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6 Steps to Creating a Great Antagonist

Anybody Can Write a Novel

Chapter 3 “Characters” – Section 4 “The Antagonist”

With Links to Supplementary Material

So you now have your Protagonist up and ready to go. The next step is to create a great Antagonist that will help provide a dynamic story. I've talked about specific types of antagonists—Villains and Monsters—but today I'm going to talk about the topic on a more universal scale. Keep in mind that a great Antagonist does not need to be “evil,” only a dynamic and engaging force of conflict for the protagonist.

Step 1: Identify the type of Antagonist that will make your story most dynamic.

Too often, stories with great potential are ruined by the writer thinking that a villain is always necessary—somebody with evil intentions. Your Antagonist, more than all other parts of your story, should serve to make the plot more dynamic, not detract from it. If your story is about survival, for example, you may not need an evil poacher in the woods, only nature itself as an antagonistic force. Look at your protagonist and his/her flaws, as well as the World in which your story takes place, and figure out what force would bring the sort of growth and confrontation that your protagonist needs.

Step 2: Find a place for your Antagonist within the world of your Story.

Even if your Antagonist is an evil alien from outer space, they have a link to the fictional world which you've created; meaning that the moment they enter the story, they no longer exist only to challenge the protagonist. To create a dynamic story-telling experience and believable world, you must forge a sort of relationship between the Antagonist and their environment—so that even if your protagonist did not exist, the antagonist would still have a place. This is to prevent the common flaw of creating an antagonist that exists within a sort of bubble, so he/she seems like a foreign and contrived evil that only exists for the hero to defeat.

Step 3: Give your Antagonist real motivations that require conflict with the protagonist.

You must find a legitimate reason that your antagonistic force is standing against your protagonist. Nature, for example, regulates itself with disease and extreme weather, regardless of what heroes may be passing through. Zombies eat because they are hungry. Psychopaths kill because of trauma or some sort of chemical imbalance. Make sure that your antagonist has a reason to go out of their way to oppose your hero, apart from just really disliking them; and make sure their realistic goals cause a necessary conflict with the protagonist that cannot be avoided. Because why rob a bank in a city where Batman is patrolling the streets, unless your real motivation is to confront Batman?

Step 4: Make sure that your Antagonist is not a contrived force of pure evil.

Another big failing in storytelling is the idea that the Antagonist is a force of pure evil. Not only is this a falsehood that creates a break in reality for the reader, but it paints a deceptive picture of the world. Just because someone is an insane serial killer, does not mean that they consider rape okay. Just because someone beats his wife, doesn't mean he'd stand by as a child was being kidnapped. Humans, even the bad ones, are complex creatures with standards of their own. Making your Antagonist ethically complex will not only register as more real with your reader, but create a more complex and dynamic relationship between the reader, Antagonist, and protagonist. It will also create empathy, the emotion that draws readers into a story unlike any other.

Step 5: Figure out what ideals that your Antagonist represents.

When it comes down to it, a dynamic story—even action-based ones—are not about physical prowess or confrontation. It is about a conflict of ideals. Nihilism vs Hope. Humanity vs Nature. Strength vs Kindness. Order vs Chaos. And so the list goes on. Figure out what sort of ideal your antagonist represents—which will either be defeated by, or crush, that of your protagonist. This conflict of ideals should be at the very core of the necessary conflict between your protagonist and Antagonist.

Step 6: Interweave your Antagonist into your Three-Act Outline.

The main plot-points at which your primary Antagonist should appear will be the First Pinch Point, Midpoint, Second Pinch Point, and Climax. After that, you can have either minor antagonistic forces, or choose to also use your primary Antagonist at the Inciting Incident, First Turning Point, Rising Action, and the Wrap-up—just depending on the particulars of your specific story. Prepare some ideas for the conflict in the scenes you want to feature your primary Antagonist, and write them down next to each plot-point. We'll go into more detail on each of these in future articles.

Another way to further flesh out your Antagonist, if it is sentient, is to put him/her through all of the same steps as the Protagonist. However, depending on the type of Antagonist you use, this may not always be possible.

Feel free to comment with other suggested resources. Any questions about writing? Things you want me to discuss? Comment or send me a message and I will be glad to reply or feature my response in a later article. If you enjoy my reviews, please feel free to share my articles with friends, add it to your favorites, become a watcher on my page, or send send a llama my way!

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