Why is it that so many antagonists get a long speech right before they no longer matter, and are readers totally bored by this dynamic? How can you write a better monologue? Will this list of rhetorical questions ever end? Keep reading to find out:
To Create a Human Connection with Readers
Antagonists are the diametrically opposed force to your main character’s struggle, making up half of the dynamic that drives your novel, and they don’t receive nearly half of the page time as their counterpart. As such, we need to build a connection quickly to understand their motivations and feel the stakes at play in their conflict. This leads to a natural need to monologue, as the climax is likely also their story’s peak as well.
To Buy Time for the Protagonist
Quite often, we put our main characters into inescapable situations during the climax scene. It’s what drives tension for this scene. This means they need to somehow buy time to either find a means of escape or pluck up the courage to take the unimaginable actions needed to finish this conflict once and for all.
It’s natural to engage the antagonist during this time to distract them from the situation at hand or otherwise give your character’s actions some dialogue to break up the paragraph structure and keep readers interested. The miniature story arc in their monologue is a great pacing tool to set the action by.
To Justify Character Motivations
It’s likely that your main character is going to have to do something that makes them uncomfortable to make it to the other side of your climax. In fact, it may even be outside of their set of values under normal circumstances. But we both know that the series of events that have led to that moment are anything but normal for your characters.
So, in order to motivate themselves to step outside of their comfort zones (or slash them to pieces), your character is going to need an antagonist that gives them no choice. Giving them a moment to display their lack of hesitation and repentance with full swagger will make readers believe he is just in his own mind. Then your character can do nothing but take matters into their own hands.
Because They’re Fun
Who doesn’t love a great villain? I know my authors do. As mentioned previously, these are important characters, and they often have the biggest personalities of everyone in your character list. Showing them off a bit can be as fun for the reader as it is for the author. They’re entertaining! Let the people laugh, seethe, fall in love, and relish in every moment of tension built up in the monologue by your amazing characters.
But Do Villain Monologues Work?
There are many pieces of media that make fun of the villain monologue. So many, in fact, that it has become a cliché to do it. And the reason is because, yes, there are a lot of badly-done villain monologues while the main character is literally hanging over a pool of lava. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t new and effective ways to bring in all the benefits of a villain monologue listed above. If you’re having a hard time making it work, consider reaching out to a copy editor or book coach to help fine-tune your scene.
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