Tag: antagonist backstory

Antagonist April: Week #4 – Antagonist Writing Exercises, Part Two

Posted on by Ian Dawson

It’s Antagonist April, and all this month, I’ll be doing a deep dive into those characters that give our heroes and main characters opposition to their goals.  This week, I’ll provide three days of writing exercises to explore antagonists further.

Let’s continue!

Exercise #4 – Elevating Your Antagonist

  • What makes your antagonist unique?
  • Do they have any hobbies?
  • Do they collect anything interesting?
  • Do they like music?  What kind?
  • Do they have any quirks that make them more relatable to an audience?
  • What do they do for fun?
  • When they’re not being antagonistic, what do they do in their private time alone from the world?

Humanizing your antagonist is a great way to make them relatable and real to your audience.  While we explored some of these items in the previous post’s exercises, here’s your opportunity to examine and find aspects of this important character that bring them out of the realm of cliché and sculpt them into a flesh-and-blood individual.

While you may not utilize everything you think of, these elements can be dropped in from time to time in your story to give the audience a little insight into who this person is when they’re not being oppositional.

Exercise #5 – Your Antagonist’s Opposition

  • Who is your antagonist opposing?
  • Why are they trying to prevent them from achieving their goal?
  • What is their relationship to the antagonist?
  • Why does the hero feel compelled to fight against the antagonist and win?
  • What would happen if the antagonist won?

While the protagonist of your story is the most important character, the antagonist must be a formidable foe there to try and stop them from reaching their goals.  As you develop your main character, think about ways your antagonist can make their lives miserable throughout the story.

Too many times, new writers are afraid to make their main characters suffer, go through trials and tribulations, and have to work to get what they want.  I used to have this mindset, but it changed when I realized something important about fictional characters: THEY AREN’T REAL!  So go for it!  Make them suffer.  Make them fight back, dig in their heels, face horrible moments of doubt and pain, wanting to quit when things seem to be at their worst.

And who can dish out and inflict all those things on your main character?  Your friend, the antagonist.

These two characters need each other.  The story can lose its impact, conflict, and dramatic effect if no one is present, throwing opposition in their way.  

Depending on the type of story, these oppositional forces can be literal or figurative.  Still, they need to exist on some level for your hero to have something to fight against and through to get to the end.  

And it’s your job to give them an antagonist that enhances the story and helps drive the action forward as events unfold and your hero battles through to the end.

Week #4 Wrap-Up

We’ve covered a lot over the past month, all culminating in this final week of exercises you can use to create a strong, effective, and interesting antagonist for your story.  

As you take the time to create and craft the Opposition, never forget to have fun and enjoy the experience.  If you have fun, your audience will as well.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next week!

Antagonist April: Week #4 – Antagonist Writing Exercises, Part One

Posted on by Ian Dawson

It’s Antagonist April, and all this month, I’ll be doing a deep dive into those characters that give our heroes and main characters opposition to their goals.  This week, I’ll provide three days of writing exercises to explore antagonists further.

Let’s continue!

Exercise #1 – Your Antagonist’s Backstory

  • Who is your antagonist?  
  • What were they doing before your story began?  
  • What major life events led them to the point where they enter your story as the primary Opposition to your protagonist?

Write a short biography or autobiography that gives you an idea of who this person is and what caused them to be antagonistic to those they encounter.  You can write it in paragraph form or bullet points, and it is for you to reference and have in mind as you write your story.  

It’s important to have an idea of who this character is so they have a past, are dimensional, and feel real within the story’s context.  You don’t want to create a one-dimensional by-the-number villain.  You want them to have successes, failures, fears, likes, dislikes, etc., as they enter your story’s world.

Exercise #2 – What’s Their Motivation?

  • What drives your antagonist?  
  • What makes them want to win?  
  • What has motivated them in the past?  
  • What do they fear most when it comes to losing against your protagonist in the present? 
  • If they do win against your protagonist, what is their next move in life?

What could motivate your character to oppose what your hero has set out to accomplish?  Remember, the antagonist doesn’t have to be a Bond-level villain.  It could be a parent, a friend, or the main character’s boss.  Their motivation to prevent the hero from achieving their goal could be selfless and positive in their eyes.  

Having a strong motivation for your antagonist can help the reader or viewer connect, empathize, sympathize, and relate to your antagonist on some level.  Even if they don’t 100% agree with their tactics to stop the protagonist, having the audience understand the adversary’s POV is important.

Exercise #3 – The Arc of Your Antagonist

Last week, we looked in detail at the arcs of three antagonists in different films.  We explored how these characters entered the story and their final fate by the story’s end.

This exercise is much more intensive than the previous two since you will explore your antagonist’s role as the opposing force to your hero throughout your story.

If you are developing an outline for your manuscript or screenplay, take some time to jot down a basic arc for your villain.  Or, if you are just in the early phases of creating a story, you can brainstorm these concepts as well:

  • How does the antagonist enter the storyline?  
  • What is their initial relationship to the main character and their goal?  
  • At what points does the antagonist pop up to cause trouble or create roadblocks for the hero?  
  • What is their overall motivation for doing this?  Are there moments when they appear to have won?  
  • How does the antagonist’s arc conclude? 
  • What happens during the final showdown between protagonist and antagonist?  
  • Is the antagonist defeated?  
  • Do they come to an understanding?  

As your story evolves, these aspects of your antagonist and their role will also evolve.  It’s important, however, to have the basics down to reference when needed so you at least have a strong starting point once you dive into the drafting phase.

There’s more to come!  Antagonist April continues on Friday.  See you then!

Antagonist April: Week #2 – Developing An Antagonist – Part One

Posted on by Ian Dawson

It’s Antagonist April, and all this month, I’ll be doing a deep dive into those characters that give our heroes and main characters opposition to their goals.  This week, we’ll discuss developing a compelling antagonist for your story.

Let’s get started!

Backstory

A strong narrative “requires that the Adversary be an actual person,” and it’s essential for you as the writer to know who they are and where they came from (Edson 57).  This may be information that only you know; past experiences, traumas, or victories this individual had in their life before the story you’re writing.  But these elements help add dimension to your antagonist.  These aspects can assist you in deciding how the antagonist approaches problems, makes decisions, and how they react to a variety of situations.

You don’t have to travel back to when they were born, but if there are events in the antagonist’s childhood that explain why they are the way they are, then jotting those moments down can be helpful.

By giving your antagonist a past, you lift them out of the realm of a one-dimensional villain.  There’s something in their background that affected them to the point that they have decided that your protagonist is their current opponent.  The person who’s preventing them from getting what they want.

Taking the time to think through a bullet-pointed timeline of the antagonist’s life can also come in handy if they need to explain themselves at any point during the story.  There has to be some legitimate reason – in their mind – why they are doing what they’re doing.  Having those moments decided ahead of time gives you a story from their past to utilize.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos has a moment like this with Doctor Strange.  

In this brief conversation, Thanos reveals aspects of his backstory that inform his quest to acquire the Infinity Stones and eliminate half of all life in the universe.  Notice how Thanos perceives himself versus how Doctor Strange perceives Thanos and his plan.

What’s My Motivation?

What is the reason the antagonist is doing what they’re doing?  Why do they oppose the hero and their goals?  Something happened in the antagonist’s life, either in the past or currently, that has driven them to the point where they must stop the main character at all costs.  It could be something the protagonist did to them (Changing Lanes).  It could be a plan the antagonist had in place that the protagonist tries to stop (Die Hard).  No matter what it is, the antagonist must be motivated in their actions against the hero.  There has to be a WHY!

While they can have the motivation to stop the main character, there has to be something larger in the antagonist’s world that they want to achieve.  This is the element that the protagonist’s actions are preventing.

What motivates them?  Greed?  Power?  Revenge?  Those are fine motivations.  But suppose we don’t know why they are motivated toward these goals.  In that case, the character lacks any real weight, dimension, or interesting qualities.

Let’s look at Syndrome from The Incredibles.  When he was younger and went by the name Buddy (aka Incrediboy), he wanted to help Mr. Incredible.  Instead, he was told to “fly home.”  

This rejection by his favorite superhero motivated Buddy to become Syndrome.  His backstory influenced his motivation to transform into a supervillain determined to exterminate all superheroes from existence except himself.  His final goal and motivation are given in the video below:

https://youtu.be/ea8ebpKM2JU

Notice that Syndrome and Thanos both have motivations based on past events that influence their behavior and goals in the present.  This is why taking the time to create a backstory for your antagonist can often assist you in crafting a strong motivation for them as the opposition in your story.

We’re getting started!  I’ll be back on Wednesday as we continue to explore antagonists all month!  See you then!

Source:

Edson, Eric.  The Story Solution.  Michael Wiese Productions, 2011.