Antagonists

(an excerpt from The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass)

Villains are some of the worst characters I met in manuscripts, and not in a good way. What I mean is that they frequently are cardboard. Most are presented as purely evil: Mwoo-ha-ha villains, as we call them around the office.


To make an antagonist three-dimensional is to give that character the power to sway our hearts in directions we would not expect them to be swayed. To get us to see, even accept, the antagonist’s point of view.


Now, you may not want your story to feel ambiguous. You may embrace right and wrong and write an outcome that makes your values obvious. That is your choice.


At the same time, a wholly black-and-white story cannot engage us very deeply. The deck is too stacked, the players too shallow to stir or scare us in memorable ways. Whatever your intension, it’s worth investing time in your antagonist, opening up their unexpected sides, justifying their actions and even making them right.


That only adds to the drama.

The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great
by Donald Maass

Description: In his new book, New York literary agent Donald Maass illuminates the techniques of master contemporary novelists. Some authors write powerhouse novels every time. What are they doing differently on the page? Maass not only explains, he shows you how you can right away use the techniques of greatness in your current manuscript.


Author bio: A literary agent in New York , Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004) and The Fire in Fiction (2009). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.



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