#149. 5 Questions To Write Better Antagonists

Antagonists can make or break a story—both for the writer and the reader. 

Writers who don’t spend time developing their antagonists tend to write drafts that fall apart in the middle. Anyone who reads a story with a weak or unconvincing protagonist is unlikely to finish it. 

So, how do we go about making our antagonists just as compelling as our protagonists? How do we write an antagonist with impact?

In this episode, I’m sharing five questions that will help you create a compelling, genre-appropriate antagonist who will provide the central conflict in your novel. 

In the episode, you’ll learn things like:

• [02:25] What does it mean to write “an antagonist?” Plus, my thoughts on the common misconception that antagonists are always “bad guys”
• [04:11] Tips for fleshing out your antagonist’s goal, motivation, and plans—aka THE KEY to writing a solid antagonist (and avoiding a middle that sags)
• [13:47] An easy way to determine what’s at stake for your antagonist should they succeed or fail in accomplishing their goal (hint: it’s related to your genre!)
• [19:26] How to determine the thematic significance of your antagonist (and how identifying this will help you write a more cohesive and impactful story)
• [23:09] Episode recap and final thoughts

If you’ve ever had trouble fleshing out your story’s antagonist, or if you’ve ever written a draft that falls apart in the middle, this is the episode for you!

⭐ Rate + Review + Follow on Apple Podcasts

"I love the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast!" ← If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing this show! Your rating and review will help other writers find this podcast, and they're also super fun for me to read. Just click here, scroll all the way to the bottom, tap five stars to rate the show, and then select "Write a Review." Be sure to let me know your favorite episodes, too! 

Also, if you haven't done so already, make sure you're following the podcast! I'll be adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed, and if you're not following the show, there's a good chance you'll miss them. Click here to follow now!

🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:

• Ep. 131 - 5 Steps To Start Planning Your Book Series
• Ep. 145 - How To Develop Your Character's Backstory
• Pre-order my new book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: A Story Grid Masterwork Analysis Guide

Click here to pre-order a copy of my brand-new book, The Story Grid Masterwork Analysis Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and get a handful of extra-special pre-order bonuses for free!

👉 Looking for a transcript? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, scroll down below the episode player until you see the transcript.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

Your story's antagonist is the obstacle between your protagonist and their goal. So this person or this character does not have to be bad or evil. They are just an opponent that causes conflict for your protagonist or gets in their way as they try to pursue or accomplish their story goal. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I wanna prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, we're going to talk about creating antagonists, specifically creating impactful, genre appropriate antagonists that act as the catalyst for your protagonist change, and I'm going to share five questions that will help you get to the root of who your antagonist is, what they want and how you can make them an integral part of your story, versus someone who's just kind of a bad person or a mustache twirling villain. But before we dig into those questions. I wanted to tell you that when crafting my own stories, this is where I start. So in most cases I have an idea a very rough idea usually of who my protagonist is and things like that. But I find that by fleshing out my antagonist, either first or at the same time as my protagonist, it helps me get better insight into who my protagonist is and the kind of conflict they will face and things like that. So this is where I like to start and I encourage all of the students in my Notes to Novel course to consider their protagonist and antagonist at the same time and kind of develop them in tandem with one another. And I wanted to mention this because if you're someone who has trouble developing the antagonistic character in your story, then you might want to try this out to see if it helps. I know that my students have found it very, very helpful and the lesson inside the Notes to Novel course that's about developing an antagonist is usually one of their favorites. So just a little pro tip from me, or a little strategy that you can try if what you're currently doing is not working. Now one more thing before we dig into what those five questions are that will help you flesh out your antagonist. We should probably talk about what an antagonist is, just so that we're on the same page. So the way I like to think about this is that your story's antagonist is the obstacle between your protagonist and their goal. So this person or this character does not have to be bad or evil. They are just an opponent that causes conflict for your protagonist or gets in their way as they try to pursue or accomplish their story goal. So in case you don't know who your antagonist is yet, you can consider the following questions. Question number one is which character is going to create the main plot problem or provide a lot of that conflict that your protagonist will face as they pursue their goal?

Speaker 1: 4:04

Number two is what kind of antagonist does my external genre call for? So an easy example that comes to mind is that usually the criminal in a crime or mystery story is intelligent or resourceful or you know just really good at what they do, and that's because usually the detective is equally as brilliant or resourceful or whatever, so that it makes them a good match. So sometimes just knowing the general shape of the protagonist or some of the conventions in your genre can help you figure out what type of antagonist you need. Question number three is which character can help me best express my story's theme, whether positively or negatively? So, assuming your protagonist helps you do this already, is there another character that can act as that antagonistic force and help you express your theme?

Speaker 1: 4:56

And I find that usually the answers to all of these questions will point to one person, and that's probably the best candidate to be your story's primary antagonist. So, with that person in mind, you can walk through the five questions that I'm going to share with you next. And these five questions are meant to help you develop your antagonist and flesh them out in a way that gives them purpose and significance in your story. So, again, we don't just want a cardboard cutout of someone who is opposing your protagonist or who really might be that mustache twirling villain, right. We want to create an antagonist that has significance and some kind of weight in the story. Now, as I go through each of the five questions, I'm going to use Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, so you can see how each of these questions works or what kind of answers you can get to. That will help you flesh out your antagonist a bit more so.

Speaker 1: 5:45

With all of that being said, let's go ahead and dive right in, starting with question number one. Question number one is what does your antagonist want? And this is really important, because your antagonist will be defined by what they want. If your antagonist doesn't want anything, they're not really going to have a reason to get in your protagonist's way, and if they don't get in your protagonist's way, then your story will lack conflict. But also, when your protagonist has a strong goal, this will help you populate your plot and create meaningful conflict for your protagonist to face.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Now there's two ways I like to think about this. So number one is what does your antagonist want before the story starts on page one? And this question makes sense, right? Because our antagonist doesn't just show up to page one and decide they're going to do a bunch of things. In most cases, they've already been doing things to get what they want, or find happiness or fulfillment or whatever that looks like for them, and in a way, it's almost like we're dipping into their story, just like we're dipping into the protagonist's story. So we want to know what does your antagonist want before the story starts on page one? And then we want to think about what will become your antagonist's goal after the inciting incident kicks in or after the protagonist engages with the central conflict. So, as an example, we can think about some generic genre goals and then, as you hear me talk, through these, you can think about how you might start to personalize them for your own story. So, as an example, in a crime story, it makes sense that the antagonist's goal is going to be to avoid getting caught, especially once the protagonist starts tracking down clues. Right, and just from that one little sentence, we can already see how the protagonist and antagonist will clash against each other. Right In something like an action story, the antagonist usually has a specific goal that, if accomplished, will strip others of their agency and or power.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Now, whatever that specific goal looks like is up to each author, but the key thing is that it will limit or take away the agency of other people if the antagonist succeeds. Now, one thing that's really important is that your antagonist's goal needs to be specific, and this is something I see writers get wrong a lot of the time. So your antagonist's goal needs to be specific, and that's just because it needs to be something that is measurable and that readers can track as they read forward in the story. Also, it's really hard to create conflict and scene-by-scene goals for your antagonist if you don't specifically know what they're going after. So just something to keep in mind.

Speaker 1: 8:22

And now I want to look at our example. So we're going to take a look at Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and this question is about what he wants, both before the story starts on page one and then after the central conflict kicks in. So we're looking for the answer to those two questions as well as how specific that goal is. So what does Lord Voldemort want? Well, he wants to come back to full life and power, and to do that, his plan is to get his hands on the Sorcerer's Stone. So this is his plan before page one and it has nothing to do with Harry at this point, right, but then, once Harry starts to get curious about the Sorcerer's Stone and once he starts to meddle in things, voldemort uses Professor Quirrell to try to take Harry down. So his initial goal remains the same to get the Sorcerer's Stone so that he can come back to full power. But now, because the protagonist is getting involved and getting in his way, he has to take that into account and just slightly tweak his goal. Okay. So also notice, that's specific, right he wants to get his hands on the Sorcerer's Stone to achieve that bigger goal of coming back to full life and power, and he's going to use Professor Quirrell to help him achieve that goal.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Now the cool thing is that once you know your antagonist's overarching story goal, you can come up with smaller goals that they will need to accomplish in order to achieve that goal. And this is what's going to help you create the plot of your story, specifically that really hard section in Act 2. And it's one of the most overlooked components I see when it comes to drafts that don't work. So what I like to recommend is take a sheet of paper, write your antagonist's specific goal on the top of the page and then just brain dump a bunch of smaller actions or smaller steps that they're going to need to take to accomplish that goal, and then after that you can reorder them or do whatever makes sense to you in your process, so you can look at what you've written down and say, okay, are there any instances where my protagonist is going to start getting in the way of these actions? Or let's say that they'll find evidence that one of these actions has been taken or one of these smaller steps has been accomplished or whatever it is, and you can really start to see the overlap between your antagonist's goal and them taking action on that goal versus what your protagonist doing, and this helps you create a lot of really nice organic conflict. So that is question number one.

Speaker 1: 10:47

What does your antagonist want, both before the story starts on page one and then after the inciting incident? Question number two is why does your antagonist want this? So, in a nutshell, your antagonist needs a compelling and watertight motivation or reason for going after their story goal, and this is something that can make or break your story as well. So if your antagonist has a weak, unconvincing or even overcomplicated motivation or reason for going after their goal, it's probably going to be hard for readers to enjoy your story. And I'm sure you've read stories where that is the case, where the antagonist maybe had an unconvincing goal. So you know they want something and you're just like well, that makes no sense to me. I don't really buy into this story, or maybe it's.

Speaker 1: 11:36

I read a book like this the other day where the antagonist goal was just so overcomplicated and I kept thinking can't they just do that thing over there and basically get the same result they want. It just felt like a bit too much and it felt like it was complicated for complications sake. So just something to keep in mind, and I'm going to tell you how to avoid creating a motivation for your antagonist that reads like this so what we want to find is what's motivating them right? Why do they want to accomplish this goal? And the reason or this motivation is usually going to come from their backstory. So you will want to spend some time exploring their backstory and just dig in to see what justifies their actions or their goals in the present day. So why do they believe what they're doing is right or warranted, and how do they justify their beliefs and their actions to themselves and others Things like that? Now, a few weeks ago ago, I did a podcast episode it's episode number 145 called how to Develop your Character's Backstory. I highly recommend doing the exercises in that episode for both your protagonist and your antagonist, and if you do, I bet you will uncover what's really motivating your antagonist and what's underneath these big goals that they want in your story.

Speaker 1: 12:54

So let's take a look at our case study, which is Lord Voldemort, and remember, his goal is to get the Sorcerer's Stone. He's going to use Professor Quirrell to help him do this. So why does he want the Sorcerer's Stone? Well, we learn in future books that Voldemort really doesn't want to die. So he's kind of afraid of dying and he wants to live on to be the most powerful dark lord ever. So in order to do that in his current state because, remember, he doesn't even have a body at this point he needs something like the Sorcerer's Stone to help him kind of take that first step, so that he can figure out how to come back to full power and live forever and all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Now, if you want to hear more about how Voldemort's goals change over the course of the series, I will direct you back to episode number 131. That's called five steps to start planning your book series. We will link to that in the show notes, but in that episode I talked about how Voldemort's goals changed over time. So if you're interested in seeing that or if you're writing a series, you might want to go check out that episode. Okay, so based on what Voldemort's doing, it makes sense that he needs an object like the Sorcerer's Stone to accomplish his bigger goal of you know, being the most powerful Dark Lord ever and avoiding death, right. So that motivation feels solid and it's also something that we can relate to. So we don't have to agree with what Voldemort is doing or what he did, but there's probably a lot of us who can relate to being afraid of death. So again, just to recap question number two, we want to find out why does your antagonist want what they want, why do they believe their actions are right or justified, and how do they justify all of this to themselves and others? And again, you will want to spend time digging into their backstory, probably to find this answer.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Now, moving on to question number three, it is what is at stake for your antagonist, and the great news is, if you already know your story's content, genre, you already know what's at stake, because it's the same as what's at stake for your protagonist. So, for example, in a typical crime story, either the good guy gets brought to justice and the detective succeeds, or the bad guy escapes justice and the detective fails, right. So justice or the solving of the crime, that's what's at stake. In a romance story, both the protagonist and antagonist will either lose or gain an intimate connection or that relationship with the other person. So the stakes are the same on both sides.

Speaker 1: 15:18

In something like an action story, it usually boils down to a scenario where only one person can survive. So the protagonist or the antagonist, and what's at stake there is life and death, right. So we want to know what will your antagonist stand to lose or gain if they don't get that specific thing that they're after? And if we take a look at our case study with Lord Voldemort, we know that Voldemort wants the Sorcerer's Stone so that he can avoid death. And what's interesting is, in the first Harry Potter book he does not accomplish his plot goal, right. He does not get the Sorcerer's Stone, he does not recover a body, he does not come back to full power, right. He has to do all of that and other books. So in this case he has failed and he suffers the negative consequences of what's at stake in this story. But the stakes throughout have been very clear right Throughout the entire story. We know that whoever has the Sorcerer's Stone will be granted immortality. So if you don't have the sorcerer's stone, you're not going to have that immortality and you will die someday. So very clear and genre appropriate stakes there.

Speaker 1: 16:22

And to recap, that's question number three what's at stake for your antagonist? The more specific you can be here, the better as well. Question number four is what is your antagonist's plan for accomplishing their goal or getting that thing they want? So we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier. But once you know what your antagonist's goal and motivation are and what's at stake should they succeed or fail, it's time to break their goal down into action steps. So what is their plan for getting what they want? And to flesh that out, you can consider the following questions. So, number one what steps would they take to get what they want? Number two in what order would they take those steps and why? So why would they take the steps in that order?

Speaker 1: 17:06

Sometimes, just forcing yourself to think through that will help you find plot holes or holes in logic, even as early as in the outlining or brainstorming stage. Number three what kind of roadblocks might naturally get in their way as they pursue those action steps or their goal? So this could be, you know, just things that would occur in the world, things that would make it difficult, things like that. And then, number four how does your protagonist specifically start to get in their way. So how do their goals interfere with each other? And then number five what consequences would your antagonist naturally face for their actions? So, like I mentioned earlier, the goal is just to kind of come up with a list, or a brain dump, of all the possible action, steps and consequences and things like that, that will come into play as your antagonist pursues their goal.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Once you're done brainstorming, you can consider how your antagonist's goals and plans will interfere with your protagonist's goals and plans. This is what's going to help you create some really nice organic conflict for your story. So, as an example, consider Lord Voldemort's goal of acquiring and using the Sorcerer's Stone. Voldemort's plan is to use Professor Quirrell to steal the stone for him, and to do that Quirrell needs to find the stone, he needs to figure out how to get past whatever's guarding it once it gets moved to Hogwarts, and then he has to actually steal it, right. But then Harry starts getting curious about what's hidden on the For third floor, which we know is the stone, and he starts getting in the way of Voldemort and Quirrell's plans and this causes problems for them, right. And these problems result in new actions or different actions being taken against Harry to stop him from interfering.

Speaker 1: 18:48

And I like this example because in real life, this is how conflict works, right, the person who's in control of a conflict, in this case the antagonist, doesn't really plan their actions around the other person, which, in this case, is the protagonist. Usually what happens is the reactive person who, at the beginning of the story, is almost always the protagonist. They are bombarded with events outside of their control and then from there they struggle against that antagonistic force to bring their life back into balance. So that's just kind of how conflict occurs in real life. Right Now, a lot of writers go about this backwards. So if you're someone who's used to planning the conflict in your story by deciding what you want your protagonist to do and then deciding what your antagonist should do, then you are going about things a little bit backwards, and that's OK. A lot of people do this. But this will create a less than solid plot and it's also going to make your job of plotting and outlining your novel way harder than it needs to be. So, again, this is why I always recommend developing your antagonist and your protagonist in tandem with each other, because things are going to grow out of all the different components that you develop.

Speaker 1: 20:03

So that's question number four what's your antagonist's plan for getting what they want? Now question number five is probably my favorite question of the five, and it's what is your antagonist's thematic significance? Now, your antagonist can help you express your story's theme, because they drive so much of that external conflict and that external conflict is a visual metaphor for your protagonist's inner conflict. So I'm going to say that one more time the external conflict your antagonist creates is a visual metaphor for your protagonist's inner conflict. This is why it's important that the conflict your antagonist creates ties back to your theme, aka the expression of how your character grows and changes, or what they learn over the course of the story. Now, every character in your story should ideally reflect some aspect of your theme in one way or another, but your antagonist should represent a really key part of it.

Speaker 1: 21:01

So, thinking of our case study here, lord Voldemort, we know he's happy to sacrifice others to get what he wants and to extend his life. We also know that Harry is usually the one to sacrifice himself for others. So Harry has a moral compass and Voldemort really doesn't, right? So in this way they're kind of two sides of the same coin, and in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone specifically. It's kind of showing readers what aids or harms one's ability to survive. So in this case, voldemort does not succeed. We already talked about that right. He uses others to get what he wants and to extend his life Because he fails. That's a way to express the negative side of the theme. So using others and sacrificing others to get what you want is going to result in failure or that inability to survive. On the flip side, harry sacrifices himself for others and he comes out of the story a winner. So that expresses the positive side of the theme.

Speaker 1: 21:59

Now, on a similar note to what I talked about earlier, if you're someone who starts plotting your story after you've fleshed out your protagonist, then it's likely that the external conflict that your protagonist faces will only be indirectly related to your theme, if at all. But if you start with an understanding of what your antagonist wants and how your protagonist gets in the way, whether unknowingly or knowingly, you can use the organic conflict this creates to force your character to grow and change on the inside. This is the key to writing a cohesive story and it's why I like developing a story's protagonist and antagonist right alongside each other. So that's question number five what is your antagonist's thematic significance? Now you might be thinking well, what if I have multiple antagonists? So what if I have one main antagonist and then one or two more lesser antagonists? What do I do? Do I need to flesh out these five questions for each of them and the quick and easy answer is yes.

Speaker 1: 22:56

I would highly recommend doing this work for each character who is an antagonist to your protagonist, and I would also try to make sure that your antagonistic characters or forces are connected in some way. So maybe they're in a relationship together, maybe they have their fates bound together or force the same conflict, which could just be your protagonist, right? So if you make sure they're connected or linked in some way, it's just going to help you create that sense of cohesion in your overall story and create a really enjoyable reading experience. So, as an example, consider Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, voldemort. Slash Quirrell is the main antagonist providing the majority of the central conflict, even if readers and Harry don't realize it right away. But the other characters, like Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy, create conflict for Harry on a day-to-day basis and combined, all of this conflict forces Harry to grow and change and step into his role as the boy who lived. I'll probably do another episode on multiple layers of antagonism at some point in the future, so we will get into that topic a little deeper at some point.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Now, just to recap what we talked about in today's episode before I let you go, key point number one is that your story's antagonist is really just the obstacle between your protagonist and their goal, so they do not have to be bad or evil. They're just some kind of opponent that causes conflict for your protagonist or evil. They're just some kind of opponent that causes conflict for your protagonist. And key point number two to flesh out your antagonist, I like to work through five questions. So number one what does your antagonist want? The more specific you can be, the better. Question number two why does your antagonist want this? So what's motivating them? And remember I said, you'll probably have to dig into their backstory to get to the root of why they want what they want.

Speaker 1: 24:40

Question number three is what's at stake for your protagonist? Again, the more specific you can be here, the better. Question number four what is their plan for getting it? So can't recommend enough taking out that sheet of paper and just writing down whatever comes to mind about the steps or the actions that they would take to, and just writing down whatever comes to mind about the steps or the actions that they would take to accomplish their plan. It will help you so much when it comes time to outline and write your book. And then, finally, question number five is what is your antagonist's thematic significance? So how are they helping you express your theme? And then remember, the external conflict they create is a really nice visual metaphor for your protagonist's inner conflict. So dig into that and make use of that in your story and you'll come up with something really cool. And then, finally, key point number three if you have multiple antagonists or multiple forces of antagonism in your story, I do recommend going through this exercise of answering those five questions for each one of your antagonists and then just remember to do your best to make sure they're connected in some way to create that sense of cohesion in your story. So that's it for today's episode.

Speaker 1: 25:47

As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you wanna check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode, inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and, in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.