: Re: Can the villain be introduced too late? An important aspect of my story is the dread of my villain. He is slowly built up throughout the story, with a bunch of characters here and there talking

@Yeniel532

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A villain doesn't have to be physically present to be "present" in the story. From the sound of it you introduce the villain pretty early on by reputation, and spend most of the story working up to actually meeting/confronting them. There's nothing wrong with that. This happens in a lot of stories. If your story has pacing issues, then it could drag on like you are hoping to avoid, but that's a separate issue not necessarily tied to when you actually meet the villain face-to-face. As long as the villain's precense is "felt" in the story (the consequences of their villainy are shown throughout: Burned villages, murdered families, a planet being drained of magic and crumbling from the inside, sabotage of diplomatic correspondence that leads to war, the threat of death for a boy's beloved doggie... whatever it may be that makes up the threat and existing problems posed by your main baddie!) then your protagonist (and your readers) know what the main goal is they are working towards, what evil they are trying to defeat (even if only by consequences/reputation, rather than by name), and that should be enough.

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