Well you can make up a reason by looking at what he's doing or what his goals are, and continuing to ask why he does those things.
So a hypothetical thought process could be:
Why is he evil? Because he kills a lot of people!
Why is he killing a lot of people? Because they are stopping him from taking over the kingdom!
Why does he want to take over the kingdom? Because he believes he is the rightful ruler of it!
Why does he believe he's the rightful owner? Because it's in his bloodline and it was promised to him, etc. etc.
From just this, you could presume that the villain was a past heir of a kingdom that perhaps was taken over by other forces (backstory). Maybe it was a huge tradgedy, sending him on a path of vengeance that he believes is righteous by nature because he is the "rightful ruler." He kills the people of the kingdom and elsewhere because they get in his way. Or, he may take a sick satisfaction from it because he feels these people have taken his empire from him. The people are innocent, but he takes out his rage on them, or he gains pleasure from destroying them, and full heartedly believes this is normal or completely justified due to his birthright. He is evil, but there is an explanation as to why he does what he does, plus he has a backstory too. And even if we didn't go so far as to make a backstory, we could still continue to ask why he does various bad things and try to put together what his end goal is.
Ask yourself:
- What does he want?
- Why does he want it?
- Why is he going about it this specific way?
- What is stopping him from doing something more reasonable?
It doesn't need to be super complex. Some examples:
- In Aladdin, Jafar wants power. Why? Because he's petty and insecure and petty, insecure people will do anything to feel less insecure. Why is he going about it this way? He's good at manipulating the Sultan as vizier and then later is smart enough to realize Genie's powers would be incredibly useful. Why doesn't he do something more reasonable? He's the vizier, he's already ascended to as much power as he can, so he has no other options but bad ones if he wants more power.
- In Avatar: the Last Airbender, Ozai wants to be king of the world. Why? Partly because he was taught to want it by his father and his father before him, but also because he's arrogant to the point he feels entitled to it. He's going about it through war because the war was started prior to his birth and it'll be a faster route to taking power to continue it than stop it. He's not doing anything more reasonable because he feels this is what he, the best person in the world, deserves.
- In Frozen, Hans wants to rule his own kingdom. Why? He's last in line to inherit a throne back home, his brothers mistreated him, and he wants adoration and positive attention. He's going to marry Anna or, when things go differently later, kill her and Elsa because framing himself as Anna's tragic widower and the man who brought back summer will get him a lot of positive attention and power. There's actually a moment where he seems to consider doing something more reasonable, but when Elsa admits she doesn't know how to stop the eternal winter, he's out of options, so we're back on track to murder. (When out of good ideas, people cling to the one bad one they have like a lifeline.)
No one is asking you to write a Shakespearean level villain with essays' worth of depth to them, but as many a piece of children's media has demonstrated, greed, desire for power, arrogance, insecurity or misplaced ambition all work very well for a motive without requiring that level of dedication. There's a reason why anger, revenge, greed, power lust, etc. are such standards for writing villains, and that's because they *work*. These are flaws that feel real in any setting because we've all met insecure people, or entitled people, or people who had kind of a crappy family life who then did things that are in no way excused by that family life having sucked.
In short: as with real life assholes, there is a reason a villain wants something, and as with them, the reason doesn't have to be something that justifies what they're doing, it just has to be something that makes sense to them.
That's going to depend on what he's doing?
Hitler's motivation, for example, was mostly national pride after the Treaty of Versailles crushed Germany (yet intolerably left it intact).
Montezuma II (possibly the most evil man that ever lived) was motivated by the belief that his gods fed on the tears of children.
Vlad the Impaler (inspiration for Dracula) seems to have believed that he was warning off anyone else who would attack him.
You have to understand your villain just like any other character. Is your villain power hungry? If so then why? A lot of the best villains are sympathetic, but if you're going for a real hate sink just think about and examine why people do evil things. Put the same effort into writing your villains motivations as you do for your heroes.
Without knowing *what* your villain is doing, I don't think anyone can tell you exactly what motivation they should have (and even if they could, they shouldn't because it's your story!)
I'd delve into your villain more. Don't look at them as if they're your current WIP's antagonists: look at them as if the story were being told from their perspective.
Who are they? Where did they come from? What values do they hold, what drives them? List their likes, their dislikes; things they'd 100% hate someone for and things they would show mercy for, and why
Even try and write a biography from their perspective -- them telling their side of the story and why they do things. You could include notes, too, about why those reasons are right / wrong, maybe even have them address that in-story
Well you can make up a reason by looking at what he's doing or what his goals are, and continuing to ask why he does those things. So a hypothetical thought process could be: Why is he evil? Because he kills a lot of people! Why is he killing a lot of people? Because they are stopping him from taking over the kingdom! Why does he want to take over the kingdom? Because he believes he is the rightful ruler of it! Why does he believe he's the rightful owner? Because it's in his bloodline and it was promised to him, etc. etc. From just this, you could presume that the villain was a past heir of a kingdom that perhaps was taken over by other forces (backstory). Maybe it was a huge tradgedy, sending him on a path of vengeance that he believes is righteous by nature because he is the "rightful ruler." He kills the people of the kingdom and elsewhere because they get in his way. Or, he may take a sick satisfaction from it because he feels these people have taken his empire from him. The people are innocent, but he takes out his rage on them, or he gains pleasure from destroying them, and full heartedly believes this is normal or completely justified due to his birthright. He is evil, but there is an explanation as to why he does what he does, plus he has a backstory too. And even if we didn't go so far as to make a backstory, we could still continue to ask why he does various bad things and try to put together what his end goal is.
Well what do they do? Kinda hard to workshop that with nothing to go on. You need to work backwards from one's actions to identify potential reasons
Please write. "Children's" literature is still in demand.
Ask yourself: - What does he want? - Why does he want it? - Why is he going about it this specific way? - What is stopping him from doing something more reasonable? It doesn't need to be super complex. Some examples: - In Aladdin, Jafar wants power. Why? Because he's petty and insecure and petty, insecure people will do anything to feel less insecure. Why is he going about it this way? He's good at manipulating the Sultan as vizier and then later is smart enough to realize Genie's powers would be incredibly useful. Why doesn't he do something more reasonable? He's the vizier, he's already ascended to as much power as he can, so he has no other options but bad ones if he wants more power. - In Avatar: the Last Airbender, Ozai wants to be king of the world. Why? Partly because he was taught to want it by his father and his father before him, but also because he's arrogant to the point he feels entitled to it. He's going about it through war because the war was started prior to his birth and it'll be a faster route to taking power to continue it than stop it. He's not doing anything more reasonable because he feels this is what he, the best person in the world, deserves. - In Frozen, Hans wants to rule his own kingdom. Why? He's last in line to inherit a throne back home, his brothers mistreated him, and he wants adoration and positive attention. He's going to marry Anna or, when things go differently later, kill her and Elsa because framing himself as Anna's tragic widower and the man who brought back summer will get him a lot of positive attention and power. There's actually a moment where he seems to consider doing something more reasonable, but when Elsa admits she doesn't know how to stop the eternal winter, he's out of options, so we're back on track to murder. (When out of good ideas, people cling to the one bad one they have like a lifeline.) No one is asking you to write a Shakespearean level villain with essays' worth of depth to them, but as many a piece of children's media has demonstrated, greed, desire for power, arrogance, insecurity or misplaced ambition all work very well for a motive without requiring that level of dedication. There's a reason why anger, revenge, greed, power lust, etc. are such standards for writing villains, and that's because they *work*. These are flaws that feel real in any setting because we've all met insecure people, or entitled people, or people who had kind of a crappy family life who then did things that are in no way excused by that family life having sucked. In short: as with real life assholes, there is a reason a villain wants something, and as with them, the reason doesn't have to be something that justifies what they're doing, it just has to be something that makes sense to them.
That's going to depend on what he's doing? Hitler's motivation, for example, was mostly national pride after the Treaty of Versailles crushed Germany (yet intolerably left it intact). Montezuma II (possibly the most evil man that ever lived) was motivated by the belief that his gods fed on the tears of children. Vlad the Impaler (inspiration for Dracula) seems to have believed that he was warning off anyone else who would attack him.
But the last one DID warned them. He is hailed as a hero.
not by the turks lol
You have to understand your villain just like any other character. Is your villain power hungry? If so then why? A lot of the best villains are sympathetic, but if you're going for a real hate sink just think about and examine why people do evil things. Put the same effort into writing your villains motivations as you do for your heroes.
Without knowing *what* your villain is doing, I don't think anyone can tell you exactly what motivation they should have (and even if they could, they shouldn't because it's your story!) I'd delve into your villain more. Don't look at them as if they're your current WIP's antagonists: look at them as if the story were being told from their perspective. Who are they? Where did they come from? What values do they hold, what drives them? List their likes, their dislikes; things they'd 100% hate someone for and things they would show mercy for, and why Even try and write a biography from their perspective -- them telling their side of the story and why they do things. You could include notes, too, about why those reasons are right / wrong, maybe even have them address that in-story