How To: Write an Antagonist
Every superhero has itâs villain. Thatâs why its so important that each protagonist has their antagonist. Across all forms of storytelling youâll find a protagonist with its antagonist counterpart; whether it be books, films, graphic novels, short films, or cartoons - there will always be an antagonist. An antagonist is a key part to any story but an underdeveloped and badly written antagonist is just seen as annoying and unnecessary to the audience. So, Iâm going to take you through some exercises which can help you successfully create and write your antagonist. Letâs get started!
1) Who Is Your Antagonist?
This may seem like a very basic step but the first step in writing any character is having any idea who they are. When you first develop your storyâs outline, you may already have an antagonist in mind or you may have no clue who your antagonist is going to be: either way, itâs no problem!Â
Before you even think about the nitty-gritty details of your antagonist, I am going to pose this question to you.Â
Now, Iâm not asking who your antagonist is - Iâm asking what your antagonist is. Sometimes, the antagonist is not even a person but rather a challenge that the protagonist has to overcome. People are sometimes mistaken in thinking that antagonists have to be stereotypical villains in capes when in reality, they can be quite the opposite. I want to challenge that thinking and seriously consider the fact that your story may not even need a physical antagonist but perhaps a symbolic antagonist.Â
Not only can your antagonist be symbolic but itâs also important to realise that because an antagonist doesnât have to be physical, the protagonist will come across many different challenges that will also take the form of the antagonist due to the lack of a physical, constant antagonist in your novel.
If a character was trying to brain-cram for a test tomorrow but they were finding it hard to learn all of the information. The teacher had set the work a week prior to this incident.
It may not seem obvious but there are multiple antagonists in this scenario. There are both physical and symbolic antagonists. The physical antagonists in this scenario are quite obvious. The first antagonist is easy to identify and that is the teacher. The teacher is an antagonist as they were the one that forced this challenge onto the protagonist. However, the antagonist in this scenario could actually be themselves due to the fact that they did not approach the challenge early enough; resulting in the challenge being seemingly unapproachable. There are also some antagonists in this scenario that are not physical but instead symbolic. The information itself could be the antagonist due to the fact that it was a challenge that the protagonist could not conquer making it the obvious antagonist in this scenario.
So, its important to realise when deciding on an antagonist whether your antagonist will be physical or symbolic. Sometimes, the best antagonists are symbolic and the lack of a physical antagonist allows the reader to concentrate on the main characters. However, a physical antagonist also has its advantages as it creates tension in the story as the reader will find it harder to predict the actions of a physical antagonist as they can be much more unpredictable.Â
Every character has their backstory. However, a villainâs backstory is probably the most important part of your novel! If your villain has no real motive, your story will seem hollow and the reader will finish your novel feeling unsatisfied.Â
Most of the time, stories that involve villains; their lack of morality stems from some sort of childhood trauma. However, it can stem from other life changing experiences as well. There are three main ways your villain could have adapted their traits due toÂ
The lack of a good role model can have a huge impact on a childâs development. If at a young age, the villain received no moral guidance on a particular situation; they may have been forced to decide what to do which could have resulted in them doing the wrong thing. However, their parents would have probably not condemned the child for these wrong actions - if fact, they could have even encouraged those actions. So, the villain could be doing these things simply because they have never been taught to do so otherwise and be unaware of the weight of their actions and the effect it had on others. In fact, if you would like to expand on this idea; villainy could even run in the family!
At first, this may seem like an obvious cause of villainy. But, if done correctly, it can actually be very complicated. This anger, once again, is most likely to stem from childhood. The experience which may have caused such an intense emotion from the villain can vary.Â
For example, a close relative or friend to the villain could have died. However, this relative/friend was corrupt or perhaps in trouble with the police force; so, it resulted in people celebrating their death and saying âit was for the greater good.â This could result in the villain turning against law enforcement and being frustrated at what people believed to be âthe greater good.â This is just an example of course but, there are lots of ways you could expand this backstory.Â
However, the anger/intense emotion does not always have to apply to something that happened to someone else. It could include a traumatic experience they dealt with throughout their childhood; such as a bad divorce between parents and being caught in the crossfire. This could result in the villain seeing the worst out of the two people that were meant to provide them guidance and instead resulted in the villain being forced to be mature in the situation; basically, forcing the villain to mature quickly due to their parentsâ irresponsibility.Â
Basically, an easy way to summarise this motive would be;Â âIâm not the problem, everyone else is.â
Sometimes, a villain may be forced to behave in a certain way due to an outside factor that they cannot control their feelings over. For example, they may have a younger sibling that they feel obligated to protect from harm due to personal experiences in their childhood such as the death of a parent. They would not view this as a problem or issue though and in fact their behaviour may be a result of desperation. However, the villain does not always have to be obligated to protect another person but in fact themselves or their reputation. This all depends on what they truly value the most in life even if it goes against the obligations of their moral alignment; an exception to their true beliefs. They could value money, power, love, family, or friendship which could cloud their judgement as they believe it is morally right to pursue these interests and in turn do not care about what may happen to others in the process.Â
This is a more in depth analysis of a villainâs motive. In case you are unaware of what moral alignment may be; have a look at this chart which explains the different alignments your villains may possess. However, it might be easier to have a brief overlook at everything on the moral alignment chart. Now, I am no expert on this subject, but I am going to summarise it. Iâd really recommend doing more in depth research into moral alignment to truly understand your antagonistâs motives.Â
(The website I used to write this section is linked here: http://easydamus.com/lawfulneutral.html#philosophy )
Lawful, neutral, and chaotic alignments all entail different moral obligations.
The lawful alignment entails that all moral actions should be based around the basis of law and order.Â
Lawful Good:
Those that follow the moral alignment of lawful good believe in âthe greater goodâ (ie. putting the needs of a group ahead of their own personal desires). The ideal situation for people that believe in this moral alignment support the idea of an authoritarian government in which radical egoism is punished and the actions of putting other peoplesâ needs above their own is rewarded.Â
Lawful Neutral:
The belief of lawful neutral is that law and order are desirable ends in themselves. They will advance the aims of society and apply the law impartially to the people in question. They will seek to ensure that people follow all laws and remain unbiased to promote equality and fairness.Â
Lawful Evil:
The lawful evil character will abuse their power over others to advance their own agenda using the governmentâs laws and regulations. To encourage others to follow laws, they severely punish criminals or those that they believe deserve justice; practically scaring others into following laws and regulations.Â
A chaotic character believes in the right in breaking laws and regulations to pursue their own desires or to achieve what is morally right in their moral judgement.Â
Chaotic Good:
This moral alignment believes in following their conscience and who believes in good but does not respect the use of laws and regulations. They tend to prioritise their own personal freedom and benefits above all else and seriously disagree with authority. However, they will never harm an armed innocent or those that are not worthy of punishment. They also believe in the aspect of pride and honour over all and to be causing harm to an essentially good being would be dishonourable.Â
Chaotic Neutral:
This alignment includes a character valuing their own liberty but does not go out of their way to protect othersâ authority. A chaotic neutralâs character is likely to be unpredictable but not always. They firmly believe in not disrupting campaigns for anarchy but will not go out of their way to promote good or go against the idea of anarchy.Â
Chaotic Evil:
A chaotic evil character does what their desires to drive them to do in terms of greed, hatred, and lust. However, this character lacks organisation. They tend to be impulsive and act upon their sudden desire so, they can easily be defeated. However, their impulsive behaviour and desire for destruction encourages them to pursue another goal or attempt at what they believe in; which is normally complete anarchy. They have no moral restrictions on murder or exploitation of those in a vulnerable position.Â
A neutral character believes in the rational of a situation and will create their judgement depending on the situation and consequences at the time.Â
Neutral Good:
A neutral good character will complete good actions without bias or moral judgement and is devoted to others and pursuing the obligations of those with a good moral obligation. They believe that good shall be pursued no matter what means necessary that provide benefit for the greater good.Â
True Neutral:
A neutral character does what it feels to be the right thing to do in a situation. They do not have any strong feelings towards good or evil or lawful. They lack a clear obligation for commitment or bias towards a situation. They believe in a moral alignment that balances the need of the government and the individual equally.Â
Neutral Evil:Â
A neutral evil villain does whatever they can do without consequence. They believe that they are the most important person in any situation and put their needs above all else. Neutral evil beings will try to secure their own goals in the form of power or status.Â
What I really advise is that you do an in depth research into what you believe your villainâs moral obligations may be, the best way to do this is to research moral alignment. Thereâs a lot you can read about it and Iâve briefly summarised it here but, with a deeper understanding of your villainâs moral obligations it may prove easier to write their behaviour or actions in a certain situation.Â
Female villains deserve as much development as your male villains; perhaps even more so because without such development they can be viewed as hollow and without any real desire to perform such evil actions in your novel.Â
A key thing to remember when writing your female villains is too not refrain from making them do anything. Make your female villain the most horrible and nasty person you could ever imagine because, in the end, their only role in your novel is to be a villain! Nothing should come before that. If you consider showing a soft side to your villain, it could prevent your reader from believing that your villain possesses any threat against your protagonist.Â
However, do not give your villain false obligations. What I mean by this is do not excuse your villainâs actions. You may not even realise you are doing it at first, but by blaming your villainâs actions on anything else other than a childhood trauma or incorrect moral alignment will result in your villain having less of an impact on your reader. I would advise that you avoid making your female psychopathic as it results in your villain resulting in becoming cliched.Â
Itâs important to remember that your villain must also have core values and aspirations; they could be hollow or sickening to your reader but by allowing your reader to sympathise with them makes them a lot more realistic. Your reader can then compare your villain to a mistaken human being instead of a psychopath without any moral obligations or drive to do what they do.Â
Overall, itâs important that you really try and get inside your villainâs head. By becoming your villain, you can fully develop them and understand everything they do. This will evidently show your reader that your villain is not just hollow actions without thoughts or just a desire to destroy everything without rhyme or reason. No, instead your reader could possibly relate to your villain - and that truly is what makes a villain so terrifying.Â
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