fbpx

Can You Submit with Confidence?

Now you can with the Complete Submission Checklist!
For a Limited Time…

Are You Losing Your Readers?

Keep Your Readers Avidly Engaged to the End and Wanting More!
For a Limited Time…

Revise Your Manuscript Like a Publishing House Insider!

For a Limited Time…

Motivated Villains

I attended RWA 2017 last month. There’s something freeing about attending workshops and classes for writing that is outside your genre. For one thing, it’s a not so gentle reminder that good writing is good writing no matter who your ultimate audience is. But the best part is that different genres approach craft differently, and it’s nice to look at writing from other perspectives.

For instance, after being at RWA, I’ve been thinking about the antagonist (or villain) of my works very differently. I’ve always considered my antagonist purely as a function of the story. He/she (or it) exists solely as the monkey wrench that wrecks my protagonists’ easy journey to meeting their goals or having their wants/needs fulfilled. In many ways, this kept my antagonists from becoming fully developed characters. Sure, I was making them realistic and taking them away from a stereotype. Yes, they were still thwarting the protagonist in interesting and novel ways. Still, I was cheapening both them and their stories.

Instead, I now consider my antagonists’ wants and needs and their goal in the same way that I do my protagonists. After all, every antagonist considers themselves the hero of their own story. No one considers themselves the villain, and most of the time, antagonists are not the pure embodiment of evil. They are their own distinct persons, and they need to be respected as such.

So, ask yourself the following questions, and take the time to explore your antagonists. After your protagonist, they are the most important character in your story.

  • What is my antagonist’s motivation. Why do they do what they do?
  • What does my antagonist need? What do they need to do to get this?
  • What is my antagonist’s external goal?
  • How do my antagonist’s goals and my protagonist’s goals directly contradict one another? How does this cause the story’s conflict?

Related Posts

The Importance of Industry Experience

The Importance of Industry Experience

There are so many facets to the publishing experience. There’s being a children’s book author or illustrator and the experience that comes from creating books for kids to consume. Then there is actually working for a publisher in some capacity whether that’s as an...

Sometimes You Just Gotta Say Enough Is Enough

Sometimes You Just Gotta Say Enough Is Enough

I know the temptation. That temptation to just change one more little word. To read through the manuscript one more time —  Just In Case. The temptation to tinker endlessly with a manuscript because it just doesn’t feel perfect. I get it. I do. I’ve had that...

A Picture Book Has How Many Pages?

A Picture Book Has How Many Pages?

If you type “how many pages does a picture book have” in a search engine, nearly every result will tell you that there are 32. So, are Picture Books 32 Pages? Yes, and also no. Wait, hear me out. Ok, technically, yes, picture books are 32 pages. Like almost all print...