Antagonist Dodge

Antagonist: That which challenges you, inciting or inspiring change. Or, if you're not ready to meet the rigors of your journey (hero's or heroine's) blocks you from achieving that thing you want. For me, this week, the antagonist is microscopic and only barely alive. A virus. Fever, cough, and the feeling that someone is sitting on my chest. At the moment, I don't much care whether I live or die. This probably means that today, the antagonist has one. That won't last. I shall return. And in the meantime, have a silly, cute, kitty video. Because you know. Cats make the internet go round.

Perils of the Writer: Not Every Antagonist is the Bad Guy

Last week I talked about villains being the heroes of their own story.  But even in those cases, they do tend to still be the "bad guy" in an objective way.  In Thorn, Fenmere believes he's in the right, protecting his own, but at the same time, if you were to design a "Am I The Bad Guy?" Flowchart, the question "Did I Hire Assassins to Kill A Teenager?" would definitely point to "Yes, You're the Bad Guy."
But not every antagonist needs to be a villain at all. 
Take Rellings-- the dormitory prefect in Thorn of Dentonhill.  He's a constant roadblock for Veranix over the course of the book. He's obnoxious to Veranix, but mostly because he suspects Veranix is up to something he shouldn't be... and he's exactly right.  Veranix is sneaking out of the dorms at night, and it's Rellings's job to maintain discipline and stop students from doing that. 
So of course he's not a bad guy. 
Stories are full of this kind of antagonist, and it's far more interesting to have two people who believe they are doing 'the right thing' be in opposition to each other.  Sometimes that works well-- The Fugitive in the 1990s was an excellent example: Dr. Kimble knew he was innocent and was on the run to find his wife's killer; US Marshal Gerard was hunting for an escaped convicted murderer.  They both were doing the "right thing", and in the end, they both got to "win".  Heck, the sequel flat out made Gerard the protagonist.
The challenge is finding that balance.  When one person's "right thing" is more obviously "right" than the other, you lose that, and then you can overcompensate to attempt to bring balance back.
Take, for example, Marvel Comic's Civil War story line a few years back.  On the face of it, you have one side saying that there should be regulation and oversight to superheroes, and people who choose to do that should have accountability (just like police, firemen, soldiers, etc.), and the other side saying that any yahoo should get to put on a mask and punch people without regard to civil rights or due process.  (Am I showing my bias here?)  But the story, in seeing that one side of the argument has more of a point, overcompensates, turning the "supporting registration" side into jackbooted fascists who throw anyone who disagrees with them into an extradimensional prison. This includes having Tony Stark-- the face of registration-- decide that when Peter Parker abandons his side, he's going to send a team of "reformed" villains after Peter, including Bullseye. 
Remember that flowchart point I made before?  Yeah.
But it doesn't have to go that far. A genuine clash between two good people can make for a fascinating story. 
Have at it.  See you down in the word mines.
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Also: If you are in the Austin area, tomorrow night (Friday, February 20th), I'll be at BookPeople (603 N. Lamar) at 7pm, reading from and signing Thorn of Dentonhill.

Vermin and Volcanoes, Viruses and Vices

Vermin and Volcanoes, Viruses and Vices

or Non-Villain Antagonists

by Linda Robertson

Last week I mentioned Jaws, Twister, and Zombies, but this week the topic is the non-villain antagonist so I'll add to what I started--but wait, there's more! I'll even throw in a bonus...

As you read this, consider the heroes/protagonists in these stories. What was it about them that made their journey through the plot interesting? What was it about them that made the story more important?

1.) JAWS
Creatures have to eat. A shark eating things that swim in the water does not make that shark a villain, it makes it a predator in its natural environment. This is any wild animal in our world. From scorpions in the desert, to snakes in the rain forest, or dinosaurs  in Jurassic Park.

They're not evil, they're just hungry.

Throw a character in an environment where they collide with these creatures and you have a story of exploration and survival.

2.) TWISTER
Natural disasters make great stories. The Poseidon Adventure. Titanic. Armageddon. Ice Age. 2012. The Perfect Storm. Deep Impact. The Day After Tomorrow. Flood. Magma.
They're not evil, they're just destructive.

The key here is going to be character development vs. the escalation of the danger--from the disaster getting worse or from other characters also trying to survive. What line is this character not willing or able to cross, and how can you force him/her to find a way to cross that line in order to overcome this obstacle to survival?

3.) ZOMBIES
Here we have the un-natural. A virus, a spore, a non-human organism. Yes, I mean Zombies. The Thing. Alien. Godzilla. The Borg. I, Robot. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Blob.
This can certainly tip over into full on villain in the form of the "Big Bad" but it does not have to. This is what we find when we explore beyond our world, or when aliens invade our world, or when we create something that will be our own undoing.

They're not evil, they're just programmed/engineered/born that way.

Throw a character in an environment where they encounter these things and you have a story of discovery and exploration and survival.

BONUS:

4.) ADDICTION
A character battling his own inner demons such as his struggle to overcome an addiction is certainly a plot without a villain, and often is a compelling story.

He's not evil, he's just fallen down...but he wants to get back up.

The questions are: Can he? Will he? and How? Make us care. Make us worry. And in the end, make us cheer when he triumphs.

Antagonists: The Divergent Hero

Antagonists who aren't villains. So far this week, we've covered plague, famine, war...and our overlord Zul to whom we are but bedbugs in his future paradise.

I'm throwing in the unexpected enemy. The Best Friend. The Faithful Sidekick. The person on whom the protagonist most relies. The person who agrees with the ends but has equally strong convictions that thwart success during the means. Perhaps the BFF doesn't believe in the quest at all, rather they believe in the relationship...until the quest threatens that relationship. Perhaps the BFF antagonist is trying to save the protagonist from self-destruction. A Best Friend antagonist could be the character embodying the protagonist's path not taken, the belief not held, the ability to bend, etc. Whatever the contrasting characteristic, I often classify these antagonists as:

The divergent hero.

That kind of antagonist can be a tricky character to write and still have the reader respect--if not like, without liking too much. After all, why, after the second or third time of BFF cockups, does the protagonist still hang around?  On the other hand, how do you keep the BFF from overtaking the story and becoming the true protagonist? Maybe you're doing it deliberately to set up your plot twist? In which case the protagonist is, in fact, the antagonist.

~mind explodes~

Some of our stronger Real Life relationships are with people who are similar to us in many ways, yet we all know how one of those differences can change the entire relationship--sometimes permanently. It's common and even necessary to have minor conflicts between the protagonist and his Scooby-gang; but pushing the conflict with the BFF into the realms of plot-twisting stakes-raising, full on clash of characters...well, that's where an antagonist is born. The antagonist doesn't have to be evil, they just have to be different enough to have a conflict of method or means.

There you have it, readers, the antagonist who isn't a villain, but is instead the confidant, the ally, and the best friend.  Who is your favorite fictional frenemy?

Non-Human Antagonists (and I Don't Mean Aliens)

Sometimes I feel like a fraud, writing these craft posts.

You know - now with topics like this week's: Antagonists who aren't villains - I start thinking more about what I studied back in the days of AP English than of my own work. Things like place as a character and antagonists who function as protagonists. Things OTHER writers do. My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in science, not literature. I am not one of those studied writers who plans out themes and symbology, who even thinks in terms of protagonists and antagonists.

It's funny because yesterday my local chapter of RWA, the fabulous Land of Enchantment Romance Authors (LERA), sponsored a program on using the Scrivener software, taught by Ben Prior. For those who don't know, Scrivener is a program many writers use for drafting and revising novels. It lets a writer compose by scenes and shuffle them around, combining and recombining, along with tracking metadata like setting and character profiles.

All of which makes my skin crawl.

Pretty much literally. In fact, my chapter mates know me so well that they teased me about it, asking at the end of the presentation if I was a convert. Anna Philpott, sitting next to me, burst out laughing and answered for me, saying no - that I'd been actually squirming in my chair in discomfort. Ben came over to me after and asked about my process. So I showed him my spreadsheets. ~eyebrow waggle~ And I explained that I don't think in terms of scenes or character profiles, that it's all one story to me, that I write from beginning to end.

And he said, "Oh, you're just one of those naturally talented storytellers."

So I'm clinging to that explanation, rather than the fraud one.

ANYWAY.

As I mentioned in last week's post about villains, I don't think I really write them. I suspect *most* of my antagonists aren't actually villains. Particularly in my contemporary romances, there aren't really villains at all. And the "antagonists" tend to be whatever it is in the protagonists that is stopping them from finding happiness. Their own stubbornness or blindness to what they need to see.

It's interesting to me, writing both genres. Particularly now, having just completed a final read of the galley proofs of my (very long) epic fantasy romance, THE TALON OF THE HAWK, and finishing and sending to my other editor the draft of my contemporary erotic romance, UNDER CONTRACT.

You'd think these two books would have little to no overlap and yet I noticed that they do. And it's in this arena - the antagonist who's not only not a villain, but not even a person.

Drought.

Yes, I have drought in both books, a relentless force that drives a great deal of the desperation to effect change. I did not plan it that way - or even notice until the other day - because (duh!) I don't plan any damn thing in my books. But it's there in both. No doubt a reflection of my life in the desert southwest of the US, where our ongoing severe drought has woven into the fabric of my subconscious.

I suppose my point is - since I really ought to have one - is that an antagonist can be any kind of conflict faced by the protagonist, whether human, alien, animal or a force of nature. Villains are a very small subset of antagonists, and fairly limited to certain subgenres. And, to my natural storytelling mind, among the least interesting variety. ;-)