NaNo2010 > The Bad Guys
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Bouncing
Yes, we’re bouncing from plots to characters. We’ll do that a lot. All of the elements of your story should come together in such a way that you can’t imagine removing one piece and replacing it with another. If you have a story set in a dystopian future, it should change every other aspect of the story (plot, characters, etc) if you decide to change the setting to medieval fantasy.
Antagonist
It’s time to start developing your antagonist. “The Bad Guys” is a bit of a misnomer, as your “antagonist” doesn’t even have to be a person, let alone “bad”.
Your antagonist is the person, thing, ideal, or force which keeps your protagonist from happiness or their goals.
General Examples
- If your story is a “contest” or “sports” story, the antagonist is often the opposing team or player – the pair of figure skaters also striving for the gold medal.
- In a traditional fantasy story, the antagonist is often a wicked person in power – a greedy duke or a selfish king.
- In modern fiction, the antagonist is often an ideal – a single mother trying to raise her child in a cold, uncaring society.
- In a survival story, the antagonist is often nature – harsh and unforgiving mountain slopes.
I may talk about the antagonist as a person, but be aware that’s because fantasy fiction is my background and my love.
Every story has an antagonist, even if it’s not immediately apparent. Nobody wants to read a story about someone who gets everything they want without struggle. Stories center around conflict and conflict comes from antagonists.
Specific Example
Let’s say you’re writing a YA novel – main character is a city girl who moved to the country and discovered a love of horses. She discovers that she loves … oh, I don’t know. Barrel racing. The speed and agility of the horse, the adrenaline rush. She loves it. Furthermore, she’s actually pretty good at it!
That’s a seed. There’s no conflict yet, so let’s add an antagonist. Who would be a good foil to rain on her parade?
Let’s say there’s a team of rich, elite riders at her new school – girls with expensive, trained horses who have been doing barrel racing their whole lives. They have costumes and matching tack for their horses and they are NOT happy that this new city girl came into town and thinks she has a chance against them at the state rodeo.
Where does the main character get her horse? Maybe her uncle is a town vet – he rehabilitates a lot of quarter horses from nearby. She trains with an older mare retired in his pasture that is barren (thus not set out to field for breeding). We can have a story arc where she gains the mare’s trust.
Maybe there’s a boy. Maybe he comes out to help at the vet or maybe his family is big into the rodeo or horse breeding scene, so he visits the vet fairly often.
Maybe the snotty girls sabotage her tack. Maybe one of those girls tries to steal the boy’s affections?
Maybe one of the “snotty girls” isn’t all that snotty and she really wants to be our protagonist’s friend?
BAM
By adding an antagonist, we’ve added a whole new dimension to this story. Now we have additional characters (the snotty rich girls), we have a goal for the main character (state rodeo), and we have the possibility for all sorts of angst in the middle.
A good antagonist should do this just by existing. They should be RIPE with opportunity to thwart the happiness and goals of our protagonist.
A Note About Respect
Your antagonist(s) should be every bit as fleshed out as your protagonist. Flat, boring antagonists are BAD.
There seems to be a bias against YA or MG fiction in particular which says that paper-thin characters are fine. As near as I can tell, the bias is based on the assumption that children and teenagers are too simple-minded to handle a more complex character.
With all due respect, that’s bull-honky (yup, the topic gets me fired up enough to bring out my redneck side.)
Kids are not as clueless as adults seem to think they are, nor are teenagers the bubble-headed sheep the media paints them to be. Just because some teenagers care about what Lady Ga Ga is wearing this spring doesn’t mean that all teenagers do, and just because someone cares about shoes and handbags doesn’t mean they’re simple-minded.
Respect your readers, writers.
Treat them as intelligent, thinking, feeling humans.
The Game
Why is your antagonist the bad guy and what does he/she/they/it want?
Describe your bad guy and their goals in a short phrase.
The antagonist version of the game has one rule – you cannot use the word “evil”.
I hate the word “evil”.
It’s a cop-out. It’s cheating. It’s cheap. It’s meaningless. It’s telling rather than showing.
Telling me someone is “evil” tells me nothing about them at all, except that you want me to dislike them.
HOW are they evil? Are they selfish? Greedy? Stupid? Power-hungry? Insane? Jealous? Afraid?
What about them makes them “the bad guy”?
Examples From The Game
- Greedy strip-miners wanting to destroy the lush mountain for money.
- Selfish rodeo queens wanting to take home the state rodeo barrel racing gold medal.
- Insane genetic scientist wanting revenge on his previous employer for firing him.
- Power-hungry duke determined to sit on the throne.
- Stupid middle-manager taking credit for his underling’s work to get a promotion.
A Step Further
Taking the game phrase a step further can give you some depth to your character.
WHY does the selfish rodeo queen want to take home the medal? Maybe her parents are perfectionists. Maybe she’s desperately trying to get their attention, and winning medals is the only way she’s been able to get praise from them.
Wow, she seems a lot more human now, doesn’t she?
How is she going to react if she loses? What does she have at stake if our protagonist wins?
How will our protagonist react if she finds this out?
Finding Your Antagonist
Your antagonist has goals that are DIRECTLY IN OPPOSITION to your protagonist. In a tightly-woven story, the antagonist should be based on the protagonist. Take what you know and seek out hints of who your antagonist is.
Stained
For Stained, the antagonist was more difficult to pin down than in our barrel racing example. Contest or sports stories are easy to find antagonists for. A story that’s got a neat character in a fun setting – well, the antagonist is more difficult to find.
Shayla doesn’t want to “win” at something. She’s not trying to advance in the military or win the heart of a man.
That doesn’t mean she wants nothing.
She wants self-respect. She wants to tell her stories to an audience. She wants to make a difference. She wants happiness.
So my antagonist must keep her from all of those goals. Furthermore, since Shayla is Stained, it’s probably a decent starting point to assume the antagonist is also Stained. This is a fluid assumption – if another antagonist makes himself/herself known and they are not Stained, I’ll swap over in a heartbeat.
I begin asking “Why”.
One of my daydream scenes features an attack by a rift-beast. Why?
I take that answer and ascribe it to the actions of a person. Why would they do that?
If that’s true, then what do they want? What are their goals? What is their intent?
WHY do they want those things? What can motivate someone to such a horrible intent?
Revenge.
I wrote that word in great big block letters in the middle of my scratch paper. Then I circled it, underlined it, and started to darken all of the letters. (Then I doodled a walrus in the margins, but that really doesn’t have anything to do with the story. Yet. I could totally add a walrus.)
Now the fun begins.
Revenge…for what?
What happened? What is his past? What have I built into the world itself that would result in this character being in this location, with this big of a grudge?
Oh, the possibilities.
Homework
- Make a primary protagonist.
- Play The Game and come up with a short phrase to describe them and their goals. (Warning: I am going to ask you to distill a LOT of your concepts down to bare bones information. This is HARD but it is incredibly important. I don’t recommend skimping on the effort it takes to play The Game)
- Begin finding possible conflict points and plot twists between your antagonist and protagonist.
- Ask WHY until your head spins. Write down all your answers. You may not use them all, but they’re all valuable.
- Optionally, doodle in the margins.
My Phrase
A rogue Stained bent on revenge against the mountain society that sent him to die.
Your Phrase
If you’re comfortable doing so, give me a snapshot of your antagonist in the comments. (This is valuable both for planning and for revising writing. Feel free to do so for older writing, if you like)
If that walrus turns into a were-walrus (were-rus?), I quit.
I came up with a new story idea over the weekend (medieval fantasy, a Crown Prince, his princess twin, his same-age servant/squire, who’s in love with the princess–who of course has no time for this commoner at all…and DRAGONS!–well, one dragon, anyway), which may become my NaNo project, unless it consumes me so much that I have to actually start writing sooner.
But…I’ve been a bit stuck on a few plot details (okay…a LOT of plot details…sheesh!). However, your strong admonition to ask “WHY?” moved the meter more than a little bit. (And I have to acknowledge that Iris gave me an insight when I mentioned this to her the other day; while I may not go with her idea, it got me thinking in other directions that are sure to bear fruit).
So yeah…thanks for this, Tami! :D
(AND NO WERE-WALRUSES!) >.<
.-= Steve Hall´s last blog ..Weekly Wrap-Up: April 16 =-.
@Steve
No were-walruses, I promise.
Selkies, though…have potential. Not for Stained, but I’m totally adding them to my Idea Box.
Oooh, hooray for new story possibilities!
Asking “Why” is always a good thing!
And don’t feel bad about having plot detail problems – of all the things that happen to me as a writer, getting stuck on plot problems is my most common. If I can find a way to work through them, so can you! =]
.-= Tami´s last blog ..Photoblog: A Box From Germany =-.
I love reading your posts about writing! LOVE IT!!
Mr. SHSSF, who is all of 12, is quite critical of you writer types. We were discussing the Septimus Heap series (you’ll just have to google that author. All I can remember is that she is British) and he said he just never could get involved in the PLOT. Even when things were supposed to be exciting, he never was inspired to feel excited and said it was the most boring story he ever read. I rather get his point. That series is just not great. The storyline is fine and the characters are alright, but it is NOT GREAT.
Which leads me to this thought….I feel really badly for all those authors that work so hard to create a story and then get rejected by a 12 year old!! I mean, who does he think he is???
Not sure if people will agree with me here, but in a way, an antagonist can also be the love interest in a romance story. According to Truby’s Anatomy of Story, a love interest is often, if not always the antagonist because who better to prohibit the main character from winning the love interest’s affection than the love interests themselves? They should be the ones attacking the main character for maximum dramatic effect. Thoughts on this?
@Anne
I’m so glad you like reading them! I certainly enjoy writing them. ^_^
I have not read the Septimus Heap series, myself, but I’ve read plenty of (in some cases VERY famous) authors that I’ve chucked against the wall in disgust.
Does this mean they are bad writers? (Well, OBVIOUSLY, it does). No. They’re making money and famous and have book deals out their ears and people I know LOVE their writing.
It just means they don’t work for me.
I’ve HEARD of Septimus Heap, so I assume this is another situation like that.
I love books like that. I learn a lot by sitting down and determining exactly where a book lost me. What did I not like about it? If I thought the characters were flat, what would I have done to improve them? How can I NOT make this mistake?
I learn more from books I despise than books I love. <3
@Krizzlybear
Antagonists can be anywhere, so I’m not going to disagree.
However, I will say that love stories where the antagonist is the love interest can only work in some situations and for me, get old fast. The antagonist in a SCENE can be a love interest (and often is) but in an entire book, it’s hard to pull off in a way that makes me want to keep reading rather than slap the characters around.
It tatally would not fit my story, but Steve’s comment made me think of a sentient spellcasting dragon with a human as a familliar.
He could dress his human up in robes and such, making the rest of the world think the dragon was the familliar. Could be an entertaining character.
Back on topic for a moment, someone once talked with me about writing a good antagonist. You know, a believable one with depth.
He said to simply keep in mind that as far as antagonist is concerned *he* is the hero of the story, and the protagonist is the bad guy.
Personally I am leaning towards having nature as my antagonist, which is about as neutral a force as you can get.
.-= Dechion´s last blog ..I fail at shopping =-.
@Dechion
I’ll definitely be bringing in the “antagonist as the hero of his own story” in a later post! *grins*
I like your dragon idea, it’s a good one. Make sure you put it in your Idea Box!
I’ve never really liked “nature as an antagonist” but then again, it doesn’t suit the sort of books I typically read, either. =]
I would love a list of the chucked-against-the-wall-in-disgust.
In return, I will provide a list on Mr. SHSSF’s favorite authors/series. Or my list. Or a partial list of Fandango’s.
I have never chucked a book against the wall. Fandango and I are not as critical as you and Mr. SHSSF seem to be!
@Anne
I’ll have to remember some of them, but I’ll send them in an email. Some of them, if I become a famous author, would be my contemporaries and I’d rather not make enemies before I make friends. =]
I am VERY critical. I think Mr. SHSSF and I would get along quite well, especially if he likes to dissect exactly why a thing did not work for him.
And I’d love a list of favorites!
This was a great read and really got my mind brain juices going. I now have a concept for an antagonist and why they are an antagonist. Still fleshing the character out some, but I also think that now my story has to be one that is a team setting, rather than single hero. You know what I mean, by words aren’t currently being friendly…must be the spray paint. :(
.-= Mr. Moore´s last blog ..Beautiful, beautiful… =-.
@Mr. Moore
Oooh, I’m so glad it helped! It’s helping me a lot with Stained, too. Need to make sure the story I tell is an adventure, not just a character portrait. =]
Now I’m curious as to what you have planned for this team and nemesis!
(Also…spray paint?)
Firstly, i rather resent the insinuation that caring about Lady Gaga’s clothing is low-brow because, quite apart from other celebrities, her outfits are all carefully calculated choices (and definitely not just a chanel handbag slapped together with a pair of heels). Gaga’s outfits have been known to range from works of pop-art to fashion installation and feature everything in between, so to someone interested in fashion, her outfits in particular might be akin to how a manga-lover feels every thursday.
But yes, i realise those few lines are far from being the point of the blog post, so ill move swiftly on :P
as always, this was chock-full of invaluable tips about creating/filling out the antagonist, and im eager to utilize them as soon as possible! And i particularly like the idea of “the antagonist as the hero of his own story,” and i think this will be a very good perspective to keep as I incessantly ask ‘why’ the antagonist does everything.
Just one main question really pertaining to the antagonist being the love interest, since i was planning a similar sort of thing to happen in my own story. The antagonist guy is by no means the main antagonist of the story, but someone who frequently argues and comes to blows with the protagonist – i’m really aiming for the whole ‘theres a thin line between hate and love’ idea. I was planning on having the protagonist think they’re crushing on the nice guy accompanying them in the story, but later realising that they think of him more like a brother – and its the steamy, messy chemistry with the antagonist that makes their relationship so alive and passionate. So since you say its only in rare cases youve been able to enjoy that sort of thing, is there any advice you could give on how to make it seem realistic and avoiding some of the pitfalls of making you want to slap the characters around? :P any help would be much appreciated! <3
oh and also these posts make me so so hungry for Stained. November just cant come fast enough!!! ^^
@Bella
The implication that ALL (edited for clarity: the only thing) teenagers (or people of any age) care about is what Lady Ga Ga is wearing was more my (obviously poorly stated) point.
As to your question about my personal taste in “love interest as an antagonist” – my slapping point comes when the decisions a character makes are repeatedly stupid. One or two stupid actions is believable. When a character seems to deliberately choose the WORST possible way to act or react in every single situation, I get pulled out of the story and feel like the author is doing what is most convenient for them, rather than telling a story.
This seems to happen a lot in “love interest as an antagonist” stories because without an overall antagonist, the author constantly needs to insert misunderstandings or embarrassment or arguments between two characters that I am supposed to care about and feel invested in, as a reader.
If those characters are always at odds or doing things that set one or both of them away from each other, it puts me (especially if the writing is good enough that I AM invested in the characters) through an emotional wringer that I don’t enjoy.
So! That would be my personal take on it, knowing that although I enjoy romance novels, they are not my preferred genre, and most of the books I do read are fantasy. =] Hope that helps!
I do like “steamy, messy chemistry” though, so you’ve definitely got an idea that has me interested!! ^_^
(Also, I’m getting hungry for Stained, too! Must…resist! Hee!)
One of the best examples of a villain I can think of off the top of my head is General Woundwort in Watership Down. There are entire chapters devoted to really getting inside that character’s head to the point where you almost sympathize with him. That definitely taught me a lot about how to create a villain, I think. He or she is human (or… whatever…) too!
For the villain in my book I wanted to give him a strong motivation. Sure, he’s the “bad guy”, but why? I settled on him thinking he’s doing the right thing, and having a skewed sense of ethics because of it. I also sort of borrowed from D&D alignments and designated him as “Lawful Evil”– he doesn’t see himself as being a bad guy. He thinks he’s doing the right thing, likes himself too much to see it from another side, and doles out “the dirty work” to various minions because it means he can still see himself as a “gentleman” so to speak…
I had a lot of fun with him ^^
Also, I agree 100% with the “respect your writers” thing. <3
.-= Pike´s last blog ..Classic Video Game Monday: Zero Wing =-.
@Pike
Watership Down is my favorite novel ever. You win SO MANY points with me. <3<3
I love the idea for your villain! I think those are my favorite kinds of villains – the ones who think they’re doing the right thing. So many moral sticky bits!
[...] know his motivation and why he’s pitted against your hero if you did the exercise in The Bad Guys and you’ve got a few plot points that you know need to happen in order for your plot to work, [...]