"Anything can be an antagonist, it can be a person or yourself or drugs..."Or something along those lines I don't really remember word for word. But one of the key parts to a book is not only having a great plot, a good protagonist and good supporting characters but also having a good ANtagonist.
Really? Who doesn't love to hate the bad guy? I don't have TONS of experience on antagonists, but there are some things that I've notice make a really good one.
1. Show no mercy!!! Sorry, that sounded dramatic. But you can't have a cheesy, fool-able baddie. It just don't work. There need to be something somewhere that shows how truly evil he is in all aspects of his life. Have you seen the movie Despicable Me? Did you notice how Gru is even mean to a little kid? That's what I mean. Except that Gru is supposed to be funny.
2. Have some heart. Hold on a second...am I contradicting myself here? Not really. If you think about it, the outward persona is the side that shows no mercy, the evil at all times baddie. But having some heart is different. Everyone has something important to them, food, friends, family, fast foods, fast friends, fast family. Kidding. Back on track now. There's always something important to everyone, and that's pivotal to show in a villain. Then the good guy has some grip on how to defeat him, and we see some weakness.
3. Give some back-story. This is also really important, without the back-story, we might as well start the book in the middle. Really. So giving a little bit to everyone rather than up to the MC's great-great-great-grandparents is better. The baddie needs something to show what made her so evil.
4. Leave us in the lurch. You don't want to give everything away. You don't want us to know the hand before they start playing the card game, you certainly don't want things to turn out as they seem. Giving away everything about a person in the future and past will muck it up. I encourage you to keep secrets from us in your writing.
5. We hate him! What's better in a bad guy? Making us hate his stinkin' guts, of course! We want a fitting end for them, we want them to get what's coming. We want everything to go wrong for them but we want to make it look hard. So please, I beg of you, don't make your bad guy stupid!!!
6. We love him! Think of Severus Snape if you've read the Harry Potter books. Don't you love hating him? Don't you want to think of what's going to happen to him and how Harry can get back? Don't you love it when someone gives him a good what-for? That's a good villain. I'm still not entirely sure if Snape is a villain or not, but that's what makes a good one.
So there you have it! Six tips that seem like they contradict each other but really can make sense and are what I've observed. Add your own tips in the comment box and I might add them to the post!
*If you're going to be mad at someone for reading Harry Potter, be mad at me. Izori has not read the books and please don't let my reading choices affect your opinion of her.*
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