Writing Tip: Write Dynamic Antagonists
Protagonists often get the most attention by readers, but the mark of a truly compelling story lies in the strength of its antagonist for me. Of the personalized agent feedback I’ve received throughout my querying process so far, literally every single one has commented on how much they loved (to hate) my antagonist. I take this as a massive compliment! I’ve been thinking a lot about why that might be, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
If we want a dynamic antagonist, we need to think about more than just putting them in opposition to the protagonist. We want to create multifaceted characters with depth, motives, and conflicts, even if we don’t want people to like or agree with them. Let’s talk about how we can elevate the antagonist from simply being an obstacle for our protagonists. Let’s make them impossible to ignore. If the story could be just as powerful with any old antagonist, it might be worth diving more into the one(s) we’ve chosen to create, and see if we can step it up.
Although antagonistic forces make for equally interesting and compelling antagonists, my approach to them is slightly different. Perhaps I’ll dedicate an entire future post to that. For the purposes of this post, I’m focusing on a singular, defined antagonist rather than antagonistic forces like poverty, war, fear, etc.
Understanding the Role of Antagonists
Antagonists aren’t just obstacles for protagonists to overcome; they are the driving force of conflict, providing the tension that propels the story forward. A dynamic antagonist should challenge the protagonist on multiple levels, forcing them to confront their weaknesses, beliefs, and values. If we’re not doing that, we’re missing the mark. A well-crafted antagonist elevates the entire story to the point where the story couldn’t exist without that oppositional character. Readers are drawn into the story not only by the protagonist’s journey but also by the interplay between protagonist and antagonist. That conflict is what engages the reader and provokes thought. Plus, a truly villainous, creepy, terrifying, or unsettling villain only makes us love and root for our protagonists all the more!
Essential Elements of Dynamic Antagonists
This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but these are a few of the things I consider when writing and further developing my antagonists.
Motivations and Backstory
What drives them? Why have they become the person they are in this story? Understanding their past and the events that shaped them provides context for their actions. They should be more than a faceless villain; they are a product of their experiences. Ideally, I want my readers to feel some level of understanding of who this character is, even if they hate them. Every bit of the backstory I create doesn’t end up in the finished draft, but every bit of the backstory informs how I write them throughout the story. As the writer, it helps me know how they’d act or respond—what they’d decide and feel—in any given scenario. The Darkling from Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone comes to mind. His backstory reveals that the Darkling is not purely evil for the sake of evil. He’s driven by a desire for protection, safety, and freedom for his people, born from centuries of watching them suffer. This understanding makes him both sympathetic and tragic, as his deep scars have led him to believe that power and fear are the only ways to ensure survival. Once we understand where he came from, he makes so much sense! It doesn’t necessarily make us like him, but we get how he ended up this way.
Complex Morality
Dynamic antagonists often blur the lines between right and wrong. Introduce moral ambiguity, where readers find themselves empathizing with the antagonist's perspective, even if they don't agree with their actions. Or show the difficult experiences which brought them to this point. Show their struggle as they make destructive or vindictive decisions. Give readers a three-dimensional character. The mustache-twirling villain is a meme at this point because, for the most part, we’re over it. We want someone fully human, even if we would never make the same decisions or behave in the same way ourselves. The first antagonist that pops in my head right now is Javert from Les Miserables. What makes Javert so compelling as an antagonist is that his morality isn’t evil or malicious in the traditional sense. He’s not driven by power, greed, or a desire to hurt others. Instead, he’s operating on a black-and-white moral code where the law is supreme. As Valjean demonstrates mercy and transformation, Javert's worldview is shattered. He struggles with the realization that sometimes mercy and humanity can, and should, transcend the law. His own inability to make this shift is what ultimately leads to his demise.
Personal Stakes
Give the antagonist personal stakes in the conflict, too. The protagonist isn’t the only one with a goal in the story. The antagonist’s goals should matter deeply to them, and the potential consequences of failure should be significant. Personal stakes humanize the antagonist and make their perspective more relatable. Remember, we don’t want a villain just for villain’s sake. If you, like millions of others, have read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, you have a great example of an antagonist with high stakes. Coriolanus Snow, who eventually becomes President Snow in the original Hunger Games trilogy, is struggling. His family's fortune and status have dwindled after the war, and his success in mentoring a tribute in the 10th Hunger Games is his only shot at restoring his family's name and securing his future. Snow’s actions throughout the novel are deeply motivated by his desperation to reclaim his place in society, which sets him on a path of moral compromise, ambition, and eventual tyranny.
Evolution and Growth
Allow the antagonist to evolve and grow throughout the story. Just like the protagonist, they should face challenges that force them to reassess their beliefs or confront their flaws. A dynamic antagonist undergoes a character arc that adds depth to their portrayal. Sometimes that’s a negative arc where they get progressively more and more unhinged, and that’s good too! The key is just to show change. Amy Dunne from Gone Girl demonstrates this concept well. Throughout the novel, Amy's character shifts from a seemingly wronged wife to a highly manipulative person, driven by deep-seated insecurities and a desire for control. Her evolution is evident as she transitions from playing the role of victim to orchestrating a meticulously planned revenge against her husband.
Conflict of Ideals
Introduce a conflict of ideals between the protagonist and antagonist. Their clash should extend beyond physical confrontations; it should be a clash of worldviews, beliefs, or philosophies. This ideological conflict adds layers and can also serve as a way to get the reader subconsciously considering the nuances in their own stances. 1984 is an example of this, if we consider O’Brian as the embodiment of The Party (the antagonist). In that story, Winston (the protagonist) has a worldview, beliefs, and philosophies which are in direct opposition to The Party. Winston believes in individual choice, freedom, thought, and the right to live autonomously, while The Party through O’Brian enforces absolute control, suppression of free thought, and total surveillance. These conflicting ideals are the entire foundation of 1984’s plot.
Sympathetic Qualities
Incorporate sympathetic qualities into the antagonist's character. I kinda touched on this above, but whether it's a tragic backstory, a genuine love for someone, or a relatable struggle, these qualities make the antagonist more human and evoke empathy from readers. Even if they’re terrible, awful people in the end, we still want our readers to find some point of connection, or some understanding for them. In every example above, we can find sympathetic qualities in the antagonist (with the exception of 1984).
Choose Words Carefully
As writers, we really have a lot of power over how our characters are perceived, and it isn’t just about their behaviors and actions… it’s also about how we write them. When describing their physical features, consider using words that highlight things in a particular way. For instance, when I wrote Vivian, I used a lot of bird imagery in the descriptions of her appearance and behavior, to emphasize the dual-sided nature of who she is. She is fragile, pointed, sharp-shouldered, delicate. But I also referred to her nails as talons, and her eyes as being locked on prey like a hawk spotting its next meal. She stabbed her croissant with a fork and ripped it to pieces with her bare hands rather than simply eating the pastry. Play with this, and have fun using your words to really drive home your antagonist’s characterization!
In order to write truly special antagonists, we must be willing to go deeper, recognizing that even the villain has a story worth telling and humanity worth showing. We have to go beyond a simple, surface-level opposition if we want them to be memorable, or if our goal is to move the plot forward in the most interesting ways. Instead of caricatures, our antagonists should be characters with depth, nuance, and some level of humanity for our readers to connect with. Who is your favorite antagonist? What makes them special to you? I guarantee they’ve got all the elements mentioned here.
Happy writing!
