We had a great discussion in our Write for a Reason membership group recently, following a question from our of our members.

Here’s her question: “You have said that we should make a match between the issue for the protagonist and the antagonist, such as one has fear, so the other should be frightening. Can you give any other examples, please?”

I thought this might be a useful topic for you, too, but before we do, just in case you’re not sure of the terminology (it can be complicated, can’t it!), your antagonist is your main baddy – the evil one! He or she is the person who is working against your main character (protagonist).

For example, in the story of Cinderella, Cinderella is the protagonist; her step-mother and the two ugly sisters are the antagonists.

This is what makes a story work! If you have no danger, no opposition, no rivalry, do you really have a story?

Of course, the terrain can be your danger, such as your characters having to walk across a desert to safety. On the way they may face lack of food, run out of water, suffer an injury, get bitten by snakes… oooh, the awful things you could make happen!!!

But most stories will have some kind of human antagonist, at some point in the story. Someone who is stopping your protagonist reaching their goal, whatever it is.

(Gosh, this is a big topic, isn’t it? :-))

So, when you are creating your antagonist, you will need to think about how they can best try to stop your protagonist from achieving their goal.

Does your antagonist struggle with fear? Your antagonist needs to be terrifying!

Does your protagonist want something wonderful? The antagonist will want it, too, and probably be jealous and vindictive!

So create your antagonist to suit.

Does that help? If you’d like to go deeper into this topic, check out the Write for a Reason Academy. You will love it!

Hope to see you there,

Janet