person is inherently evil. Everyone has reasons for doing what they do. Even the villain. You need to know your hero, but you also need to know what drives your villain. There has to be a reason, a plausible reason, for his behavior and actions. Just like you need those very same reasons for the hero.
So how do you get your readers to know the difference?
Well, that's the hard part. You need to make sure the line isn't blurred, define their values so the reader can recognize them. Our heroes often start out as villains. A lot of them are bad guys, whose journey takes them from villainy to heroism.
On the other side of the scale, instead of redeeming himself, the villain remains a villain to the bitter end.
That's really the only difference.
Redemption.
Think about it, next time you draft your story.
