danex

random writing advice

empathy vs sympathy

empathy is when you are able to relate to what a person is going through

sympathy is when you feel sad for that person

you can be sympathetic without being empathetic, and you can be empathetic without being sympathetic 

and now the writing advice
empathetic villains are hecking awesome
(clarifying: not villains for whom the reader feels empathy, but villains who feel empathy themselves)

it makes them 100000x more evil

being able to relate to the suffering that they're causing.

conciously acknowledging that yes, they DO relate, and they KNOW the pain of their victims.

but they still lack the sympathy

they still do it anyways.

its

so

good

if you want your readers to vehemently HATE your villains, do this. i think its maybe the one bar that separates good villains from great villains.