Transcripts
1. Introduction to Writing Engaging Antagonists: The antagonist is an
important element in almost every story, but unfortunately, it
is often overlooked. This is something I'm guilty of as well as many
of my students. What we do is when we think
about writing a novel, we think about the protagonist, the hero in our story, and the things
they'll get up to, the encounters they'll have
with other characters, stuff that we've
written down and plan to use later when
writing our novel. So often we push the idea of the antagonist to the side to focus on the more
positive things. However, it is the
antagonist that complements and brings
depth to our story, so we need to give it
the proper attention. My name is Matthew Dewey, and I've written several
novels in different genres from science fiction to fantasy
to thriller to mystery. So I not only have a lot
of experience writing, but also a lot of
experience writing antagonists in different genres, as well as teaching them. I've written several books
on writing for beginners, as well as taught
many courses tackling different genres and subjects
when it comes to writing. I've taught thousands of
students this way and have also privately coached
several writers as well. My writing and
teaching experience is there for you to
see on my profile. The focus of this
course is making your antagonist a lot more
interesting to the reader. You don't want to simply
have an antagonist for sake of having one. You want to make
sure that they are an engaging read and
enjoyable to write, as well. So I'll be going in
depth discussing the foundation of
a good antagonist, as well as making
them interesting, both in dialogue and in
action throughout your story. As I don't know the specifics of the antagonist you'll
be using in your novel, I'll be using general
advice that can apply to any antagonist
in any genre. But if you do have any
specific questions pertaining to your antagonist
or any aspect of writing, be sure to leave them
in the discussions below because I am an
active instructor, which means I'm always there
to answer your questions and provide feedback on
any work that you submit. Writing isn't something
that you do passively. You do need to practice. So I do focus a lot on practical work throughout
all my courses. If you are beginner writer, I highly recommend taking part in the practicals
throughout this course. But if you do have some experience and
simply want to share some of your work
and get feedback, you can do so as well. The very first video
of this course, we'll be discussing
the foundation of engaging antagonists. Thank you for showing
interest in this course, and I'll see you in the very
first video. Happy writing.
2. The Foundation of Antagonists: Hello, and welcome to
the first video in your course on writing
an engaging antagonist. Now, the first thing we're
going to be talking about is what makes an antagonist
work in a story. What is their role?
Now many writers like to believe
that the main role, of course, is the antagonist
just being a bad guy. And that's far too simple
to describe their purpose, their goals, the place
they have in a story. The reality is that the antagonist's role in
the story is fourfold. First of all, the
antagonist is there to oppose the objective
of the protagonist. Of course, this is
something we already know. The antagonist is against
what the protagonist wants or the protagonist
against the antagonist. It's as simple as that. The second reason, however, is it helps reveal the
protagonist's character. When we have
conflict in a story, it helps us better understand
the shape of something. However, when you have darkness that complements that lighting, you better understand the shape. This is why when you
look at a sphere from the face and the light
is hitting it face on, it just looks like a circle. But when the light is
hitting it from an angle, you can see shadows being cast and you better
understand its shape. Suddenly, something
that seems so two dimensional has depth to it. In many ways, I like
to think of this as the most important aspect of the antagonist because it makes the protagonist a
lot more interesting. And that's something
that a lot of writers tend to do is make the
protagonist so two dimensional and uninteresting
that they kind of feel like a placeholder for the reader and not really an
engaging character. And that's not something
you want in your story. You want your main character to feel entertaining and
enjoyable to read. So that's the first two reasons. The next, of course, is to establish the stakes
in the story. Better understanding what is going to be lost
or gained during the plot will help us understand the tense
moments a lot easier. And the fourth reason is rather to underline the
conflict in the story, the theme of this story. Is it good versus evil? Is it a certain moral quality against another moral quality? One, for example, being that the ends doesn't
justify the means, but the antagonist tends
to think that it does. Things like that help us better understand the moral
aspect of our plot. That brings us to another
important aspect, which is the goal
of the antagonist. Now, every antagonist
has a goal. They want to obtain wealth or
power or exert their force, or they want to stop a protagonist for revenge,
things like that. Every character in a story
has a goal, a purpose, even if it's simply
to persist in their own existence and
the way they exist. A lot of people like
to think they want to have a chaotic antagonist, and that simply means
that the antagonist doesn't have a real
goal or purpose, but that's simply not the case. Even a chaotic character has
a purpose and it is chaos. It's in the name itself. Sometimes these goals are
small and understandable, but they get carried
away in achieving them. There are characters out
there who are antagonists who simply want a
normal, easy life. And that's something that
many people can understand. However, what makes them the antagonist is the way they go about
achieving this goal. That's not just
say you can't have more baseless antagonists
in your story. That still works if it
complements the protagonist, which is simply stopping them. For example, creating
an antagonist that is evil for the
sake of being evil, the psychopath that kills for
the enjoyment of doing so. That is still a decent
antagonist if presented well. However, if they come off as so baseless and too dimensional, it's very difficult to understand where
they're coming from, for even the evil for
the sake of being evil characters have a
purpose in their stories. So with all of this
said, let's talk about how we can apply this
to your character. Let's take a look at those
four reasons once more. First of all,
establishing a goal that conflicts with
the protagonist's one. Secondly, how this will complement and
create conflict with the protagonist in
order to bring out a bit more depth in their personality or
role in the story. Thirdly, how this antagonist establishes the
stakes in the story. And fourthly, how
this brings out the thematic conflict
within your story. The homework for this lesson
is to take your antagonist and write down the information that best fits these
four elements. You can be detailed where
you feel it is necessary, but you can also just write
down what they simply do. For example, they could
conflict with the protagonist simply because they want
to achieve the same goal, but only one can achieve it. For example, the antagonist
in your story can be a competitor in some
sort of competition, a game or anything like that. It could be that it is a war, a conflict between two
nations within your story, and the antagonist is simply on the other side of the border
waving a different flag. In these ways, we
understand how they will oppose the
protagonists objective. But now we're going to talk about how your antagonist will compliment the protagonist and bring out their personality. Now, you can do this
in small ways with the actions they perform
within the story. For example, the
antagonist might trample on innocence in
order to achieve their goal, but the protagonist will not. Then we can understand
the differences between the two characters. Of course, they can be more philosophical in the way
they approach things. In some ways, you may even
agree with the antagonist. Either way, it still
allows us to see the antagonists
personality compared to the protagonist and thus bring their
personalities forward, making them a lot more
three dimensional. Returning to those
previous examples, let's say that the
antagonist is a competitor. They may not take their training too seriously and they may be relying too
much on their talent. This can complement
the protagonist who does a lot of
training in practice to build their skill and win out hopefully
over the antagonist. If it is a wartime
scenario where they are just different teams and they're fighting
against each other, in that case, you're
going to make sure that the antagonist has a different philosophy or reason for fighting than
the protagonist. For example, the antagonist believes in the certain ideals that their nation holds while the protagonist
believes in his own. You could do something a bit
more nuanced and realistic, which is both of them are simply fighting for nations which
have forced them to fight. In which case, you can create some other thematic conflict, which will cover
the fourth point. Thirdly, you need to
define the stakes. Take a look at your
antagonist and understand what would happen if
the antagonist won. Would there be any real
change in the story? Would it affect the
character in any such way? Would a lesson not be learned? Would a victory result
in death or would it result in a bad
lifestyle, things like that? For example, your protagonists might need to win
in this competition because the prize money would help them help
someone in need. In the war conflict example, it might mean the bad
nation winning out over the good nation if there is
any such thing in your story. It's very important
that you establish the stakes because so
many writers do not, and since they don't spend that much time thinking about
the stakes of their story, the reader cannot be
compelled by the story. In other words, if the
antagonist wins out over the protagonist and nothing
really changes or is lost, then the victory
does not matter. There aren't really any
stakes within the story. Help the readers understand
why the protagonist is taking risks or doing these
things within your story. And finally, and one which we've already talked
about earlier, establishing what the thematic
conflict is in your story. That's the antagonists fourth
role and element to them. I could help us
better understand the moral questions that you
are posing for the reader, help them take sides, understand the conflict, perhaps even recognize it
in their own lives. That's an important
aspect in any story. These four elements lay down the foundation of a good
antagonist and better understanding them
and developing them will help you write a lot
more engaging character. Of course, this is a very
broad way of looking at, very general way of
establishing your antagonist. So we're going to talk a bit more about them specifically, their personality, their mindset within your plot in
the very next video. However, if you've completed your project and ready to share, you can post it in the
project section below. If you have any questions, be sure to leave them in
the discussions as well. I will say that this is the most important
part of the course. So I would recommend out of all the video
projects that this is the one that you complete in order to get the
most out of it. Okay. I'll see you in the
next video. Bye for now.
3. The Psychology of Villains: Hello, and welcome
back to your course on writing Engaging Antagonists. Now, in this video, we're
going to be talking about the psychology behind
the antagonist. First of all, we're
going to talk about a classic line which is used to describe the
best antagonists, which is they think
they're their heroes. And this is true. Every great
antagonist has a concept of morality that is
different from that of us and the protagonists. They understand a different
kind of wrong and right. Often they seem to be
doing something noble. Other times, it
may seem horrible, but that's simply because
their moral compass has pointed them
in that direction, and unfortunately, it hasn't
been turned correctly. In many ways, a great antagonist
could be the protagonist of an entirely different story if you wrote it from
their perspective. They could be justified
in doing the things they do depending on how
you tell that story. And you don't need to
take my word for it. Look at the great
revenge stories that we often see in
novels or in movies with characters who go on mad killing sprees taking out many people who
get in their way, some of which are
just doing their job. Either they are
bodyguards or soldiers, and they're simply doing
what is required of them. They may be morally
correct in that situation. They could be bystanders or simply caught in
a bad situation. But that certainly doesn't
stop the protagonist in the revenge story
from taking them out. And let's face it, there are certainly some darker
stories out there where we feel that the
protagonist is doing well, yes, truly despicable things. But in some ways, we kind of agree with
what they're doing. The violence and
terribness of humanity often skew the moral compass depending on who you talk to. Emotions can direct our anger and compel us to do things
that we wouldn't normally do. All that it requires is the right emotional push to make people do the
things that they do. Of course, it doesn't
always have to be emotion. Some people do things logically. For example, sacrificing
the few to save the many. Whereas many believe that that is a morally bankrupt
way of saying, do something incredibly vile and terrible in order to
justify a greater good. That's where we've
gone from morally black and white situations to morally great characters messing up that line between the two. That's what this video is
about, the psychology, the morality of our antagonist, and how we present
them to the reader. The easiest way to do this
in any story is to give the antagonist a wound that pushes them
in that direction. For example, the antagonist could lose somebody
close to them, and that forces them
into a situation where they're compelled
by the emotions to rectify it in case it
happens to someone else or simply take revenge on those who cause that
wound to be made. And yes, we already understand this concept in many stories. There are many villains
which have been heard physically or emotionally, who go on a journey that leads
to a lot of devastation. The next aspect of
their psychology is how they rationalize
their decisions. We've given them a
wound, a driving force, a goal that they
want to achieve. But now we need to
rationalize their decision. Of course, this will be
rationalized in their own mind. They're justifying
what they do and making it logically
or emotionally sound. It's very rare that an
antagonist is so truly damaged that they don't recognize the evil that
they're committing. But most of the time,
they do actually recognize the pain or death
that they are inflicting. But they rationalize it, they self justify in order to keep doing
what they're doing. In many ways, they are actually
making the wound a lot deeper and they are trying to
escape or avoid that pain, a sort of self denial
through self justification. So what does this
mean? How do we have our antagonist rationalize
a bad decision? Well, first of all,
it's the blame game. Often an antagonist will
look at the other party who they've hurt in some way
and say things like, Well, they shouldn't
have been there. They shouldn't have
done that or said that. They were going to go
out of their way to stop me from achieving my goal, and all these things
could prevent or hinder my success in achieving this goal and
thus hurt a lot of people. Again, it's the whole ends
justifies the means conflict. I want you to keep this in mind because if you have
an antagonist who isn't hypocritical
and their values and goals are truly
important to them, they need to have
excellent skills at justifying what
they're doing. They need to rationalize
their bad behavior. Now, at this point, you
might be thinking, Wow, this is a lot of
things to keep in mind when it comes to
writing an antagonist, and you might be saying, Well, I'm writing a series, and this antagonist only
appears for one novel. So I don't really have
that much depth for them. Or this might be a short story. So again, I don't
get to show off these aspects of the antagonist
as much as I would like. Therefore, requiring this
much depth is unnecessary. And those are good and
understandable reasons. And I can understand not spending so much time
and effort trying to make this antagonist something superior to really
fit into your story. You simply want to
make them engaging. You don't want to create a
whole bio surrounding them. Well, in that case, there is a quick and easy method to make this still
work in your story, and that's to use a mirror
version of your protagonist. Simply create antagonist that completely conflicts
with the protagonist. Same thing goes with
their personality. Your protagonist might
be more morally bound, then the antagonist won't be. It's simply selfishness,
it's more two dimensional. You understand the
character, certainly, simply because they
are the polar opposite of your protagonist. Now, you don't need to
create some entirely different dimensional
version of your protagonist. You don't have to do
it with every little aspect of these characters. But if you ever feel
like you need to include an element that conflicts if your protagonist,
just mirror it. Create that conflict, and you won't have to
spend too much time debating all the other aspects of the antagonists personality. With all that being said, if you do want to create a
more in depth antagonist, then I do recommend attending
to those other points, which is establishing a wound that drives your antagonist and, of course, giving
them a psychology to rationalize their
bad decisions. And remember, the best
villains typically think of themselves as the
heroes in their own story. And in some ways, you can create an aspect of them that the
reader will sympathize with. Now you don't have to share
this information about your antagonist in
the project section, but you can do so. This is simply an
element that might be a bit more specific
to your story, and I understand that a
lot of writers are private about their project
and they don't want to talk about it
until it's released, and that's perfectly all right. So that covers the
theoretical aspects of writing and
engaging antagonist. So in the next video, we're going to be a bit
more practical. I'm going to be going over some writing techniques
and methods that I use when creating
engaging antagonists. They're going to be general,
so you can apply them to your work no matter which antagonist you are working with. So if you're ready to
do some creative work, I'll see you in the next
video. Bye for now.
4. Engaging Antagonists - The Practical: Hello, and welcome to
the final video in this course on writing
and engaging antagonist. Now, this is a practical video. I'll be going over
several methods and techniques for writing
your antagonist, so you can better understand how you can present your antagonist. And, of course, I'll make sure these techniques are general so that it doesn't apply
to a specific antagonist, so you can use them no matter which villain
you are writing. First of all, power dynamics. When an antagonist appears, their power should be
presented in such a way the reader understands that they are force to
be reckoned with. You don't want an antagonist who rolls over and is
easy to deal with. That doesn't really
create conflict. It's a minor obstacle. So presenting your antagonist, that shift of power clearly needs to tell the
reader that this is a character that is important and is a worthy adversary
for the protagonist. It can be done in any
way that you see a fit, depending on your story. If it's a fantasy, it
might be physically, if it's something a
bit more contemporary, it might be intellectually. It really depends on the situation and story
you're telling. Step one, present a
situation where it seems the antagonist is going
to lose or is inferior. Step two, have them show confidence in the
face of this trial, and step three, simply show them overpowering
it in some way. So that's the structure of an antagonist scene
showing their power, and that can be your final
project for this course. But I'm going to go over
other scenes and you can decide which one you want to present as your final project. So the second one I'm
going to be talking about is the use of
dialogue and voice. So here are some techniques to make their dialogue
more engaging. First, let them
speak fewer words, but more pointedly, antagonists who say less
often feel more dangerous. Next, add subtext. Having the antagonist hint at something and not
outright saying it is a great way to make them seem a lot more
mysterious and dangerous. And the third point is very important with dialogue
because many writers make this mistake is they make their antagonist far too wordy. They use long sentences,
they monologue, and that can often
make them come off as cliche and not that intelligent. It's all about ego when it
comes to those characters who spend far too much time talking about their
villainous plot. Whereas the truly
threatening antagonist will use fewer sentences, fewer words, often make use of silence to hide
their next move. So for this example, it would be best if you
write something like a dialogue exchange between your antagonist and
another character. It doesn't have to
be your protagonist, but it has to be a dialogue that underlines the antagonist's
personality in some way. The third and final
scene idea is to talk about their physicality and
mannerisms within your story. So we've talked about dialogue and presenting power dynamics, but now we're going
to talk about them actually doing something. Now, mannerisms are
very important in every story and are often overlooked especially
in dialogue. Characters who are
truly realistic won't stand still for
an entire dialogue, especially in a tense situation. A character might
maneuver themselves around the room,
interact with objects. It's a great way
to show that they are alive within your story, you need to make sure your
antagonists mannerisms and physicality
capture who they are. Having a villain who is still in calm in a tense
situation is one thing, but having a maneuver
in such a way that gives us a better understanding
of the personality, or their plan is
also a great way to show how intelligent
and dangerous they are. Now, a great way to show a
fearsome antagonist is to actually have them in the face of the character that
they are talking to. Physicality in conversation
can show aggressiveness. So if you antagonist doesn't mind being close to who
they're speaking to, placing their hands on them, maneuvering them, to
show that they have an almost dominant presence in that scene is a great way to shift the balance
of the dialogue. But of course, this scene
doesn't have to be a dialogue. It could be the antagonist doing some sort of action to
move towards their goal, whether it is dealing with other characters in a
physical way or doing actions that seem cruel or strange that show intelligence
or aggressiveness, could be the antagonist breaking something or just having
a personal moment. All of these are great ways to make the character
come to life. Again, I talk about
these smaller scenes because for most writers, they've already established the major scenes in their plot. They understand what
their characters are going to do and what
they're going to say, but it's in those in
between moments that so many forget the personality
of their characters, and it just comes off as padding in between
the major scenes. You don't want that.
You want to present your characters as they are
throughout the entire story. Your project is to write a scene of one of
those three scenes. The first scene is the
power dynamic shift. Whether it's shifting from the protagonist or side character, it shifts towards
the antagonist. Second option is a
short dialogue sequence between your antagonist
and another character. It'll be a focus
purely on dialogue, and if that's
something you enjoy, I recommend this
project for you. You'll be trying to convey the antagonists power and personality through their words. And the third scene
option is one where the antagonist shows
off their physicality, their mannerisms,
those small details that convey personality
through their body. As I said, in the
introduction of this course, I am an active instructor, which means I respond
to every project or discussion that is submitted
in any of my courses. So when you are ready to
share some of your work, and it can be an example piece
or something that you may actually use in your final
novel, that's right. I'll be able to review it
and give you my thoughts and pointers on how to improve
the story or the excerpt. This is also a great way to get some constructive
criticism if you're looking for direction in
your writing journey. I understand for a lot
of writers starting out, they are unsure of how
to present something. So if you have any questions, be sure to ask and discussions or ask any questions within
your project as well. My courses tend to
surround the practicals. So if you want to make full use of this course and of course, me as an instructor, I recommend working on a
project and posting it. That way you get to employ the techniques
that I talk about, and I can also provide my own
input should you want it. Of course, if you want more
specific hands on coaching, I do have a one on one coaching service as
well on this platform, which you can find
on my profile. And that means you can share your work with me,
and, of course, I keep everything private, and you won't have to
share any of your work directly for everybody to
see in the project section. And, of course, those
coaching sessions will be tailored towards your work and not a specific aspect of it. We'll be talking
about your story, your characters plot, anything really that you feel that
you are struggling with. However, for now, I hope
you enjoyed this course. I look forward to seeing some of your work in the
project sections below. With that, happy writing.
Matthew Dewey
