I need advice on a book I'm writing.

[theartofwar901]

Do y'all have any advice for someone if they are writing a book where the villian is the protagonist of the story???? How should it end. Should he lose in the end. Should I make him somewhat likeable to the audience or make the audience hate him and root for him to lose. I'd love to get input from seasoned authors on how I should go about this.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

I'm not a seasoned author, but i think you should figure out the overall message you are trying to send and base your approach on that.

Edit: whatever you do, give it a strong flavor.

 

[ArrogantYoungMaster]

That is up to you. There is not only one way to end a story well. However, try not to make your main character the most hated being in existence. It will not make your story enjoyable to read.

 

[theartofwar901]

That is up to you. There is not only one way to end a story well. However, try not to make your main character the most hated being in existence. It will not make your story enjoyable to read.

Thanks.

I'm not a seasoned author, but i think you should figure out the overall message you are trying to send and base your approach on that.

Edit: whatever you do, give it a strong flavor.

Ill try.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

how I should go about this.

Carefully

 

[LAJistics]

If I were to write a villain pov story, I'd try to write his reasoning for choosing such a path. I feel that if you can get your readers to empathize with the villain, no matter how atrocious their acts were, then you probably did well.

 

[Temple]

I can think of three ways to go about this.
The first and more popular is to make the villain still a "good guy". For example, he may be the demon lord, but the humans he kills are assholes anyway. The monsters are actually the oppressed ones. He may save a slave or two (or many) along the way. Essentially, he's just a reskinned hero. The reason this is popular is that web novels are primarily written for reader self-insert, and most people do want to be the "good guys" with a different flavor sometimes.
The second way is to make the hero an actual villain, like he kills innocent people and all that, but he has a reason for it. (Doesn't have to be a good reason). Usually, these are the revenge type of stories. Also very popular, probably second to the above. Revenge plots are very cathartic for reader self-insert. Plus, even if the MC does bad guy things, they can wave it away with justifications.
The third way is to write an actual villain with no reason--this one isn't for reader self-insert. This way can actually get you some hate, maybe not here on SH since most people are nice here, but in RR definitely will invite some pushback.

While I did mention three "ways" this is more of a spectrum. When doing something for webnovels, the gauge is gearing for most reader self-insert to none. Do note that the further away from being a "general" self-insert story you are, the harder game you're playing.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Do y'all have any advice for someone if they are writing a book where the villian is the protagonist of the story???? How should it end. Should he lose in the end. Should I make him somewhat likeable to the audience or make the audience hate him and root for him to lose. I'd love to get input from seasoned authors on how I should go about this.

If I wrote a true villain, it is important for me to ensure that they truly are a villain. They need to have a hard core motivation, be it entertainment, ideology, avarice, etc. Their actions and aims need to reflect that.
My biggest advice is to commit. Still make sure to explain the cruelty from their perspective, and ensure that it is all logical to them (and that the reader understands, even if they disagree with, their logic). But more importantly, you must commit. If they are going to murder, then do it. If they are going to torture, then do it. If they are going to do any number of immoral things, then do them. Show all of the tragedy of that moment, the horror of it. Don't skim or weaken the moment. Nor should you make some weak-sounding justification that sounds like it comes from your own mouth and tries to put your MC in the right.
Make the karma of the villain a balance. Make them fleshed out enough that your readers feel they should go, but also enough that they enjoy reading the story. Don't go comically evil or secretly good.

 

[sanitylimited]

what seperates a good hero from a good vilain is the price they are willing to pay to achieve their goals.

ie a good guy protagonist will have his father conviently have his father die before his birth, thus allow him to fill in the void of her lonly heart whereas a vilain protagonist will take pleasure in forcing him to watch the entire greenhat process...and he'll secretly like it

 

[theartofwar901]

If I were to write a villain pov story, I'd try to write his reasoning for choosing such a path. I feel that if you can get your readers to empathize with the villain, no matter how atrocious their acts were, then you probably did well.

Thats exactly how I went about it in the first chapter. Thanks.