Live Online via Google Meet
Our Author Events Academy Masterclasses are practical, welcoming online sessions designed to support writers at every stage of their writing journey.
Each masterclass focuses on a specific topic, led by an experienced author or publishing professional, sharing practical advice, real-world experience and techniques you can apply immediately to your own writing.
Running online allows writers from anywhere in the UK to join us, ask questions, and take part in a friendly, interactive session from the comfort of home.
Schedule
10:30am – Join the Google Meet & informal introductions
10:45am – Workshop begins
12:00pm – Live Q&A
12:15pm – Final questions & close
A Google Meet joining link will be emailed to all attendees a few days before the workshop.
Saturday 28 November 2026
Inside the Mind of a Villain
with Alex Stone
What makes a truly memorable villain?
The most compelling antagonists aren’t necessarily the most violent, shocking or obviously evil. Often, they’re the characters whose behaviour we can understand — even when we can’t excuse it.
Join bestselling psychological thriller author Alex Stone for a practical, interactive online masterclass exploring how to create villains, antagonists and morally complex characters who feel psychologically believable.
We’ll look beyond the idea of simply giving a villain a traumatic past or making them do increasingly terrible things. Instead, we’ll explore what they want, what they believe, why they feel justified in their actions, where their boundaries lie and what might eventually push them across them.
At the heart of the session is a deceptively simple idea:
Your villain knows what they’re doing. But they may not believe they’re the villain.
Through teaching, examples and guided exercises, you’ll begin developing an antagonist whose choices grow naturally from their desires, beliefs and relationship with your protagonist.
Perfect for:
This masterclass is suitable for fiction writers at any stage who want to create stronger antagonists and morally complex characters.
Although Alex writes psychological thrillers and will draw on her experience of the genre, the principles can be applied much more widely to crime, thrillers, mysteries and other forms of fiction involving conflict and opposition.
