Antagonists

[scifishipper]

I am wondering today about creating antagonists. How do you create yours? If they already exist in your world, how do you portray them in your writing? How do you keep them from being stereotypes and instead make them real, complex antagonists?

Comments

[kdbleu]

I tend to think of antagonists as the person keeping my main character from getting what they want. So a story can (and probably should) have multiple antagonists. Both "bigbad"-types and "obstacle of the current scene"-types. And it can turn out that the big antagonist doesn't hold the most obvious place in the story. (I'm being really vague so as to avoid spoilers for my own story. Cuz I'm a dork.)

How do you keep them from being stereotypes and instead make them real, complex antagonists?

Agency. I try to remember that the villan is hero of their own story. While I may never tell that part of the story, thinking of the antagonist as a whole person helps me to see how they're fully formed. A big part of that for me is motivation. So why my antagonist is acting as such is a big part of making them well-rounded.

[scifishipper]

I try to remember that the villain is hero of their own story.

I really like this thought. It's so succinct and makes a ton of sense. Thank you!

[ecstaticdance]

Yup. This is my strategy exactly. In fact, I've gone so far as to actually write their story out (in short form) with them as the protagonist. If I can care about this "villain", then I can usually avoid leaving him or her with only one or two dimensions.

[spikesgirl58]

I do it by basing them on a real person, someone I know or have known. It isn't that I think the person is evil, but it gives me a more viable model to work with. One of my favorite villains was based on a very close friend of me. Because I knew him well, it gave what might have been a one-dimensional character extra life.

It may not work for everyone, but it hasn't failed me yet. touch wood.

edited to add - by treating your antagonists as real people and making a conscious effort to remember that no one is all bad or all good, but rather a combination helps.

[scifishipper]

Yes, I really like the idea of using someone I know for an antagonist base. I have a harder time doing that for a protagonist, but for an antagonist it makes a lot of sense bc it keeps him/her well-rounded. Thank you!

[spikesgirl58]

It's always worked for me because it allows me to breath little details into a character - of course, I don't need to do it as much now as when I started writing, but it's still a favorite tool for me to use.

[callmeonetrack]

The standard answer is that the antagonist must have their own goal and motivations to pursue, but I think they can have that and still come off as stereotypical, depending on the presentation. The amount of mustache twirling is what often makes the audience roll their eyes, I think. It's easy to turn an antagonist into the predictable evil villain if they're a really particularly nasty, ugly, or over-the-top character...if all we ever see is their negative qualities because of the POV

[scifishipper]

Thank you! It is challenging to create an antagonist that has dimension when he/she does not have a POV. I love most of what Jenny says, so the idea that the antagonist is simply BETTER than the protagonist is a wonderful way to think about it. It does create real jeopardy for the protag.

I will check out those links and keep thinking! (Miss you, btw!)

[lanalucy]

Not sure I have a lot to add here. In my fanfic, at the most basic, the antagonist is whatever person or event or series of miscommunications or whatever is keeping my characters from getting down to business, whatever that business is in that particular story.

In my original fiction, the antagonist hasn't shown up yet - in any of them, so I can't really tell you how I'd make them more real.

As mentioned above, Jenny Crusie's got interesting things to say about a lot of aspects of writing.

[scifishipper]

I am in my fourth attempt to write a novel and have finally realized that I just need to plot a lot more before I start (not for everyone, but planning and I get along great). And, unfortunately, none of my plans had included a fully-formed antagonist. That is going to change!

Thanks!

[millari]

This is such a good question! I am currently struggling with this in a fanfiction I'm writing. I found that the first drafts of the scenes with the antagonist in question keep coming out with the antagonist as over-the-top ruthless. What helped was adding a second antagonist, who both was an antagonist to the protagonist and to the antagonist as well, so you could see why the first antagonist was under pressure to succeed and perhaps being a bit ruthless towards the protagonist

[scifishipper]

No, it was clear! I think the idea of two antagonists playing off of each other makes things less likely to be over-the-top. That's a great idea, actually, because so often, there are others who are antagonistic, if not antagonists in the story. It makes for a lot of flexibility in writing which particular bad guy will be engaging in a particular bad act. Spread it around! Thank you.