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(A table of contents will become available at the end of the series. Recent additions can be found in the meantime in either the posts by pear or the relationships tags. This series will remain open for additional posts and the table of contents up-to-date as new posts are added.)
Part Twenty: Conversations with Antagonists
Sooner or later, your characters are going to meet up with your antagonist for a conflict. Maybe itâs only during the climax, maybe there are meetings peppered throughout; whatever your structural choice for your narrative might be, weâre all facing one inevitable fact: Our antagonists will speak. Those lines of dialogue, those conversations your protagonist has with them may be the most difficult to nail and nail well. There are so many factors at playâstyle, character, goals, narrative needs, not to mention the pressure youâve been building up about this person throughout the entire story!âthat writing the dialogue well when it comes time is one of the most daunting tasks.
Avoid constant vague and/or ominous lines, including one-liners:
Let me make myself clear from the start: Itâs not that you canât have any vague, ominous, and/or one-liners, but that you should use them sparingly and judiciously. Constantly being vague, ominous, or quippy leads to a fundamental problem with the antagonist: melodrama. In fact, melodrama is exactly what your antagonist opening their mouth, ever, must vigilantly steer away from. They are the one character who has the uncanny ability to come pre-packaged in melodrama.
Last summer, we spent some time talking about handling charactersâ emotions, and part of that is wrapped up in melodrama. I suggest checking out the post to find out more about spotting the beginnings of melodrama in your writing.
The allure of vague, ominous, and witty one-liners is clear: We want our antagonists to seem threatening, to feel as though they have knowledge the protagonist doesnât have or doesnât want them to have, to appear smart, smarter or at least more wily and cunning and 100% capable of either having or gaining the upper hand against the protagonist. After all, isnât that the point of an antagonist?
If an antagonist only speaks in quippy one-liners, they are only ever responding to your protagonist, never initiating the action themselves. If an antagonist is only vague, they are only ever talk, never action. If an antagonist is only ominous, that sense of doom and dread becomes normal, the protagonist acclimates, and it becomes ineffective.
For your dialogue between your antagonist and protagonist to feel genuine, to feel as though they are real people rather than cardboard cut-outs, it sometimes helps to stop thinking about the interactions as having such high stakes. I know that when Iâm trying to write these moments, I often find that I get too wrapped up in what the scene/conversation has to do for the story, what things I have to reveal, how much or how little should be unveiled now vs. later, further cement the antagonist as an unlikable person and the protagonist as right and virtuous. I lose sight of the characters in the midst of plot and devices.
Try to bring your thinking out of the mire of plot and back into these characters, who they are, how they speak, what their agenda within the conversation is. Theyâre just people, trying to do something within the scene. If this were another person who happened to be in their way (a construction worker whose ladder is in the way, or who canât let them into a room while theyâre putting in the carpet, whatever), how would your characters react? Without the knowledge that this is their Big Bad, their #1 Enemy, their Most Hated Rival, how would they navigate the scene? Distancing the characters a little bit from their archetypal story purposes may help you focus better on writing good dialogue and maintaining your characters rather than shoe-horning in the information just for the sake of it.
Avoid extreme emotional reactions:
If youâre one of those writers who can more or less see your story animated like a movie in your mind, you may have experienced the moment where a character says, does, or reveals something, and that ominous beat of music playsâba-doom!âand the scene cuts to black. Something big, something revolutionary, something the audience needs time to process just happened and a commercial break just played in the metaphorical episode of your tale. Moments like that are great in TV and movies, but the only version of that available in story-telling is to start a new chapter. If all of your major moments and reveals require a new chapter, youâre going to wind up with a very choppy book. Many of us recognize that and turn to other options to cue the audience in to the intensity and importance of whatâs been said or done. One of those tactics is, of course, using our protagonistâs and other charactersâ reactions.
The classic responses include:
âNo!â
âI wonât let you!â
âThatâs murder!â
âYou canât do that!â
general crying,
screaming/yelling,
a general outpouring of emotion
Among the problems with all of these go-to reaction tendencies is melodrama, certainly. It throws characterization out the window in favor of emphasizing the plot/actions that have occurred, all while under the guise of maintaining and furthering characterization. Thatâs what makes these reactions so popular: They seem as though they are reinforcing the protagonistâs goal and mission against the antagonist, reinforcing their character. Instead what they do is insult the intelligence of your audience.
If youâve written your protagonist well, these lines and emotions toward the actions of the antagonist become redundant and donât necessarily further or develop new facets about your characters. Your audience knows they donât want the antagonist to do The Thingâ˘, thatâs the whole point! Thatâs what youâve been building to this entire time! So of course theyâre not going to let the antagonist do That; of course theyâre upset about it.
It may also be an out-of-character reaction, worse of all. If your protagonist hasnât been prone to emotional outbursts throughout the story but instead handles things going wrong with snark, outward calm, and a sense of just-get-things-done-cry-about-it-later, then an emotional breakdown at this moment doesnât follow in line with what youâve established about the character. âBut itâs showing the stress theyâre under and the heightened sense of impending danger! Their goals are in jeopardy!â you say. True, but itâs also probably not what your character would do.
We feel strapped in to these reactions because theyâre what happens in movies, TV, and a thousand other books. These are the reactions that must happen in order for things to be ârightâ and fulfilling. In truth, theyâre archetypes of emotion that come hand-in-hand with the antagonist/protagonist relationship. Itâs time to break away and write real reactions from our characters, ones they would really make.
Next up: Close relationships!
Be with someone who always wants to know how your day was.
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(1/2) Hi! I'm planning on writing a story but I'm not sure if what I'm about to do is a good idea. I need someone's opinion about it, and I was wondering if you could help? My story is about two kids who grew up together and they fell in love. Typical childhood friends to lovers type of story. But I have this idea that I would start the story in the middle, when they're older and it was clear that things aren't great because something bad happened between them. I was planning that every chapterâ
(2/2) âstarts with a flashback (growing up and falling in love) and then followed by the present day (tension and awkwardness to slowly falling in love with each other again), and you could see the connection between the past and present. Also, it kind of slowly shows what their relationship was/is without giving too much away in one go. But Iâve seen people say things about using flashbacks and it made me rethink doing that. What should I do?
I think this sounds like an amazing story, and thank you for messaging me about it! Itâs always an honor to get to hear about a story in the works. I can say completely honestly that I would love to read a story formatted in this way.Â
Writers are warned against flashbacks because theyâre too often used to fill in holes in the plot when really there would be a better way of telling that plot point. For example, you may not need a flashback to tell about a fight between a parent and a child in the characterâs youth when you could imply the fight in other ways.Â
One example I can think of off the top of my head is the movie The Judge:
The main character got into a car accident with his brother in the passenger seat. While he was left uninjured, the brother was hurt so badly that he never recovered and his future as a professional baseball player was forever compromised. The father always blamed the son who was driving.Â
This event was never shown in a flashback, and a flashback was never needed. Instead, we have it implied:
The would-be-baseball-playerâs son finds his dadâs yearbook and says âwow I didnât know you played, Dad!â and the adults all look at each other and change the topic
They watch a home video where they say âfuture MLB playerâ about the kid who was injured
Someone asks âhow his arm isâÂ
Thereâs pictures in an old newspaper of the car crash
etc.Â
The point being: it was more mysterious and more satisfying to learn this story slowly than it would have been to throw a flashback at us and simply give us the whole tale. However, your case is different. It isnât just a flashback, itâs a lot more like framed story (read more about them here). Essentially, youâre telling two stories: the story of them falling in love and the story of them falling back in love.Â
Iâd recommend two things:Â
Read The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks which does, quite literally, what youâre saying: it starts in the middle and shows the current day story of two lovers who have been separated falling back in love over dinner, and then flashes back to tell the story of how they fell in love the first time. And I know, The Notebook is a cliche by now you donât have to be a Nicholas Sparks fan, and you can go ahead and keep thinking heâs cheesy after you read it if you like, but the book is different than the movie, and itâs a very good study for pulling off this sort of tale.
Watch The Last Five Years, a musical that shows a coupleâs path toward break up. The woman starts at the end and tells their story by going backwards in time, while the man starts at the beginning and tells the story going forward until they meet in the middle.
Over all, good luck! This sounds like a wonderful story.Â

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Writing Tip: Donât Be Afraid of Mixing Dialogue and Action
So Iâve been reading a lot of amateur writing lately, and Iâve noticed what seems to be a common problem: dialogue.Â
Tell me if this looks familiar. You start writing a conversation, only to look down and realize it reads like:Â
âIâm talking now,â he said.Â
âYes, I noticed,â she said.Â
âI have nothing much to add to this conversation,â the third person said.Â
And it grates on your ears. So much âsaid.â It looks awful! It sounds repetitive. So, naturally, you try to shake it up a bit:Â
âIs this any better?â He inquired.Â
âIâm not sure,â she mused.Â
âI definitely think so!â that other guy roared.Â
This is not an improvement. This is worse.Â
Now your dialogue is just as disjointed as it was before, but you have the added problem of a bunch of distracting dialogue verbs that can have an unintentionally comedic effect.Â
So hereâs how you avoid it: You mix up the dialogue with description.Â
âIsnât this better?â he asked, leaning forward in his seat. âDonât you feel like weâre more grounded in reality?âÂ
She nodded, looking down at her freshly manicured nails. âI donât feel like a talking head anymore.âÂ
âRight!â that annoying third guy added. âAnd now you can get some characterization crammed into the dialogue!âÂ
The rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows:Â
Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph - when the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph.Â
Within the speakerâs own paragraph, you can include action, interior thoughts, description, etc.Â
You can interrupt dialogue in the middle to put in a âsaidâ tag, and then write more dialogue from that same speaker.Â
You can put the âsaidâ tag at the beginning or end of the sentence.Â
Once youâve established which characters are talking, you donât need a âsaidâ tag every time they speak.Â
ETA: use a comma instead of a period at the end of a sentence of dialogue, and keep the âsaidâ tag in lower caps. If you end on a ? or !, the âsaidâ tag is still in lower case. (thanks, commenters who pointed this out!)Â
Some more examples:Â
âIf youâre writing an incomplete thought,â he said, âyou put a comma, then the quote mark, then the dialogue tag.âÂ
âIf the sentence ends, you put in a period.â She pointed at the previous sentence. âSee? Complete sentences.âÂ
âYou can also replace the dialogue tag with action.â Extra guy yawned. âWhen you do, you use a period instead of a comma.â
So what do you do with this newfound power? Iâm glad you asked.Â
You can provide description of the character and their surroundings in order to orient them in time and space while talking.Â
You can reveal characterization through body language and other nonverbal cues that will add more dimension to your dialogue.Â
You can add interior thoughts for your POV character between lines of dialogue - especially helpful when theyâre not saying quite what they mean.Â
You can control pacing. Lines of dialogue interrupted by descriptions convey a slower-paced conversation. Lines delivered with just a âsaidâ tag, or with no dialogue tag at all, convey a more rapid-fire conversation.Â
For example:Â
âWeâve been talking about dialogue for a while,â he said, shifting in his seat as though uncomfortable with sitting still.Â
âWe sure have,â she agreed. She rose from her chair, stretching. âShall we go, then?âÂ
âI think we should.âÂ
âGreat. Letâs get out of here.âÂ
By controlling the pacing, you can establish mood and help guide your reader along to understanding what it is that youâre doing.Â
I hope this helps you write better dialogue! If you have questions, donât hesitate to drop me an ask :)
Writing a Relationship Your Readers Will Ship
Relationships, especially in beginner writerâs works, have a tendency to feel forced. Even in some popular and famous works of fiction, the relationship doesnât feel natural. It seems like a boring afterthought which the writer added in at the last minute. Far too often, I find myself completely indifferent to a characterâs romantic life. A good romance in a story will give the reader a bit of second-hand infatuation. Theyâll root for the relationship, beg for it. If the romance is well written, you can make a reader smile and blush just by reading a few sentences. When done properly, it can even compensate for a weak and clichĂŠ plot.
But first, decide whether the romance is needed. If youâre adding a character to the plot simply for the sake of being a love interest, itâs probably not a needed romance. You can still add it, of course, but it will be much harder to keep your story focused on the central plot.
Step One Make sure the characters have chemistry.
The characters should compliment each otherâs personalities. If heâs loud, stubborn, and aggressively opinionated, a more tranquil and soft-spoken love interest would suit him well. Two headstrong people wouldnât be likely to have a lasting relationship in real life, unless they (impossibly) agreed upon every subject. But, there should be some similarities. While opposites do attract, polar opposites will not and the whole relationship will feel forced. The characters should have something in common. It could be morals, a parallel backstory, the same motivations, whatever. As long as thereâs a reason for them to be drawn to each other, thereâs potential.
Step Two Slow burn ships are fantastic.
Donât make your characters fall in love right off the bat. There can be attraction, of course, but genuine feelings of true love donât happen instantly. Your characters should become closer as people, feel at ease around each other, and truly know the other before they fall head-over-heels. The readers will crave the relationship far more, like dangling a treat right in front of a dogâs nose, but keep pulling it away. Teasing is a beautiful thing.
Find ways of showing (NOT TELLING) the characters are falling for each other. Have them stand up for one another, be protective. Have them break their own normal routine for the other. For example, a callous, guarded character could lower their walls for a moment if their love interest needs emotional support. These scenes can be awkward for the character changing their typical behavior and that discomfort can demonstrate how much they care for the other, altering their own selves for the otherâs benefit.
Howeve, make sure that you combine these cute emotional moments with distance. Make the characters deny their true feelings or even distance themselves from their love interest upon discovering their feelings. The more the characters long for each other, the more the reader will long for them to be together. Build barriers between them for your characters to have to work to knock down. Keep them close, but maintain that distance until the moment is right.
Step Three â_____â translates to âI love youâ
The first example of I think of when I think of this is The Princess Bride, where the male protagonist tells his soulmate âas you wishâ when he really means âI love you.â
This falls under the category of show, donât tell. Hearing a character say âI love youâ has become so boring. Unless itâs done in a surprising confession or unique way, itâs boring and stale.
Come up with a phrase that you can repeat in moments throughout the story until it has a meaning of love for the characters and both know exactly what the other means when itâs spoken.
Step Four Taking a break can help create tension.
You know you loved someone if you leave them and feel awful. Apply this into the writing. Your characters can break up, then get back together in a joyous reunion.
Step Five Not every couple has a happy ending.
Sometimes, things donât always work out for different reasons. An ending that leaves readers craving more can be a good move.
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heâs not even doing anything in these pics but im so happy and proud??? getting in that car so well baby he did that!!! working out? he invented it?? how iconic