What The Movie Harriet Can Teach Writers - Writing Believable Villains

I did a movie review of Harriet from a Christian perspective, now, onto the writing lesson. (There will be movie spoilers from here on out.)

What I think writers can learn from the movie Harriet is that villians should be as bad as you can make them—but they still need to be believable. So, you might argue that the villain in this movie was actually slavery in general but the face of slavery in Harriet was her (fictional) massa Gideon. Gideon was awful, as you’d expect any good villain to be, but I remember thinking that so many authors had written villains just as nasty that were completely unbelievable. So how did Gideon get away with saying so many horrible things to Harriet? How could anyone be that mean, that racist? I think the answer is in Gideon’s backstory.

We know that Gideon grew up in a racist household with a father who never allowed him to feel accepted or loved. His father died disappointed in him and in a way I think he blamed Harriet for his father’s death. She was the reason Gideon would never have the chance to gain his father’s respect. She made his mind stray at times from the way he was taught and therefore Gideon felt justified in the way he treated her. As awful as villains can be, it’s important for writers to step inside their minds and look for the ways they justify their behavior. This is the key to creating believable villain characters.

What I see all too often are stories where the Amish bishop is the meanest, most spiteful man, full of hate, and caring for no one. This goes completely against what we know about the Amish people. They were raised with morals and most believe that if they murder someone they’ll go straight to a fiery Hell. This is not someone who is going to murder a young girl just so she won’t be able to marry his son. There’s only one documented case of a real Amish person committing murder that I’m aware of, if that tells you anything.

Amish Bishops are usually chosen randomly from a handful of elected candidates chosen by the church members and I doubt they’d choose someone that was that awful anyway. So, if you want to create a bishop who’s a snake you’re going to have to give them very compelling reasons why they are the way they are and do what they do—or pick another villain.

This is true in non-Amish characters as well. If you find yourself writing a particularly nasty villain ask yourself what made them so nasty. Answer that question for your readers and you’ll give your character an extra layer of believability.