Tell Me About Your Novel's Antagonist

Like most people, I don't read in a variety of genres. I have my favorites and I never venture any further. But I know that the makeup of an antagonist, or "villain" differs, depending on an author's specialty.   

It's cathartic for a reader to stumble into a true villain, I think. We view real-life people who've messed with us as villains, whether they truly are or not (they are to us!), so watching a fictional villain's inevitable downfall is immensely satisfying. Villains can be painted with broad strokes, like that guy above, or as more subtle and sinister. 

Whether we're even cognizant of it or not, every novel we write has its villain(s). Because what is a story without conflict? Unless we're writing a "man against nature" story, people, very messy people, will show up to make our main character's life miserable. 

Some of my antagonists have been irredeemable, but many of them were simply misunderstood. The difference, for me, depends on how big of a role they play in the story, and to be honest, how much I like or dislike them. Do they just show up one day and crash a perfectly good party, then fade into the background? Are they a plot device? Or is there something about them that demands exploring?   

In my genre, I don't so much write villains, but rather antagonists. And they've been created differently, depending on the book. 

In my first novella, New Kaitlyn, the antagonist is the "bad boss" (I think I drew from personal experience!) A selfish, self-centered, egotist who is in reality a dolt. But he's a long-distance villain; I still needed one who was up close and personal. Enter the fiance of the man Kaitlyn is taken with. She's Kaitlyn's employee, which complicates things further. And one could say that maybe Kaitlyn should have pushed her developing feelings for the man aside and that some would view her as the villain. Not in my story! Thus, the fiance turns out to have a lot of undesirable characteristics.

Shadow Song is wholly different. The only true villain I can identify exists solely in Ashley's imagination. She makes up her mind about a character before she even meets him and develops a burning hatred for him. But since there is a murder involved, which Ashley is unjustly accused of, the true murderer is technically the villain, but we don't even get to know him. So, maybe the actual villain of the story is the justice system.

Bad Blood doesn't string the reader along. The villain is revealed in the blurb. Of course, he's dead, so...

In The Diner Girl, Carrie's aunt, who she's forced to live with after her parents are killed, is "not nice". I admit, I kind of took pity on her, though, and supplied a reason for her cruelty. (No, I'm not a cop out!) This story is different, in that I believe Carrie's true antagonist turns out to be herself.

Lies and Love doesn't waste time identifying the villain. He's really the basis for the whole story. Sometimes you just gotta put it out there.

The funny (in a stupid way) thing about Inn Dreams is that I basically wrote the entire story without a villain, and boy, was that story's first iteration a dud! Looking back, I can still feel the burnout I was experiencing. I'd pushed too much because of a self-imposed schedule, which required me to publish something new every three months (at the most). The initial premise was great---a woman buying a rundown motel to renovate---and I did manage to introduce a love interest, but thennnn....nothing much happened. At one point my MC ran back home because either things had gotten too hard or she and her love interest had a misunderstanding...or...honestly, I've completely forgotten. 

I've had a couple of stories that started out that way; great premise, no follow-through. With Inn Dreams, it wasn't until I went back and inserted a villain that the story became interesting. A couple of reviewers were quick to point out that they knew who the villain was right away, but my intent wasn't to hide the villain from readers, but from the MC. (So, it's okay, readers, if you figured it out.)

Running From Herself started out with the same problem as Inn Dreams---a bad novella that I actually published for a time. That novella's antagonist, I suppose, was Jared, but he was a half-hearted villain at best. It wasn't until I fully fleshed out the story that a real villain reared its head, and that was the record label itself. Paul Gables, the A&R guy, was a stand-in for the label, but I always figured he'd redeem himself somewhere down the line. So, in this novel, the antagonist is an entity.

I won't spend a lot of time on Whispers in the Dark. The villains are two-fold: an actual bad guy and the MC's paranoia. Find My Way Home is an odd outlier. I'm not really sure what it is; a slice of life story, maybe? This one has no identifiable villain or even a mild antagonist. My first novel, Once in a Blue Moon, does show one generation antagonizing the next, but each of the three MC's has her reasons, which are understandable in the end. So, I'll go with "no villain(s)". 

And finally, with the novel I'm currently revising, yes, there is a villain in the piece, but we only learn about his villainy in retrospect, since he's now been murdered.

To sum up, my books' villains are:

1. Two dead guys; possibly a third, but the jury is still out

2. One con man

3. An evil entity

4. One imaginary foe

5. Paranoid thinking

6. One bad boss

7. One archetypal scheming woman...or two 

8. A couple of misunderstandings

9. A barely seen bad guy

10. The MC herself

What I can say about my genre, which I guess is women's fiction, is that the antagonists often aren't readily apparent. Maybe that's why this is my natural home. I like psychological exploration and defying standard assumptions. People are complicated. A character who is initially presented as a villain might just be misunderstood. Or at the very least, redeemable.

On the other hand, some aren't redeemable. That, too, is like real life. Bad people do exist. And I'm not one to spill a lot of words trying to explain or justify their actions. (See: Bad Blood)

Anyhooo....today's questions:

1. Do you dream up your villain(s) before you start writing?

2. Are they standard villains, or is there a twist?

3. Is a non-human ever the villain of the story?

4. What was your most memorable villain?

As always, leave a comment and let me know. I'm intrigued by writers' imaginations, and if I'm intrigued enough, I'll buy your book.

P.S. I'm still struggling to get Google to index this site, so if you found me, you're pretty awesome.