How do you keep your villain from becoming a cliché? That’s the thought that’s been running circles in my brain this week. In my upcoming YA novel, The Ghost and The Goth, I took the mean and nasty head cheerleader and made her into a protagonist, albeit one that is occasionally difficult to like. (I also flattened her with a school bus and turned her into a ghost—leftover bitterness from high school, you say? Who, me? :) )
But now I have this idea where I desperately want to seize upon that same “type” of high school girl. A cruel, bullying Queen Bee, someone who seeks out your weak spots and uses them against you, but this time I want her to be the force we’re rallying against. But how do you keep that character from turning into a parody of herself? How do you keep her from becoming the stereotypical mean girl and yet still convey the kind of person she is (i.e. the girl who made you dread gym so badly your stomach would ache for hours beforehand)?
Not all mean girls are cheerleaders, obviously. (Just a huge percentage of them…kidding! Actually, the girls who most frightened me when I was back in high school were the bad asses. The ones who smoked and drank, got into hair-pulling fights in the halls, and reportedly carried their boyfriends’ knives “for protection.” *shudder*) And not all cheerleaders are mean girls.
Whoever she is, though, that Queen Bee is top of the high school society in some way. It’s just, perhaps, not in the usual way. (One of the most popular girls in my high school was famous for an extraordinary athletic accomplishment. The adults and newspaper people loved her. She was not, however, nice to weird little freshmen who tried to talk to her.)
The other part of it of making her not a cliché, I think, must revolve around understanding events from her perspective. Rather than building her up to be this unstoppable evil force, we (or I, at least) need to see the weaknesses and vulnerabilities she’s trying to hide. (Or maybe she really is an unstoppable evil force—who knows! :))
Who were the popular girls at your school? The show choir soloist? The head cheerleader? The lead in the school play? Were these the same girls who doled out cruel “advice,” tricked you into admitting your crush on a three-way call with him (unbeknownst to you), or forced you to wear pink on Tuesdays because Tuesday is pink day? Was your high school experience heaven or hell?
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:29 am
I had a pretty good high school experience, and here is what I admit I could BE one of those mean girls. But I also had soft spots for some of the people who got picked on, and tried in my own way to protect them. The MOST popular girl was, of course, a cheerleader, but she was also the Valedictroian. And she was NICE. LOL, almost TOO nice. Can’t think of a time when I heard anything bad about her, other then from boys who didn’t get where they wanted with her. But I always found that even those girls who could be total bitches had a soft spot~~a boy who could break them down, a friend who could make them human, a Mom or sister or brother they’d protect~~seemed like everyone has a spot that you can use to humanize them, and get them a little sympathy, even when you’re hating them.
GREAT blog, btw.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Great post!
Wow. Good question, too. The most popular kids at my very white bread high school were cheerleaders, pom pom girls, and athletes. I was definitely not popular. I wasn’t unpopular, I was mostly invisible. 
Don’t get me wrong, I did have friends. 
I’d say my high school experience was a curious combination of absolute heaven and absolute hell, depending on the circumstance. Way back in the 70’s kids at my school may have carried a pocket knife or two, but you never heard of anyone getting stabbed. Kids did sometimes get into fights. I had my share of experiences with two mean cheerleaders in junior high, which a far more terrifying time than high school, believe me. 
Melissa has beat me to the punch. I think the vulnerability, the chink in the armor that people don’t expect is an excellent way to make the bad girl of the piece less of a stereotype.
Denise A. Agnew
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
I don’t ever remember any mean girls in my high school. I did have problems with this one chick who was older than me, she had a stick up her ass about me for some reason, and used to bully me.
That was until I caught her alone… LOL
She didn’t want to fight anymore after that.
I meshed with all the little cliques in school. I had friends on the football team, I was on the honor roll, and I hung with the artsy alternatives.
But yeah, even villains belief they are the hero of their own story, so showing some weaknessess and vulnerabilities just makes their meanness that more interesting.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Hmmm. Good question and something I hadn’t thought about in ages. The mean girl with a soft spot is a good way to work around the cliche … particularly if you find an unusual soft spot.
I actually had few problems in highschool. I always considered myself a geek, but for some reason, I could talk to anyone … be they popular, a fellow geek, the bad asses, or a jock. I had friends who were gorgeous, cheerleaders, the put-upon because they were “different” … whatever. A little odd when I think about it.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I got along with almost everybody, believe it or not (except for those few girls who scared me!) But I will never forget that vulnerability you feel at not quite belonging. Sure, everyone was okay to you today, but what will tomorrow be like? LOL
I think that’s one of the reasons I LOVE writing YA is that the emotions run so strongly at that age, and I remember it VIVIDLY!
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
[...] you have a chance, check out my post–Mean Girls, Villains and Cheerleaders, oh my!–over at The Bradford Bunch blog and tell me what you [...]
September 26th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I think giving the villain a well thought out motive makes them less cliche. They have to have a reason for being a villain. An excellent villain can steal the story! (Think Silence of the Lambs)