The question has come up many times: how others fall in love with the fictional villain or how someone could write something so dark.
The Things We Carry
For some, the obsession with fictional villains could be as simple as a dangerous character being more interesting than a character who never does any wrong. But for others, this could be different. What if you create a character that could be connected to your past? The things we read or write in fiction are the very things we would never want to experience in real life or wish we never had.
Mostly in dark romance novels, the villain character or characters are obsessive and possessive. They believe another person belongs to them or refuse to let go.
In reality, those behaviours can be frightening, dangerous, and deeply damaging. Fiction allows us to read about difficult emotions and frightening situations without actually living through them. Or you might have lived through something similar, and reading or creating characters could help with healing rather than sitting in a therapist’s chair. But one great thing about fiction is that it’s make-believe, creating a distance between the reader and the story. For the reader, if you don’t like what you are reading, you close the book. You might come back later, but you are in control. The same thing goes for the writer; they can create the character, shape the story, and in the end decide what happens to them. So in other words, when it comes to writing, you can choose the outcome. But in real life, you cannot. So writing can be a form of therapy. I know it has been for me. Everything you are scared to say out loud, you can create a character and have them say it for you.
Turning Experience into Fiction
My character Chevy, who is the main villain in the Sinister Love series, was not created from one experience or even one man. But parts of him were inspired by men and situations from my distant past. I took aspects of things I had experienced or witnessed and transformed them into something fictional. I added new traits and more darkness, until the character became a part of a story. Writing this character made me feel in control.
The Monster on the Page
There can be something strangely powerful about taking pieces of experiences that once made you feel powerless and placing them into a fictional world where you are the one holding the pen. It’s like that famous saying: “I hold the cards now.” The character may be obsessive. He may believe he has a claim over someone else. He may cross boundaries that should never be crossed in real life. But he is fictional. He is my character, so I get the final say. That is the great thing about fiction: the story can explore fear, obsession, danger, and emotional complexity from a safe distance.
I think that may be one reason some people are drawn to darker stories. Not because they want these things to happen.
Sometimes we read to escape reality. Or write our way through parts of it.
