 Short Stories: May 02, 2012 Issue [#5026] |
  Short Stories
This week: Experiments in Antagonism Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This Short Stories Newsletter is dedicated to readers and writers of short fiction and to those who want to know more about the art of telling big stories in small spaces.
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Most stories with a good and compelling main character, the protagonist, will have at least one of the three major archetypes of conflict: versus the self, versus nature or situation, or versus another character, an antagonist. Of these, I think the last is the most difficult one to do well. Often, to illustrate the villainy of such characters, an author runs the risk of creating a mustache twirling hand wringing nemesis of the archrival variety who seems to exist only to make the main character miserable. Another thing that seems to crop up frequently is the antagonist whose motivations are so inhuman that they become cartoonish.
What are some issues with crafting these types of characters? First, they will need to be just as believable and complex as the main character, but by necessity most stories will not have much time to spend on showing the human side of "the enemy." Styling likeable antagonists and antiheroes takes some special care. You want these characters to be as flawed as your main characters, or more flawed, even. Balance is really important. The easiest way to get depth in a character is to know their history, their motivation, their hopes and fears-- even if you don't necessarily use them in the story itself.
To paraphrase from a number of places, "no one ever thinks the bad guy is himself." (or herself!) All of your characters should have motivations that stem from within and work outward. Very few villains are so maniacally evil that they simply wake up every morning with the intentions of simply wrecking someone's day for the fun of it. (Unless they're in the Guild of Calamitous Intent or something. But I digress.  )
In any case, the best use of an antagonist is that their wants and fears are in conflict with the wants and fears of your main characters. Rivals competing for the same job or business account, for example? Ex-friends whose friendship was ended over a conflict about a love interest or another distraction? Two coworkers whose personalities and working styles consistently clash on a daily basis? The possibilities are endless.
Certainly it's possible that a villain might have evil intentions, megalomaniacal complexes, and any number of other unsavory conditions, but truly, the most important thing is that only one can prevail-- and it needs to be a challenge for your heroes to stand against them with any hope of winning. 
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
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This Month's Question:
What is the most compelling motivation you can think of for an antagonist?
Additionally:
Do you struggle with writing conflict between your characters?
I know I do.
I set this month's challenge at
with the most base conflict imaginable: the end of a friendship.
This is a perfect opportunity to experiment with a scenario where two characters are locked in conflict; for one of them will be the protagonist, and one will not. This challenge is open until the 31st of May and I urge you to try it out! Winners will be featured in my June editorial.
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