This week, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn talk about villains you can’t vanquish: How do you handle a villain that can’t wear a hat, black or otherwise? When your story calls for a force instead of a figure, what does that mean for your plot? For your character? What do you need to be aware of when writing a bad event or circumstance, instead of a bad guy? Are there genre-specific antagonistic forces?
VIDEO
AUDIO
SHOW NOTES
If your story doesn’t have a bad guy, what do you have? How can you use stories about nature or society to craft a non-personified antagonist? Do you have to have characters involved? And are these external, or internal forces? What effect does this have on your story? And how can you keep a reader interested?
What we talked about:
If you don’t have a “bad guy” then what are you left with? (0:25)
How can you use man against nature as an antagonist? (1:09)
Are antagonists genre specific? (2:40)
How do we get the force on the page? (5:15)
Does your antagonist have to have a person involved? (7:50)
Antagonistic Forces are external events, or internal explorations. (9:50)
Make sure you have both external and internal conflict. (11:30)
Have opposition, even if it isn’t evil! (12:20)
How conceptual can you get? (17:05)
How is your character changing as a result of this conflict? (21:08)
LINKS
Things we mentioned:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
George Orwell
Aldous Huxley
Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger
Apollo 13
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 023: 3D Villians
SWRT 026: Writing Villians