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"My name is...I am the antagonist. I was born in the year X in a town called..."
The antagonist opposes
the protagonist. This
opposition forces the protagonist
to grow, to build muscle, to change. If you don't have a strong antagonist, you can't have
a powerful novel. Male antagonists come from mythical Monsters like Dragon
and Sea Serpent. Hannibal Lecter, a bad dude from The Silence of the
Lambs, has six fingers on one hand and he uses his teeth to kill.
Lecter eats the organ meats of his dead enemies. Female antagonists come
from the third aspect of the Triple Goddess. Whether
she is young or old, your female antagonist is a Death Crone who wears a
mask. Katharine Clifton, the antagonist
of The English Patient, wears a beauty mask. In our book The
Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery, we suggest that writers create the
killer first. Why? Until the killer kills, the sleuth has nothing to do.
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Writing Exercise |
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1. My name is... I am the Antagonist. I was born in a town called X in the year XXXX...
2. The worst thing that ever happened to me...
Spend a lot of time on your Antagonist’s backstory. Backstory is what happens before the story opens.
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