There’s a popular phrase that floats around social media.
“The difference between villains and heroes is that the hero will sacrifice you to save the world, but the villain will sacrifice the world to save you.”
Nothing else describes the appeal of villains quite like that quote. Because it’s true. Whether you want to admit it out loud, there’s something enticing about being loved more than the world. Having someone who would risk it all without a second thought because nothing is more important than you.
Now, real life? That may not transfer over as well. (*side eyes* let’s keep it fictional, besties.) But when we’re getting lost in make-believe worlds, allowing ourselves to imagine and feel everything without the risk of reality getting in the way, it’s… intoxicating.
And that’s why I love to write it.
We’ve all heard the classic tale: the hero gets the girl and saves the day. It’s easy, after all, to cast aside a villain’s humanity and take things at face value. To pretend there’s nothing underneath that morally gray shell; no compass to steer them right or wrong. It’s simple for the audience to root for the hero.
But where’s the fun in that?
I’d rather take a villain—someone who has no moral compass, who wants to cause chaos and destruction, who takes their trauma and their pain and unleashes it on the world—and make you cheer for their happily ever after.
As a writer, I ask myself these questions: How hard is it to twist a reader’s morals until their willing to break through that invisible boundary? What would it take?
Surprisingly, it’s not as difficult as it may seem. (Although we tend to be more forgiving of male villainy than female, but that’s an entirely different article for another day.)
Villains have incredible potential for a rich backstory, and since my books are always character driven, it’s writer’s crack to be able to delve into those onion-y layers and peel them back piece by piece, exposing every raw, broken part to the reader until they can’t help but empathize.
As Wendy says in my book Hooked: “We’re all a little twisted, and there’s no such thing as good and evil. There are only perspectives, and perceptions change depending on the angle. People aren’t static. Our morals aren’t constant. They’re variables, ever changing and molding into different versions of themselves, energy that can be shifted and re-aligned.”
I enjoy taking the reader on a journey. Not sugarcoating experiences or the villainy within the human, but rather dragging that humanity out and splattering it across the pages until you ache for them to find some happiness, despite there being no redemption arc in sight.
After all, even villains can feel. And when you expose your character’s flaws to the world, the world sees themselves in your characters.
Mix in the way an anti-hero loves? It’s the perfect cocktail for an addictive, dark and delicious romance. It’s visceral. All-consuming. Obsessive. Unapologetic.
Heroes have limitations. They have responsibilities and guilt that wraps around them like a weighted blanket, restraining their actions.
Villains will burn an entire city to the ground and kill everyone inside as long as you’re safe, and there’s something addictive about experiencing that kind of obsession.
I’ll leave you with the most popular quote from Hooked.
“You want to watch the world burn?”
“Let me guess, you’ll set it on fire?” I ask.
He chuckles, the sound vibrating through me and settling into my bones. “No, darling. I’ll hand you the match and stand at your back, watching you become queen of the ashes.”
So let go of all those pesky morals, friends, and find someone who will hand you the match.
I promise, you’ll get your happily ever after.
Hooked is available from Amazon and Bookshop.