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Wessel Ebersohn’s tenth rule of thriller writing

Just as there are many different kinds of heroes, so there are different kinds of villains. These days, really horrible villains are in vogue. They are the kind who dismember victims, sometimes eating them, often mutilating them. The advantage of this kind of villain, one with no redeeming features, is that he – and he’s almost always a he – is hated by the reader. So your reader is rooting hard for the hero from the time the villain puts in his first appearance.

With this sort of villain you do not want to create any sympathy for him. He is thoroughly bad, so let the hero nail him – well and truly. There is none of this wet, rehabilitation stuff when dealing with him. Kill him in a shoot out, throw him off a train, let him fall into a vat of boiling oil, the same one he just tried to throw the hero into. It will serve him right, your readers will feel.

Next time, we’ll say something about writing for more intelligent readers. You get them, too.

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