Do You Need an Antagonist?

Do you need an antagonist in your story? 

Not necessarily!

Listen to this podcast episode to find some other ways of introducing conflict into your stories.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome to the Write for a Reason podcast. My name is Janet Wilson. I'm founder of Dernier Publishing and the Write for a Reason Academy. I'm delighted that you're here with me, and today we are going to be talking about antagonists. Very recently, I was talking to a writer for a reason, and she was telling me that she's been reading lots of chapter books for young people, for children, and she has found that there's not a lot of antagonists in the stories, which is very interesting, isn't it? Because we always think a story will have to have a baddie. Well, not necessarily so. There are other ways of introducing conflict into the story, and of course, we do have to have conflict, even though it may not be by a person. So here are some other ways you may have conflict in your story without an actual antagonist. And of course, just in case you're not familiar with the vocabulary, an antagonist is your kind of your villain, the person who is stopping your hero, your protagonist from reaching his or her goal, whatever that happens to be. A really easy protagonist to pick out would be in Cinderella. Of course, Cinderella is your protagonist. She is the girl that we want to see get to the ball and get her prince. Her stepmother and the two ugly sisters in this story are the antagonists. They are the ones who want this for themselves and do not want Cinderella to get to the ball under any circumstances. So you need danger and opposition, rivalry of some kind. So how else can we bring conflict into the story if we don't have an actual baddy? The terrain can be your danger. You may have characters having to walk across a desert to safety, for example, or perhaps a plane crash in the mountains, and they've got to make their way to safety. There may not be a difficult person in the group, although you may like to bring in some kind of conflict between the characters as well. One of them may not be an antagonist as such. Another way that we could be in conflict in stories is through just the circumstances. For example, in the story London's Gone, uh, which I wrote, so that's uh JM Evans, my pen name. You can get that on Amazon Kindle or as a book in the UK. In that story, there are three young people and they're having to make their way to safety to the south coasts of England after London has been bombed by terrorists. So there are some evil people that they find along the way, but mostly the difficulty is in the circumstances, how everything has changed, their power has failed. Um I don't want to give too much away, but it is the circumstances that they're kind of fighting against. And this brings me along to the last thing, which is um a definite conflict, and that is internal conflicts within your protagonist, him or herself. So you may find that they are struggling with fear or anxiety, um, all sorts of things which are stopping them from achieving their goal that is within themselves. And of course, this is what life is like, isn't it? We sometimes have people who are fighting against us. You may be in a country where Christians are persecuted, for example, or you might just have somebody really horrid working with you in the office. You may also have difficult circumstances, perhaps ill health or financial difficulties, and there are so many of those, far too many to mention, and I'm sure you are only too familiar with those. And also within yourself, you know that uh you struggle with things at times that perhaps other people might not. So all these things make for a good story. You don't necessarily have to have a particular baddie. But here's something that I'd like to say. As Christians, we know that there is evil in the world, and it is good for our children to learn about this very gently, and I don't mean in a harsh way at all, but in a very sensitive way, to be able to point out how we can fight against uh evil in the world in whatever way it might be. So don't be afraid to have an antagonist, don't be afraid to bring in conflicts because this is what life is really like, and if we can bring this in for our children from a faith-filled point of view, I think that could really help them. So I hope you've found this podcast helpful. If you have, pop on over to writeforreason.com. There are lots more free writing tips for you there. I also have a free writing course, Gripping Beginnings. We have a Right for Reason Academy, which has 10 modules. Um, it's a paid course. Uh, you can do that online in your own time and enjoy that and deepen your understanding of writing. Take it to the next level. We also have a membership group, love to see you there, and may the Lord bless you and keep you until the next time. And don't forget, if you have been called to write, someone is waiting for your story.