Art Holcomb on “The Hopes and Dreams of Truly Awful People”

[deborahjross]

Consider this:

Western storytelling allows you to learn about your hero as you write the story, but you had better completely know your antagonist from the very beginning. Your hero should be the only malleable character in the piece. In other words, your hero must be genuine, but your antagonist must be genuine and tangible.
While your hero will debate and have doubts about the path he is taking, your antagonist cannot. He must be sure of himself, his cause, and his ultimate victory.
The antagonist is not there to merely stop the hero from getting what he wants; he has an agenda, his own list of goals, desires, and tangible goodies that the Protagonist is preventing him from having. The sword must cut both ways: each player wants to get what they want while all the while denying the other what THEY want. It isn’t enough to do just one or the other. They must be completely incompatible with each other.


“The Hopes and Dreams of Truly Awful People” — a guest post by Art Holcomb

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Huh. I am ... at a loss to understand why the antagonist can't change and grow and question. Swords, as he says, must cut both ways.

Also, my own feeling is that you get better story if they're not completely incompatible.

But perhaps I should go and read his whole piece, rather than just ruffling my feathers at a sample...

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, and read Art's assertions as being the conventional expectations. We, of course, thrive on defying the expectations, turning them on their heads. But his point about the stereotypical villain being cast in concrete is a good one, and points to why you so often get cardboard mustache-twirling characters.