Antagonist – Write on the World

Inconsistent character arcs are an essential big-picture issue that should be addressed early in the revise and refine stage of the novel writing process. A character arc is the transformation or development of a character over the course of the story. It’s the emotional or psychological journey that a character goes through as they face and overcome challenges or obstacles and change as a result.

The characters in your stories may have different types of character arcs– the important thing is that they evolve along with your story rather than remaining stagnant from start to finish.

To address these issues during the revise and refine stage of the novel writing process, it is important to first determine which of your characters are important enough for them to experience a defined character arc over the course of your story. This will often include both your protagonist and antagonist as well as any other characters who are essential to the plot of your story.

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In a recent blog post on writing villains, The Write Practice’s Joe Bunting says that in every story, “there is always only one internal villain… whether it is fear, lust for power, or control.” This, of course, got me to thinking about my own protagonist in one of my current works in progress. I decided to do a freewrite on this topic and share it with you.

My freewrite: Who is M’s internal villain?

She just wants to go somewhere and lead an adventure. She doesn’t seem to care where she goes, which allows her to be led by evil people to places that she doesn’t want to be. She is so afraid of being ordinary and being stuck where she is that she jumps at any opportunity to be someplace and someone different.

My protagonist could use a little Katy Perry in her.

One of the problems that I seem to be having with my protagonists in this and with Valley of the Bees is the fact that neither of them seem to have any agency. They both allow themselves to be victims of plot. I can’t decide if this is good or bad. I feel like it’s something that my protagonists need to overcome. But at the same time, I’ve been taught that characters who just allow themselves to be carried along by the plot are the weak superheroes of weak stories. Am I writing weak stories? Continue reading “Freewriting practice: Name your protagonist’s internal villain” →