In a previous post, I wrote about how a protagonist operates in a story. This is very important, mainly because your story would be pointless without them, but one type of character that is equally important is the antagonist.
As its name suggests, the antagonist is the antithesis of the protagonist. Remember that your protagonist wants something, no matter how simple it may be. For argument’s sake, let’s say the protagonist wants a glass of water. Sounds kind of silly, you could say a story is all about that. Well, your antagonist wants something that conflicts with what the protagonist wants. Say they want that same glass of water to drink, or they want to use it to water a plant. In a nutshell that’s what an antagonist is.
The important thing to remember is that this is a very good way to create conflict in your story, which is important because without conflict, there is no story. So to create a good antagonist, give them character traits that conflict with the protagonist so the two–by their nature–want different things. If you can do that, you’ve got a good conflict.
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–N.L., 2017