Out of all the characters that exist in a story, antagonists are the most difficult for me to get right. Too often, I find myself in danger of falling into the trap of writing an antagonist that is too obviously bad, usually to the point where the character just falls flat and becomes a 2D character. I did this a LOT during my early writing days, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a major reason why all of those early unpublished manuscripts I wrote were rejected by every agent I sent my work to. Even though I think (I hope!) that I've improved from creating antagonists that are "too evil", it's still something that I have to take a lot of time to develop. Along the way, I've picked up a few thoughts about what I like in a bad guy.
Thoughts on Villains
Thoughts on Villains
Thoughts on Villains
Out of all the characters that exist in a story, antagonists are the most difficult for me to get right. Too often, I find myself in danger of falling into the trap of writing an antagonist that is too obviously bad, usually to the point where the character just falls flat and becomes a 2D character. I did this a LOT during my early writing days, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a major reason why all of those early unpublished manuscripts I wrote were rejected by every agent I sent my work to. Even though I think (I hope!) that I've improved from creating antagonists that are "too evil", it's still something that I have to take a lot of time to develop. Along the way, I've picked up a few thoughts about what I like in a bad guy.