How To Write An Antagonist

What is an antagonist?

An antagonist is often referred to the 'bad guy' (but can be either male or female). I'm not that into this definition because it makes it seem as though the antagonist has to be evil, which is not the case.

An antagonist is a character in your story that usually has the opposite goal of your protagonist. The antagonists role is to reach their goal before the end of the book. But uh oh, the antagonist and protagonist have opposing goals. Who will reach theirs first? Who will conquer the other? This is where the main conflict of your plot lies.

How to write an antagonist

Antagonists are just as complicated as your protagonists, if not more so. There are many ways to write antagonist but I'll tell you how I write mine.

First of all, character profiles: I write down all the little details about their physical appearance, hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, hair length, hair texture etc. You know what I'm talking about. Just search Character Profile on google and you will find heaps of examples.

Next in the character profiles I think about their little habits, do they bite their nails, chew their tongue, play with their hair etc. This has nothing to do with the story, this is all about them.

Goals:

Want. What does the character want? Do they want a gold bar worth millions of dollars, do they want a child, do they want the prettiest hair in all the land.

Choose something that they want and this will be what makes all of their conscious decisions for them.

Need. What does your character need? Do they need food or shelter, do they need love and affection, do they need a community.

What they need is what will drive the story along and it will drive their subconscious actions. The need is the most important part.

Back Story: Every Antagonist needs an exceptional back story. By this I mean after seeing what they have done, you should be able to read the backstory and then nod your head and say "Yes, that makes sense."

How did they grow up? How did they feel about that? Did they have an abusive parent? Did they get a taste of an easy way to get what they want that wasn't accepted by society?

The backstory is best when detailed and all their actions through out the story make complete scene from their backstory.

Write truthfully.

There is no need to write this character as though they are completely evil. Write this character as though they are human (unless they are not human). Look around at those people you think are evil or are antagonist and learn about what it could be that led them to that place.

Write the character truthfully and if you have figured out solid goals for your antagonist, they will be bounding off the page.