Villains and Antagonists
My thoughts are much filled with villains and antagonists this week as I work on revising the middle section of my YA, DARK MERCY (whose title may once again change here in the near future.) The middle of a book is always the diciest. If things don’t escalate and ramp up, if there isn’t a distinct sense of forward momentum and tightening tension, then I think it is really, really easy to lose the reader. Or at least, that is where I am most likely to give up on a book.
I can’t remember if I’ve talked about the book SAVE THE CAT here but it’s a screenplay structure that I think works really well for books (as do many screenplay craft books.) And one of the things I love about Blake Snyder’s structure template is that he divides the whole giant middle into two halves. The first half of the middle, or the first half of second act if you prefer, is what he calls Fun and Games. This is where the premise of your novel is fully realized and you are playing with all the elements, spinning them out, weaving them together.
Then, after the midpoint, the second half of the second act is what he calls The Bad Guys Closing In. I love this label for that part of the story because it is such a vivid reminder to me of what needs to be happening. It gives me a very short, pithy sense of the essential action of that part of the novel.
But of course, for bad guys to close in, you need to have a bad guy. And I do. In fact, in this book, I have many bad guys. But the true antagonist (not the baddest of the bad guys, but the one who is actively pushing against the protagonist-the one who is locked in a struggle with her) is hidden and part of the plot is trying to find out who he is.
Which makes it a teensy bit harder to give the Bad Guys Closing In a distinct narrative drive and focus.
So now I’m spending a day or two story summarizing the entire book from my villain’s point of view, fully fleshing out his backstory, trying to decide his true motivation, etc. One of the things I’m struggling with is nuance. I don’t want a mustache twirling bad guy, but if he is too nuanced, does he lose his impact? If his motivations make a kind of intellectual sense, does that detract from the catharsis of the end? I’m just not sure.
I’m trying to think of the antagonist in some of my favorite or recent books. Voldemort is a great example, because he was a true bad guy, but he was also fleshed out enough throughout the course of the seven books that we had a sense of what twisted him, and that didn’t detract from the impact of the story. And while he wasn’t mustache twirling, he was an embodiment of Evil, and my villain is merely a human one.
President Snow was another great antagonist, although he was really just the face of the capital and Society. And he was effective in trying to maintain the status quo by any force necessary. Did we ever learn anything personal about him? Any nuances? I read Mockingjay in such a white hot rush that I don’t clearly remember
So how do you guys like your villains? Do you prefer evil ones or merely deeply flawed human ones? Who are some great, fully dimensional human villains you’ve enjoyed recently?
I can’t remember if I’ve talked about the book SAVE THE CAT here but it’s a screenplay structure that I think works really well for books (as do many screenplay craft books.) And one of the things I love about Blake Snyder’s structure template is that he divides the whole giant middle into two halves. The first half of the middle, or the first half of second act if you prefer, is what he calls Fun and Games. This is where the premise of your novel is fully realized and you are playing with all the elements, spinning them out, weaving them together.
Then, after the midpoint, the second half of the second act is what he calls The Bad Guys Closing In. I love this label for that part of the story because it is such a vivid reminder to me of what needs to be happening. It gives me a very short, pithy sense of the essential action of that part of the novel.
But of course, for bad guys to close in, you need to have a bad guy. And I do. In fact, in this book, I have many bad guys. But the true antagonist (not the baddest of the bad guys, but the one who is actively pushing against the protagonist-the one who is locked in a struggle with her) is hidden and part of the plot is trying to find out who he is.
Which makes it a teensy bit harder to give the Bad Guys Closing In a distinct narrative drive and focus.
So now I’m spending a day or two story summarizing the entire book from my villain’s point of view, fully fleshing out his backstory, trying to decide his true motivation, etc. One of the things I’m struggling with is nuance. I don’t want a mustache twirling bad guy, but if he is too nuanced, does he lose his impact? If his motivations make a kind of intellectual sense, does that detract from the catharsis of the end? I’m just not sure.
I’m trying to think of the antagonist in some of my favorite or recent books. Voldemort is a great example, because he was a true bad guy, but he was also fleshed out enough throughout the course of the seven books that we had a sense of what twisted him, and that didn’t detract from the impact of the story. And while he wasn’t mustache twirling, he was an embodiment of Evil, and my villain is merely a human one.
President Snow was another great antagonist, although he was really just the face of the capital and Society. And he was effective in trying to maintain the status quo by any force necessary. Did we ever learn anything personal about him? Any nuances? I read Mockingjay in such a white hot rush that I don’t clearly remember
So how do you guys like your villains? Do you prefer evil ones or merely deeply flawed human ones? Who are some great, fully dimensional human villains you’ve enjoyed recently?