How I wrote my Antagonist.
I could easily write how I chose my hero. But it felt convincing the other way around. When the story concept struck my mind for the first time, it was so intimidating to write onto a paper.
I tried approaching the story in different ways but villain’s perspective felt more exciting. Plot building became a little tough when the antagonist himself stepped inside the story.
Citing various pop-culture references, the story became so interesting even to write.
Let me say how my first step of choosing an antagonist was. I dived head first deep into the internet and kept looking for building an intimidating personality. Just took a couple of points and started doing my own business. Here are few elements I had initially.
To Accomplish Something
In my case, the villain has an evil plan of replicating hero’s work. Doesn’t sound evil but think about “Talia from The Dark Knight Rises”. Until the antagonist steps in, the story is plot driven, but then travels as character-driven.
To Avoid Something
The antagonist has things at pale as well, just like the protagonist. Failure should mean more than just failing in the plan. There will be consequences if he doesn’t succeed, nasty ones.
Technically he isn’t a villain at first place.
To Adapt Something
It’s obvious that I wrote villain being ten steps ahead of my hero. Too near or too far was feeling dramatic.
Being a character-driven venture, he rationalises with himself and continue further in the path of destruction.
To Emote Something
Hard hitting emotional cliché was added into my story to prove that villain is just another human.
The breaking point of villain lies within himself. But the breaking should be done from within. Person capable of doing things is none other than protagonist.
To Visualize Something
I tried to give my antagonist all the good traits as well. This helped me to visualize the perfect outcome of the story. Tries to be a good guy, but the situation turns him into the dark side. Assume our very own Darth Vader from “Star Wars”.
There will be no difference between them until the face-off scene.
I tried my best to not include any Chestnut dialogues like “Ah! We meet again Mr.A”, “Say Goodbye to your friend”, “You have few seconds to decide”, etc. The problem with many of the above is that they are way too dramatic, being the junk of endless stunt sequence and revenge sagas. What’s more, they try too hard to convey the sarcastic wickedness of a stereotypical villain.
Ultimately, I tried to build a strong character arc but not an extensive, horrifyingly brutal backstory. Although I tried it too. But things went anti-gravity.
To create a memorable villain, I made him interact with those in favour and those who aren’t. Which raises most important questions for writing the story.
Does he treat them with equal villainy or not?
What kind of an Antagonist is he?
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