Thread: Tell me when writing is it OK to...

show the suffering of a villan before they make choices that others see as evil?

I'm thinking it might provide some back story along the way as the plot developes. I would like to humanize my villian in order to show that we too have the capacity to do evil things.

But I haven't read too many novels were the villan demands more attention than the protagonist... Will it shift my stories focus? Can it be done effectively balancing both sides? George Lucus created a prequels dedicated to Vader... Lord Voldemort's story was gradually uncovered in the series with no prequels, but I feel like it wasn't elaborated on too much... Is there a middle ground?