Lin Anderson

Yeah, how do I create a baddy and how do they emerge in my imagination? I don’t normally pre-plan the villain. I come to a realisation of who the villain is via the evidence of the crime that’s been committed. As this is examined, a picture builds up of the character who may have committed the crime. On occasion, I’ve had the perpetrator’s point of view running through a book, as in Sins of the Dead and Follow the Dead. This was very interesting to do as they evolved as I wrote, just as your protagonist does. Character is shown by what we do in the circumstances that we are presented with. None of us know what we are capable of until we are put in difficult and sometimes terrifying situations. My favourite quote here about that was from a former principal at Napier University, came to speak to the school I was teaching at. And she said, ‘a woman is like a tea bag. You don’t know her strength until you put her in hot water’. So in terms of Rhona MacLeod, my protagonist, I always try and remember that, and then I learn something new about her. I think the same is for your villains.

How do I approach writing characters who behave in morally questionable ways? I really like this question. Well, all drama is character driven. All characters have their own imagined or understood world, their internal logic for what they say and do, however mad or bad it may seem to you. So what is a baddy, or in what circumstances is what they do bad? Characters we align with often have an internal moral code, which readers agree with even although it doesn’t match the rules of the day. The character DS McNab, who was demoted from DI, is probably one such character I’ve written. Exasperated at times by the strictures and the structures he’s forced to work by, he often just goes off grid. He puts what he sees as justice above following rules. Sometimes it’s society that is morally questionable, not the character. In Mcllvanney’s Laidlaw, the question is asked, who is the true monster among us? Might it be the society or its attitudes and moral stance that is the monster?

Do I worry about the likeability of my villains, and how do I approach their likeability? Well, I would say lovable rogues are wonderful characters to write and read about because they encompass our own diverse shapes. They both exasperate and excite us. As readers, we experience the positive and negative in our own character we learn about ourselves. An interesting and well formed villain is necessary for conflict with our main character. If they’re overcome too easily, there is no drama. They shoot at a clear chance of winning. Otherwise, we can never take our protagonist into their most difficult place and see them overcome their obstacles, both physical and mental.

To what extent do I think readers form a relationship with my characters? This is interesting. It is undoubtedly at the heart of a series. Readers come back for more because they want to be back with the characters. They want to experience them at work and at play. They become real. That’s very important if you have a long running series that has a major villain as a character, which some series do. I’m thinking about possibly in Rebus. These get a major character that goes throughout, and they become part of that world and play important roles in it. And so they are very important, both your protagonist and your villain. We empathise with our difficulties and successes. People get annoyed, readers get annoyed or angry with them when they make what they think are wrong decisions in their relationships and in their world of work. They also enjoy the humour and the camaraderie. They become, and I quote, ‘for many readers, old friends’.

Do I consider how my characters might impact the reader and whether they offer the opportunity for self-expansion? What about if they are villains? Well, readers often declare an interest in entering their world. For example, young women come and tell me they’re studying Forensic Science or have actually qualified in that area because of reading the books. They were introduced into that world and decided they liked it. However, no one has returned to tell me they decided one of my baddies was their role model. That doesn’t mean it hasn't happened.

Have I faced a situation where readers get offended or outraged by my characters, and does this ever affect the way I subsequently write? Sometimes people do get offended, even outraged, usually around the themes of having too much sex, or sex with someone they think is the wrong person, or swearing too much, or drinking too much. None of this changes the way I write.

What techniques do I use to transport readers into the world I create? I drop them into a scene vividly described as though they were there too. I enter a scene late, so it’s already begun, and leave early, so they want to know what happened after they left. The experience should make them feel they are with the characters and their emotions.