Nothing marks a writer as a beginner as clearly as the cliché bad guy. This is the bad guy who is ugly inside and out with no redeeming qualities—this is the “boo-hiss” melodrama mustache twirling villain. And this is an easy fix in any story.

What’s that easy fix? Lots of things can help, but here are five quick fixes:

1. What does this character’s mother love about him or her?

Give ever character a mother. In the animated movie Despicable Me, it was funny that the main character (a villain) was largely motivated to please his mother. His opponent—another bad guy—was motivated to please his father. This gave both characters additional dimension and something we all can relate to since we all have parents.

Now the character’s mother may not be someone who bakes apple pie—maybe she’s a bank robber, or she murdered her husband, or she’s otherwise no dang good. But figure out what does she love—and how does she hope her son or daughter turns out better? Maybe she’s proud her daughter is a hit-man? Maybe she thinks her son is just misunderstood? Maybe she thinks tough love will give him a better backbone? Maybe she thinks if she just harps enough at her daughter the girl will marry well? Parents matter—even to a villain.

2. What does this character love?

We all have our favorites—even if it’s just a kind of ice cream. Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire earned his way into fame portraying a cold blooded killer—but the killer had a soft spot. He loved cats. He’d look after stray kittens, was kind to them—and he was a sociopath. Because of that one soft spot—that love—he was more than just another guy with a gun. That’s what you want for your bad guys—find out what they love and show it in the story. Make it important.

3. Why does this character do bad things?

Motivations matter—they really matter for your villains. It’s not enough that the bad guy wants the heroine for his wife (no matter that she hates him). Why does he want this? Does he really want her money? Is he obsessed with earning her love for another reason? What are the deep, deep roots for what the villain wants?

A villain who just wants to take over the world is dull—it’s been overdone. So give him better reasons. Look at real people—Alexander the Great wanted to take over the world. And his basic reason was to show up his father who’d been good at conquering, too. (See how you get back to parents so easily.) No one is born bad, so what twisted your villain into someone who does bad things?

4. What would make this character a hero?

Turn the story around and look at it from the villain’s point of view. What actions would make this character a hero? We’re all heroes in our own story—we do things that may be wrong but at the time we think we have good reasons and they are right actions. Even Hitler thought he was saving Germany and building an empire that would last a thousand years—in his mind, he was restoring his people to greatness (the problem being it was his ideas of “his” people).

Maybe your villain has great reasons for doing what he or she must do—maybe she or he even regrets the need for bad actions. Or maybe your villain has no regrets—what must be done for the good of all must be done. Righteous villains can be really scary people.

5. Give your villain a trait you’d love to have.

Make your villains easy for you to love (makes ‘em easier to write, too). Give them, a trait or traits, you’d love to have. Maybe your villain is a decisive person, able to make up her mind at once. Maybe your villain is like Cruella de Ville and is a style-monster. Maybe your villain sings opera and keeps songbirds.

Make this trait also matter to the story—Cruella’s obsession with black and white fashion drives the story in 101 Dalmatians.

It’s that kind of love/hate that keeps readers intrigued with any bad guy—and you’ll have a lot more fun writing a villain you’d also love to be.

Originally posted at Writers in the Storm blog.