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Writing Antagonists

I received an influx of antagonist questions in the past few days, so I thought I’d compile my posts on the topic. I think I might have written a few others, but I think these are the most helpful. Thanks for your questions!

Understanding Your Antagonist

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to make an antagonist realistic/relatable without excusing their bad behavior. Many of the questions are afraid that giving the antagonist back story is a poor way to give the villain a “pass” for all the terrible things they’ve done.  I’ve previously posted about antagonists and how you should focus on making them as real as your protagonist, which explains you need to develop their back story just as much as you would any other character. Here are a few tips that should help:

If you’re having trouble developing your antagonist, try to think about the story from their point-of-view.

For the most part, making your antagonist evil for no reason doesn’t make any sense. There’s usually a reason, even if it’s not 100% exposed to your readers. Everyone in your story should have a motive, just like they would in real life. Your antagonist thinks he is the main character. Your antagonist thinks he’s doing the RIGHT thing. Very rarely do villains with no motive work out or feel realistic (I know they have, but it’s a very hard thing to pull off). In the mind of your antagonist, your main character is stopping them from accomplishing their goals.

Discussing your antagonist’s bad childhood is not the same as trying to give him a “pass” for his evil ways. 

You just need to find a way to interweave his back story without it feeling forced. If you say “He was abused as a child and that’s why he treats other people so badly”, your story will feel flat. Finding a way to show that information instead of telling it is very important. You don’t need to flat out say why the antagonist is so bad, but you should help the readers come to their own conclusions. For example, maybe your antagonist becomes furious when someone mentions something about their father. The readers will be able to infer that there’s been some sort of issue between the antagonist and their father and we might start to understand the source of their rage.

Like I mentioned before, developing a realistic past for your antagonist is the same as developing any other character. 

Your main character has to have flaws and their flaws need to come from somewhere. I would suggest doing some research on real life serial killers and see what sort of places they came from. Sometimes it’s impossible to tell why people snapped, but there are usually some clues or some build up from that person’s past. You’ll get ideas for your own antagonist.

In order to make it seem like you’re not excusing what your antagonist has done, you need to remind the audience about free-will. 

If your antagonist has a past that seems like he was driven into doing evil deeds, there needs to be actions your antagonist has done while making his own decisions. Your readers need a way to understand that your antagonist is capable of making his own choices and can also stop what he or she is doing. Having a sympathetic antagonist is not a bad thing, but you need to make sure your readers relate more with your protagonist. Your readers should usually want your protagonist to come out on top.

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Why Bad Characters Aren’t Always Bad

This is a follow-up to my Why Good Characters Aren’t Always Good post, but this time I’m going to focus more on antagonists than protagonists. I previously talked about the differences between writing a strong character (well-written, developed, interesting) and writing a morally strong character. This time I’m going to talk about writing a strong antagonist that might also have strong morals. It’s important to remember that your antagonist will not always be wrong; they are just someone who opposes your protagonist.

Your antagonist won’t always do the wrong thing

Just like your protagonist won’t always do the right thing, your antagonist isn’t always trying to destroy the world. In fact, your antagonist might actually do the right thing every once in a while and they might be the one with all the right ideas. They might decide to save your protagonist, even if they don’t necessarily agree with what they’re doing. They might even side with your protagonists on some issues. The antagonist doesn’t always have to be out to completely destroy your protagonist, so keep that in mind. Take time to discover their motivations and how it will fit into your story.

Good vs. Good is an interesting way to think about characters

If you want to write an interesting story, think of your character conflict as good vs. good. Your protagonist thinks they are doing the right thing, but so does your antagonist in most cases. I know there have been cases when the antagonist is just an awful person, but most of the time they do think what they’re doing is necessary. If we find reasons to side with both your protagonist and antagonist, your story becomes very fascinating. Consider that both characters believe they are in the right.

Your antagonist might have the best intentions in mind

You protagonist is only the protagonist because it’s the character your story is focusing on. They’re the main character of your novel and the one we’re told to care about more. However, that doesn’t mean your protagonist is making all the right decisions and what they say goes. Your antagonist might also have the best intentions in mind. Some of the best stories are when your protagonist realizes that they might not have been making the best decisions OR when they see themselves in the antagonist. Remember, your antagonist might think they’re doing the right thing and they might intend to do something good.

It’s possible for your antagonist to care about your protagonist

Your antagonist and protagonist do not have to hate each other. As I mentioned before, your protagonist does not have to be the good one and your antagonist doesn’t have to be the evil one. They just oppose each other in some way. Usually whatever they want they can’t have unless the other one fails. This doesn’t mean that your antagonist can’t care about what happens to the protagonist. Stories become more interesting when the protagonist and antagonist have a relationship that goes beyond hating each other.

This post is intended to help you switch up how you look at antagonists, so hopefully you can explore this in your writing. Antagonists and protagonists come in many shapes and forms, so don’t always think one has to be “good” and one has to be “evil”. I usually think of the “wrong” character as the one who doesn’t change or develop throughout your story despite the information presented to them and the experiences they go through. Figure out what works for your novel and what helps make the plot most interesting/exciting.

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Reasons Why Your Antagonist is the Antagonist

Any antagonist or villain that doesn’t have a reason for being the antagonist will come off as a flat character. Even if you know as the writer why a character is doing something, you need to find ways to explain it to your readers. When you reveal this information is up to you, but you need to do it at some point to make your characters relatable and believable. Here are a few things that might explain why your antagonist is the antagonist:

Family behavior

Looking at your antagonist’s background is always a great way to explain why they are the way they are. Think about how your character’s parents had treated them in the past. Maybe their father was busy at work and didn’t have time for your antagonist. Maybe their mother left the family or never wanted a child. Though these particular situations do not make people “evil” or “bad”, they do help shape your character. Build the individual situations of your characters and use them to help explain why your character turned out the way they did.

Again, family behavior doesn’t always negatively affect a person and turn them into something bad, but it might have an impact on your character. Try to only include information about this behavior if it has helped develop your character in some way. Or consider the reverse. Family behavior like a mother being too caring or suffocating might have caused a character to act out. There are so many ways to do it!

Personal background

Outside of family behavior, your antagonist might have had some bad things happen to them.  Maybe they were bullied when they were younger or there’s something they wanted badly that they never got. Looking into your antagonist’s personal background will help you understand a lot about your character. Were they constantly made fun of? Did they witness something violent that helped shaped them as an adult? If a character has felt weak at certain times in their life, they might want some control over other people.  Consider these factors.

Mob mentality

An antagonist might be an antagonist simply because they got caught up in something bigger than themselves.  They might have heard something from other people and decided to join the cause. They might have gotten swept up in something they didn’t fully understand and gained power. Something might be so ingrained in them that they can’t see your protagonist’s point of view. A character can be susceptible to what everyone else is thinking, so conformity might be a factor that turns them into the antagonist.

Desperation

If someone is in a desperate situation, this will definitely shape their behavior. Consider the idea that your antagonist is just as desperate as your protagonist. They need to succeed. If they don’t, maybe something horrible might happen to them. A villain doesn’t always do things just because they want to stand in the way of the protagonist. They’re not just simply evil. There’s always a reason behind their actions and desperation might be one of them.

Remember, your antagonist isn’t always the bad person; they’re just someone who doesn’t want to see your protagonist to succeed. Their ideals clash and they believe different things. You should develop your antagonist just as much as your develop your protagonist. Explaining why they’re doing the things they’re doing will help your readers understand what’s happening.

-Kris Noel

How to Make Your Villain Domestic but Still Evil

It’s the oxymoron that attracts us. Billowing black cape, terrifying worldviews, a willingness to make the streets run red with blood – and you know what would be hilarious? Them trying and failing to make morning pancakes. You know what would really hit us in the feels? Watching them show tenderness around a special someone.

Having a villain with a domestic side is lassoing a black hole, and it’s a tantalizing thing to watch. However, anyone who’s indulged in these daydreams with their own villains has probably encountered one very specific issue: it makes them less evil. They lose their edge.

For example, look at Crowley from CW’s Supernatural. This was a guy to be feared at one point; arriving out of nowhere at unexpected times, always playing both sides of the conflict, and you could be certain he would skin anyone necessary to get what he wanted – usually without getting a single drop of blood on his impeccable suit.

Flash forward to recent seasons, and we’ve seen Crowley cry and whimper more times than Dean has died –which is saying something. At first, it was fascinating to discover this powerful character actually had a tender side; and now, when Crowley makes a threat, we’re about as afraid as when any low-level demon makes one. This is because his evil was too compromised. He let himself go.

How can we avoid this mistake with our villains? The answer isn’t making them crush puppies and hate butterflies at every turn; it’s in balancing their core scariness with their softer side – giving them complexity, giving us a bit of “aww,” and making their eventual whiplash back into ‘terrifying’ all the more wonderful.

For this, we’re going to use Epic of Lilith by Ivars Ozols as an example. This book centers on arguably the original female villain – Lilith, the first woman of the Garden of Eden, who got on the “good guys’” bad side by refusing to submit to someone who was clearly her equal. There won’t be any spoilers below, but if you give the book a read (it’s an easy page turner), the points will be driven home stronger.

Plus it’s a book with a great female villain who isn’t objectified (don’t let the cover fool you, seriously) and prose that isn’t full of sexual over- or undertones. Talk about a win, eh?

Here we go.    

Keep reading

Writing: The Villain

In most stories, there is a tangible villain that works at every opportunity to stop your hero from reaching their goal. They are oftentimes the epitome of evil and hatred, depending on how extremely their villainy runs. In many ways, they are almost as important as the main character, so here are some tips on developing them well.

Villains should be handled with the same deep thought as heroes.

Just because they’re the villain doesn’t mean they aren’t a very major character, and complex characters are always more favorable than simple, boring characters. Develop their appearance and personality in detail. Formulate a backstory. Understand the motivations behind what they do, and let their actions reflect their internal desires.

Find ways to make your villain stand out from other villains.

Most villains are maniacal. They are almost all willing to do terrible things in order to get what they want. A lot of villains are related to their character in some way, and sometimes this relationship is revealed in a plot twist. These are all well and good, but trying to make these ideas seem fresh and interesting is difficult nowadays. Play with your ideas and tweak these tropes, or maybe even disregard them all together. Do what you can to make your villain not sound like another Voldemort or Darth Vader. (Reading your work and/or having others read your work is a good way to see if your villain (and other characters, too) are interesting and unique enough.)

Consider that your villain is (probably) still human.

Even if they aren’t human in the technical sense, they probably still have human emotions. Give your character depth by exploring their sense of morality and where they came from. Why do they think what they’re doing is acceptable. Do they think it’s acceptable? What happened that lead them up to this point of villainy?

Explore your villain’s relationship with the other characters.

Are they closely connected with your hero and the hero’s friends? Are they in no way related? What did the good characters do to get on the villain’s bad side? How deep does your villain’s anger or hatred for your hero run? Do they hate them at all, or are they doing what they’re doing for another reason? Are the things that your villain is doing a direct result of the hero’s actions, or was there another cause?

Decide what the end result of the villain’s actions will be.

You have one of two very basic routes this can take: your villain can either defeat or be defeated by the hero. The hero also has one of two routes (if they defeat the villain): they can defeat them by force and kill/imprison/etc. them, or they can “convert” them to the good side. How will this decision affect your villain? How will it affect the overall story? How will it affect the other characters? What will the long-term effects be?

Their motivations must be believable.

Too often the villain comes off as cheesy or unsatisfying because there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for them to be acting against the main character. Their actions and motivations should be just as definitive and interesting as any other character’s. Try to avoid falling into the trap of “sworn revenge” for no good reason–or, even worse, copping out by saying the villain is “just crazy”.

Kylo Ren really is a great example for how sci fi/fantasy writers should tailor their worlds to fit the times, so it could resonate with the actual audience reading them. There would be no point in making a Hitler villain anymore, because we’re not afraid of Hitler, we’re afraid of the 25-year-old malcontented white boy who fondles Hitler memorabilia while sulking in his room.

theres like NoTPS and OTPs and BroTPs but I think there should be FoeTPs like you JUST LOVE HOW THEY ARE ENEMIES AND ITS SO GREAT HOW THEY FIGHT AND OMG

[someone is watching...]

[THE SPECTATOR]

[THE CORRUPITOR]

[THE INFECTOR]

How to Give Your Villain an Emotional Backstory That Isn’t Tragic

In crafting a villain’s backstory, we often want the origin to be as powerful as the character themselves. As Chris Colfe says, “A villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told.”

Unfortunately, however, tragic backstories become tedious. Oh, of course their parents were eaten alive in front of them, their home was foreclosed on by a corrupt institution, the love of their life betrayed them, their favorite TV show was canceled, and they couldn’t get the last scrap of mayonnaise out of the jar. Someone get the fainting couch, quick.

At a certain point, it’s no longer a backstory – it’s a sob story, which quickly transforms our empathy into pity, and finally into boredom. We roll our eyes and wish the villain had kept the melodrama to themselves.

On the other side of that coin, having a character who stomps on bunnies for no reason isn’t exactly relatable, and a well-rounded character can’t just burst into existence one day fully formed. Everyone has a history. 

So how can you give your villain a backstory that tugs on readers’ heartstrings, without making it a sob story?

For this, we’re going to use Epic of Lilith as an example once again (How to Make Your Villain Domestic but Still Evil), as well as Megamind briefly. Some of these tips can also be applied to heroes, but we’ll stay villain-centric for now.  

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