Bad to the Bone

None of us likes being around mean people. One of my kids is saddled with a bully for a teacher--it's only every other day, only for one period (well, actually a double-block period). But it wrecks my kid's day. Which sucks. I wish I could tell him people like that are a rarity, but I know they're not. He's an Everday Villain. In my little world, I have the Mean Mom in the neighborhood. I actually have come to the conclusion--call it a hunch--that she is Mean Morning Drunk Mom. Which is sad. But she's not the first Mean Mom I have met--not by a long shot. Nor will she be the last. And Mean Morning Drunk is a "type." So is "bully." As writers, we are probably better than some at analyzing traits. Pull together a series of traits, and voila . . . you have a character. So when I see Mean Morning Drunk Mom and she has her coffee cup, I secretly, as writer, wonder what's in it? Is it vodka? Is it a shot of Bailey's in her coffee? Baileys AND vodka? Then I wonder . . . does she go back to the house and sit and watch soap operas all day in a sleazy negligee? (Yup, writer's imagination!) Actually, I know she is in sales, so THEN I wonder what she is like to her customers. Maybe she stores a fifth of vodka in her top desk drawer and slurs while making calls. And suddenly, I have a character. I can't help but think all sorts of things about Bully Teacher, NONE of which is appropriate for a PG-13 blog. But . . . that's the writer in me. I invent stories about bad guys and Everyday Villains . . . and invent stories about the good guys, too. But . . . all of this got me thinking this a.m. about bad guys and types. The Bully. The Nasty Drunk. Snippets of "bad" that get to go into books. But there are as many different bad guys as there are people, and we color them with nuances and their own particualr brand of crazy. However, I started trying to compile a little list.

TREACHEROUS TYPE. In the dictionary, this one is characterized by faithlessness or readiness to betray trust; traitorous, or deceptive, untrustworthy, or unreliable. Now, in romantic comedies, I would say you use this type one a lot if you have a nemesis for your heroine. The treacherous friend who betrays the main character and sleeps with her boyfriend. In darker work, it's the person on the team who's ready to double-cross. They have their reasons, sometimes for money, sometimes for jealousy, maybe for fame or for ego. This type of bad guy is less overt, usually.

EVIL. Actually, in the dictionary, this one is wicked or immoral. WICKED . . . makes me think of Dorothy's nemesis. It can also mean arising from the NATURE of evil, specifically, "the force in nature that gives rise to wickedness or sin." That's the devil, folks. Or the belief in a force of good versus a force of evil. To me, this category includes the Hitlers of the world. It strikes me as more of a force. In BLOOD SON, the leader of the vampires had actually survived the genocide in Hungary, witnessed mass slaughter, and it colored his world. The force of evil gave rise to genocide then created this monster who then became a force unto himself.

SOCIOPATH. Here we go with Hannibal Lector. "Someone whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience." These are the bad guys who can do extreme wrong and feel no guilt. They are NOT conflicted. So if you have a conflicted bad guy, he's not a sociopath.

NARCISSIST. Oh, I know one of these. Unfortunately. "A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem." Self-preoccupied, yes, most of us know that part of the definition. BUT see that lack of self-esteem thing? That drives it. God, these people are difficult to be involved with. They make interesting characters--again, paying attention to the second part. The unconcious that throws a curveball of self-loathing.

GANGSTER. Guess what? In the dictionary, this is just a "member of a gang" or a member of organized crime. So the reason in many of my books that these guys are family men and have a gentle side as well as a dark side is gangster is more of a profession. Now, what leads a person into this line of work varies, but it does not have to be one of the categories above it.

Okay, so you get the idea. Right now, in my current work in progress, I have EVIL as my bad guy. He split the clan, and he is motivated by an almost animalistic hatred. He is a force.

However, I am doing a proposal with a narcissist in it--a mother who never was able to love her child because that would have interfered with her life's work. And am playing with a romantic comedy in which there is a treacherous enemy who wants to undermine my heroine's business by any method.

What about you? Got any other bad guy types? There are plenty. Plus there are some that pick and choose from different types. And add to that there's an entire host of psychological disorders that form the basis for bad behavior--everything from borderline personality disorder, to alcoholism, to drug addiction, to . . .

So? How do you serve up your bad guys this morning?