Rising Star Adventures and Beyond

Oct 2023 prep day 14 contest round

Oct. 14: - CONTEST ROUND: Antagonist Background Story ▼

Write a story about your antagonist that takes place outside of your novel. The object of the contest is to make your judges understand and empathize with the antagonist's motivations.

If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, write a background story about that. The Tom Hanks movie "Cast Away" famously features only one character (unless you count Wilson), and his antagonist is loneliness. Could you personify loneliness? Why does loneliness exist? What motivates it? How would a lack of loneliness affect survival of the human race? How did it drive main character Nolan to survive for years alone on a deserted island? Loneliness has a job to do. Make us believe it's a valid one.

Banker Jim Franklin sat in his office going over his books. He could not help but smile to himself. His profits were improving since the recent property foreclosures. It was the perfect plan.

He had talked widow Harrison to refinance the farm, and then kept increasing the payments to where he knew she couldn't afford it. Then he foreclosed on the loan and repossessed the property. He was able to sell the property for double the original loan amount once he had made a few repairs to it.

The next property he set his eyes on was on Horas Miller's home. He got him to take out a mortgage to make improvements and repairs to his home. He made the repairs on his home and then the mortgage payments were raised. Conveniently, there was an accident while Horas was working in the Mill. His daughter couldn't afford to keep the house. This time the house sold easily and the necessary repairs had already been made by Horas.

As long as no crime could be proven, He could easily improve his profits. However, he made a mistake by going after the general store, ran by the sheriff's uncle. The sheriff was suspicious. Could he find evidence of a crime being committed? He had to admit to himself, he was a bit worried about that. But what could be proven, he made sure all the legal documents were in order before possessing any property. Besides, he really had helped Horas improve his house, and the farm would have been the death of Mrs. Harrison. It was way more than she could handle on her own. The sheriff's uncle was running the store into the ground because he gave too much away and the town really needed it to remain in business. He did it for the town.