How do you usually come up with your antagonists?

[cydare]

I was wondering about how everyone here created their antagonists.

Do you come up with them them before, after, or during fleshing out your protagonist? Are they made to serve the story, or does the antagonist come first and your story wraps around them? How do you decide on their goals?

I usually have a general idea of what I want the big hurdle in my story to be, and try to think of somebody who could help bring it about.

 

[Reaver]

It depends on a lot of different factors. Is the antagonist pure evil, a well-intended person who will do anything to achieve their goals, or are they a good person who just has an opposing viewpoint from the protagonist?

It also depends on whose story I want to tell.

 

[SaltyDog]

Usually my antagonists form when I write, they just fall into to place. They do form after I've worked on the protagonist though. Their goals are normally those opposite of my MC, or they could end up working together for the greater good or bad, it really depends on what I'm writing.

 

[skip.knox]

I've written several stories but I haven't had an antagonist in the sense of a villain yet. I've had a couple monsters, but they're just doin' what comes nat'rly. I've had a misguided and slightly mad scientist. And I've had one that was just an obstacle to overcome.

I don't have anything against villains, mind you. It's just that I haven't quite come up with a story that centered on one. I do agree with others that the story tends to come first, and the antagonist takes shape within that context.

 

[FifthView]

My latest is a revenge tale, so I had to come up with a villain worthy of being killed. I had a general idea for hero/MC, but I felt that he would be nothing without a strong villain. So I began early with both.

 

[Deleted member 4265]

My antagonists usually come out of my protagonist's backstory since I usually write stories very focused on interpersonal relationships. I sort of look at all the people my MC knows and ask myself who's plotting something (the answer is usually everyone)

Also, because I write very grey morality stories its not uncommon for my protagonist and antagonist to switch places.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Usually? Not sure if there's a pattern, but I can tell you how my current antagonist came to be.

Well...it's a little confusing since toward the end my MC's are on opposite sides, and are essentially antagonists of each other. But there's one guy I consider my "main villain." (He manipulates my MC's into opposing each other.).

He started out as one of my MCs' love interest. I really liked his character. So I thought he would be better as the villain ("good at heart but does some horrific things and is gradually corrupted by pain and grief into a twisted, dangerous being" might be a good description, he's not "evil" necessarily). So, basically I took a character I was really attached to and who was basically good and had many admirable qualities and thought about how I might goad and twist him into becoming dangerous and capable of evil. He's just a teenager (if an extraordinary prodigy), poor boy. I'm terribly cruel to him. If I do my job right, you'll feel very sad for him, but still want to rip him apart with your fingernails for the things he does to the characters you love.

 

[Penpilot]

I don't have one specific way to come up with antagonists. Sometimes they just come to me as I brainstorm the story. Other times I have to really think about and design them.

Generally, it goes something like this. The protagonist wants something. So what the antagonist wants has to in some way stand in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals, directly or indirectly, on purpose or by coincidence.

The simplest form of this is both protagonist and antagonist wanting the same thing and competing for it.

 

[Katherynn]

I'm personally all over the map! While I've never had a "villain" I have a huge thing for anti-heroes. Often, my antagonist isn't really an antagonist. I enjoy delving into their reasons behind their corruption in the story and that makes many people feel sorry for them (usually right before I kill them off because HUZZAH!) They are their own hero. I always make sure that I understand where they are coming from and attempt to match them appropriately to their protagonist. As such, they tend to be developed side by side.

For instance, I've had a Queen who was flipping psychotic. No way around it. She killed hundreds of people, tried taking over the world...you know, normal villain stuff. Her logical was entirely skewed and she was quite sadistic. Until you learned that she had lost her husband and unborn child and it had driven her insane. She wanted to be strong enough to protect her remaining children but it, along with jealousy over what she could not have, drove her mad. There was a bit more to it but, for about ninety percent of the book you assume that this woman is just crazy and evil. Meanwhile, the MC of the story was a reject of the foster system who wasn't interested in others but was forced into this insane, magical world where she became a crybaby, courageous and learned how to be herself despite losing everything she had - so what the Queen would have become if she hadn't lost it.

On the flip side, I have a cold as ice elf who spends quite a bit of time trying to kill the MC. He hates his kind and generally anybody he sees. He's quite cynical as well and doesn't flinch at the act of murder. Then you add in the fact that his mother sold him into slavery for three copper, he was forced into prostitution and then became an assassin...you can see why he is as he is. The MC match for him is hot headed, opinionated and has so much love for others in her heart. This works well with how the story is written.

So yeah...just to give you an idea.

 

[skip.knox]

I see a lot of "my protagonist wants X, so the antagonist opposes that." Which is perfectly sensible and standard.

I wonder how it would work if I started with the antagonist and what he wanted.

 

[Chessie]

My antagonists usually come out of my protagonist's backstory since I usually write stories very focused on interpersonal relationships. I sort of look at all the people my MC knows and ask myself who's plotting something (the answer is usually everyone)

This is how I do it, too. What ends up happening is I create several POV characters for a particular story then choose one to be the antagonist. My bad guys are always evil, too. Some are covert narcissists while others are more bold. The antagaonist is selected by who would stand to lose the most besides the MC.

For ex, WIP has 4 POV characters. Two of them are MCs (romance plot), one is the antagonist, and the other is a frenemy. In a romance plot, the MCs are usually each other's antagonists, but given that there is a subplot then I needed a real bad guy. When creating the character list, I selected the two people closest to my Prince hero: his sister and his boyar. The latter have an affair and try to kill prince dude. I needed characters that would do this for power, control and greed. So they became the bad guys. Kinda selected them both at once but the boyar is the true bad guy. The sister does a lot to try and kill her brother but she's manipulated by her lover to do a lot of things she wouldn't otherwise do. A deadly duo. My favorite.

 

[Gurkhal]

Its impossible for me to say in general.

Often its about either acting as a foil to the protagonist or actually be the center of the story with the protagnist struggling to keep up. But I think that I prefer to for my antagonist to act as either a foil or as a humanizing face of "the enemy". I really don't like black and white conflicts, so antagonists are, when I get them right, almost on the same morale level as the protagonist, but have a difference in opinion or perspective or a duty which binds them to the other side.

Rotten to the core characters I usually reglate to prominent enforcers or allies/"allies" of the main antagonist.

 

[Chessie]

John Truby the screenwriter mentions in his plotting book that there are ally-antagonists and antagonist-allies. When I read that, the whole concept of antagonist cracked open for me. There are true blue bad guys but the rest of the time, you can throw the main character and reader off for a bit.

 

[FifthView]

Hero-Villain is different than protagonist-antagonist.

Sometimes hero, MC, and protagonist are terms used interchangeably, but these mean different things. In some stories, the villain is the protagonist and the hero is the antagonist.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

An antagonist simply opposes your protagonist. They don't have to be morally inferior or evil.

A villain is evil and the inverse of a hero.

A villain can be a protagonist, and a hero an antagonist.

 

[Chessie]

In some stories, the villain is the protagonist and the hero is the antagonist.

Isn't that the beauty of it? Because think about it, the antagonist of a story sees the protagonist as being the annoying bad guy. Do you ever write from the antagonist's perspective? I've read so many craft books that say antagonists shouldn't have POV chapters but I've never agreed with that. Whenever I've read antagonist chapters in books, I love them and it gives the story more depth.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Isn't that the beauty of it? Because think about it, the antagonist of a story sees the protagonist as being the annoying bad guy. Do you ever write from the antagonist's perspective? I've read so many craft books that say antagonists shouldn't have POV chapters but I've never agreed with that. Whenever I've read antagonist chapters in books, I love them and it gives the story more depth.

If your story was written entirely from the antagonists perspective, he would be a protagonist...

My WIP doesn't have any POV chapters for the antagonist, just the two protagonists...but I might write some from his POV for fun.

 

[Miskatonic]

I just think of what human obstacles I want to put in the way of the protagonist and the goal the protagonist it trying to achieve.

 

[ChasingSuns]

It's hard for me to narrow down the process to one particular method. Sometimes they come out of the environment. Other times they'll come out of The character's story, or the main plot. It all really depends on where my story came from. Depending on the initial idea that caused me to begin writing, the antagonist can come from several places. I also have a tendency to include multiple antagonists, just because I really enjoy the various types of personalities an antagonist can have.

 

[FifthView]

Isn't that the beauty of it? Because think about it, the antagonist of a story sees the protagonist as being the annoying bad guy. Do you ever write from the antagonist's perspective? I've read so many craft books that say antagonists shouldn't have POV chapters but I've never agreed with that. Whenever I've read antagonist chapters in books, I love them and it gives the story more depth.

Something like GRRM's ASOIAF will include a large set of characters who may serve as antagonists of one another, offering a diverse set of POVs.

I've often enjoyed books that give us an inside view of villains or antagonists.

Currently I've been trying to decide if I want to do that with my revenge tale. I've already created a servant character for the villain, who is also troubling, and I plan to write from his POV rather than from the villain's. He'll serve as something of an antagonist for the heroes, himself. Mostly this choice is because I don't want the villain to be too easily understood. The villain will have some traits, particularly in interaction with this servant, that might cause some doubts for the reader vis-à-vis the depth of his evilness. That's the plan, at least. My original idea was to write from the villain's POV also, but that idea's flown out the window. For now.