John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
What you need to know about Antagonists (before they ruin your book)
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Hi Bookfoxers, Antagonists power your book. Without an antagonist, you don't have a story and you certainly don't have a novel. But antagonists don't have to be villains. A villain is an outright evil character, while an antagonist could be:
But how likeable should you make your antagonist? It's perfectly fine to have an antagonist who is 100% evil. It's also perfectly fine to have an antagonist who has some likable traits:
Consider this: if you have an anti-hero, or a deeply flawed protagonist, the antagonist might even be a better, more likable, more relatable human than your protagonist! The general rule, when you're creating an antagonist, is that the more time we spend with your antagonist, the more likable they should be. That's because readers grimace at spending long chunks of a book in the presence of pure evil. If you spend very little time close to the antagonist, neither in their head or in their POV, then go ahead and make them as evil and unlikable as you want! Here are some examples: Jose Saramago has a book narrated by the Grim Reaper. Death does not seem likable. Yet the Grim Reaper is charming. She's witty. She's funny! (yes, it's a she). We don't mind spending time with her because she's entertaining and in the end, she's a likable character. The antagonist in Lord of the Rings is Sauron. That's a portrait of pure evil, but we're not exactly hanging out with him in the book, so the evil is kept at arm's length. He's mentioned, at a far remove, but he's not sharing ales at the Prancing Pony with hobbits. The distance helps the reader to accept his pure evil nature. Or consider Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs. We spend quite a lot of time with him, and because of that, he's portrayed as:
Readers aren't going to follow his lead of pairing a chianti with human liver, but at the same time, they would acknowledge he's a charming antagonist. I have four more tips to write antagonists, but first, a word from our sponsor:
Here are four more tips about antagonists: 1. Don't forget your antagonist's backstory. Often, backstory is one of the main ways that antagonists become more relatable, because we don't see them in a vacuum. Their backstory often explains their motivations in a way that makes us sympathize with them. 2. What your antagonist wants must be directly opposed to what your protagonist wants. If their desires aren't butting heads, then you don't have an antagonist, you have a minor character. For instance, in the television show 1923, we see Harrison Ford's character wants to keep his ranch "The Yellowstone," and the antagonist wants to seize it for himself. They both can't get what they want. 3. Antagonists can change and become allies. Mr. Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice, is certainly the antagonist. He's arrogant and cheated someone out of an inheritance. But he also ends up saving the family's good name by paying off Wickham. In the end, Mr. Darcy changes into a suitable suitor. This type of change is the core narrative principle of the genre of "enemies to lovers." 4. It's possible to have multiple antagonists. The danger of having multiple antagonists is that it can make the story seem scattered. Defeating one antagonist might be anticlimactic if there's another one out there. But many stories do it well. It's best to have each antagonist oppose the protagonist in different ways -- one antagonist for the main plot, and one antagonist for the subplot. Happy Writing! John Matthew Fox of Bookfox PS. If you ever want to share these emails, or look at past emails, go here. |
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John Matthew Fox helps authors write better fiction. He is the founder of Bookfox, where he creates online courses for writers, provides editing and offers publishing assistance. He is the author of "The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel's Key Moments" and “I Will Shout Your Name,” a collection of short stories.
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