So if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I had what I like to call a “moment” with this draft and current revision round.
But I had a breakthrough in brainstorming and have been very productive. I’m still revising my Act 1 scenes, but I’m also looking ahead to what’s in store for me in Act 2.
I finally faced the story problem that had been with me when I was writing the draft. I really didn’t have a good antagonist. I had characters that had competitive goals but considering that my protagonist has a paranormal gift, I really needed to think about who or what in my story was going to make her work hard to achieve her goal. The only real antagonist was a “concept” and not really a character. I needed a physical presence to oppose Grace’s goals.
I think I’ve found a really good antagonist to make my character Grace work hard. This means I’ll also have to add some new things in Act 2 and during the next revision round, add some things in Act 1. That’s okay, this is what revision is all about.
But it’s exciting because not only does this antagonist has an opposing agenda but she also has powers of her own. And she is pissed off that Grace is interfering her “domain.” Plus, she has two accomplices that may or may not be on her side. Should be interesting and fun to write.
The end result of creating this antagonist is more conflict, which also makes the story stronger. It will make the reader wonder, “What’s going to happen?” instead of “Well, there goes Grace again with her powers to save the day. Yawn.”
So what makes a good antagonist?
In her craft book, Between the Lines, Jessica Page Morrell gives great definition:
“An antagonist is an adversary, and his job is to thwart your main character, perhaps by competition, perhaps by dangling a goal or object that [the protagonist] desires, or perhaps by creating a problem [the protagonist] needs to overcome. The antagonist’s main role is to force the protagonist to triumph over his real or perceived flaws in order to win the prize.”
So if any of you are having blah issues with your novel, you may need to up the ante and create a viable antagonist to make your protagonist work harder to achieve the goal.
