5 THINGS YOUR ANTAGONIST SHOULD NOT DO
LEE LOFLAND
The antagonist of your story is, of course, someone who opposes the hero. It’ s the antagonist’ s job to prevent the protagonist from achieving her goal.
ANTAGONISTS provide stumbling blocks and hurdles for the lead character to overcome, and they create tension and drama.
VILLAINS, on the other hand, are evil and will stop at nothing, including murder, to reach their goal. They’ re often over the top characters who enjoy blowing things up, tearing things down, destroying human lives, and maybe even taking out the entire planet if they can devise a workable plan to do so.
So, here’ s the deal. Villains are also antagonists( they definitely oppose the protagonists, but also want to kill, maim, mutilate, and disfigure … well, they’ re just plain evil), but antagonists are not villains( antagonists are adversaries— roadblocks the hero must overcome or go around). Antagon-ists are not evil. Instead, they may simply have an opposing view, opposite of the protagonist’ s ideas. Make sense?
A great example of an antagonist is Ernest T. Bass, the rock-throwing mountain man on the Andy Griffith Show. He was definitely a hurdle for Andy and Barney, especially Barney.
LEE LOFLAND AUTHOR AND
LAW ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONAL
HERE ARE FIVE THINGS AN ANTAGONIST SHOULD NOT DO.
1. The antagonist has stocked up on a variety of weapons and tons of ammunition, yet when he confronts the hero in the final showdown, he runs out of bullets first, and then tosses the empty weapon at the hero. NO! Bad guys who’ ve risen to the rank of antagonist are basically equal to the hero in the intelligence department. They’ ll think their plans through before acting out. Besides, cops carry backup weapons and extra bullets, why not have the antagonist do the same?
2. Villains who are bound and determined to destroy the world clearly haven’ t thought this through. If the world goes up in smoke where will he live, the moon?
What will he do? And with whom will he do it? Everything will be gone! The earth would be a ghost town.
Of course, we know the world won’ t end on page 367, but the villain doesn’ t know he’ s merely a character in a book. Therefore, the end result must be believable to the reader … and to your characters.
WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
PAGE 5
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2016