Writing Excercises To Help Develop Your Character

Now that you have a broad overview on what makes a well developed antagonist, this post will provide some writing exercises that you can use to incorporate into developing your character.

How to increase your ability to develop characters
In Godwin's article, Create Characters With Depth, he says to write about people you know. He says, "Pay close attention to the speech patterns and facial expressions and habits of people you see often or remember well. They can serve as ready-made skeletons to flesh out through your art as a writer."


Interview your antagonist
In Lourey's article, A Pyramid Approach To Novel Writing, she gives a list of questions to 'ask' your antagonist to develop the character:

* What's your name? Nickname?
* Anyone ever tell you that you look like someone famous?
* Of all your qualities, which is the one you're most proud of? Where do you think you acquired this quality?
* What do people seem to like the least about you? How does it make you feel?
* Which habit of yours would you most like to change?
* If someone looked in your bathroom garbage right now, what would they find?
* What scent do you enjoy the most, and what does it remind you of?
* If you could go back in time and change one day of your life, what day would it be, and why?
* What three goals do you want to accomplish in the next year? What challenges do you have to overcome to reach them?
* Whom do you love most in this world and why?
* What scares you?

References
Godwin, Gail (2007, June 01). Create characters with depth. Writer (6), 23. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Lourey, Jess (2011, February 01). A pyramid approach to novel writing. Writer (2), 30. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Who are People's Favorite Villains?

This post consists of a video I made of people telling who their favorite antagonist is and why. I think this will be helpful to you because you can use people's favorite antagonists to help guide the making of your own.

A Story Board to Help You Create An Antagonist

Albert, who is blogging on story boarding has done a guest post for my blog to help you visually see how an antagonist could compare to the main character.
 
 His storyboard layout can be seen below:

Taking Criticism

 Criticism is another aspect of developing an antagonist
Criticism is often a scary thing, especially for writers. Our stories and characters are precious to us, they are like a part of who we are, and when someone decides to tell us weak points in our writing, it can sometimes feel like a direct insult. However, criticism is something to be considered. I have talked a lot about developing an antagonist, and this is another aspect of character development to think about.

Why to listen to criticism
Would you buy an item that has been harshly criticized by many people and said to not work properly? I know I wouldn't, because usually if an item gets a consistently bad review, it means there is something that could be improved about that item. The same goes with writing. Tell your friends or other writers about your ideas and characters. Listen to what they have to say. Their advice could help you vastly improve your antagonist, character, or story.

How you should take criticism
If you are like me, you like to tell others about your characters and story. Watch how others react to your ideas. Listen to what they think about your characters. After someone critiques your characters or story, Hyde, an award winning author, offers some good advice on what to do. In her article, What You Can Learn from Criticism, she says to ask yourself "Do you agree with what the person said?" And once you can honestly answer that, then you can either make a positive change to your idea/character/story or you can toss the advice.

When to consider accepting criticism
Hyde also said that there will always be someone who dislikes your writing. She said to consider this: If 1 out of 10 people don't like your writing, then its probably that person's problem. If 9 out of 10 people dislike your writing, then you may need to consider improvement. This can apply to characters as well and your antagonist.

References
Hyde, Ryan, C. (2001, November 01). What you can learn from criticism. Writer (11), 22. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Interview With a Novelist

It is good to get multiple perspectives from people on writing. So, here is another interview, this time with a woman named Brooklyn who has written and published two novels. She mainly writes about historical fiction, with Roman and Greek influences. In this interview she gives tips on what makes a developed antagonist.

 The Interview
Who is your favorite villain and why?
I like Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello because he is able to rationalize why he is doing something evil. He is cunning and plans things out and offers his motivation for why he's doing what he's doing, which makes him more sympathetic for the reader.

What do you think makes a memorable character? Or more specifically, a villain?
A memorable villain should be dynamic, not just doing evil things for no reason. They need a motivation that they can rationalize to themselves or even the reader (which would semi-justify what they are doing). A good villain ought to be smart, he should have good dialogue and be able to make you in awe of their ability to turn the situation around and justify what they're doing.

What tips would you give a writer on how to create a good antagonist?
A writer should watch movies that have been praised for the dimension of their characters, or mainly the antagonist. The colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglorious Bastards is a really good example of what a villain should be. That’s where I get inspiration. I look at other villains in movies and books and think to myself “why is this villain so captivating?” You really have to think about “why is my villain doing what he's doing?” That's most important. A villain who just does evil for no reason is not memorable. If you can find a way to make the villain likable, like showing a sort of quirk or vulnerability, that makes a villain even better. A villain ought to be humanized, not just some evil entity.

Do you think an antagonist has to be a person specifically, or can it be an inner struggle, event, or something else? Do you have any examples?
Inner struggles definitely count as a villain. If a protagonist has an inner struggle or inner turmoil of some sort, it not only serves as a villain, but also gives dimension to the protagonist. An example would be a character having to do work a difficult job, but at the same time has to battle alcoholism or a drug habit that is threatening to tear his life apart.

How do you think an antagonist should relate to the main character?
I don't necessary think that foil characters are interesting. Just like the protagonist, the villain needs to have spirit and dimension and a reason for what he's doing. A villain or antagonist should have just as much heart and soul and love as a protagonist, just in a different direction. Whereas a protagonist must have a reason that they're doing good, a belief or faith of sorts, a villain should have a reason for doing evil. It is interesting if the villain is not completely the opposite of the protagonist. The antagonist and protagonist should have something in common, something that binds them together. A villain is more interesting when they had the opportunity to be as good as the protagonist, but took a different path in life.

The 9 Elements of Temperament

One way to create and examine your character is to look at his or her temperament. In Griffin's article, Patterns of Behavior, she lists the nine temperaments that are used by psychologists to asses child development. However, instead of focusing on child development, Griffin uses these nine categories to asses her characters.

Below I created an info-graphic to help you visualize the nine temperaments:

(infograph made on easel.ly)

Here are some thought for your character based on the different elements of temperament:

Activity: Energy level
Adaptability: Handling new situations or unexpected events
Distractability: Focus or lack of concentration
Intensity of emotion: Way of expressing emotion and to what degree
Mood: Basic nature such as pessimist or optimist
Persistence: How hard your character perseveres to accomplish something
Physical Rhythms: Sleeping/eating patterns and related everyday rituals
Reactions:  How does your character act around people? How do they react to new things? 
Sensitivity: How easily does your character respond to people or other stimuli?  

References:
Griffin, L. (2009, October). Patterns of behavior: A novelist and family specialist shows you how to put temperament research to work in your fiction. Writer (10), 28-29. Retrieved from http://EBSCO.com

Interview with Creative Short Story Writer

Sometimes the most useful information can be found by asking someone directly. I have had the privilege to interview David, a unique creative writer, on his thoughts on antagonists and how to create them.

The Interview
Who is your favorite villain and why?
Javert in Les Miserables; The Grand Inquisitor in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brother’s Karamazov; The Older Brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. There is an ache of recognition. I see myself in my favorite villains. They remind me of my own stubbornness. These villains have logical, valid desires and pursuits and yet have been poisoned by justifying themselves at the expense of the Greater Good (love, mercy, paradox).

What do you think makes a memorable character? Or more specifically, a villain?
Tension in their character…when they bring you to a point of longing for redemption—even if they have no part in it. If you long for what could have been in them, that makes them memorable. Darth Vader was two-dimensional, but when he took his helmet off, you see him as human.

What tips would you give a writer on how to create a good antagonist?
Don’t write a character who is pure evil. Give them something likeable. A good antagonist is not very far off from being a protagonist. They have desire and passion and work ethic, but it is just skewed enough to be misguided. There is a thin line between good and bad/love and hate. A good antagonist draws your attention to why they are misguided, and compels you—even as you hate them—to feel troubled with them and for them.

Do you think an antagonist has to be a person specifically, or can it be an inner struggle, event, or something else? Do you have any examples?
Anything can be an antagonist BUT it is the human qualities which make an antagonist convey WHY it is an antagonist and push the themes of the story along.

How do you think an antagonist should relate to the main character?
Troubled relationship. Back and forth. Push and pull. Leading up to a final battle.

Note: David has written multiple short stories that have been published in various collections. His most notable short story, he says, is Things We Knew When the House Caught Fire. It was published in Best American Nonrequired Reading and again in Best Christian short Stories. It was also performed on National Public Radio (NPR) by actor Keith Szarabajka. One of David's other short stories, Foster, won a Mississippi filmmaker’s grant and was turned into a short film.

Giving Your Antagonist Valid Emotion and Logic

Having valid emotion and logic ties in with having a background/goals and vulnerabilities. By looking at who the character is as a person, you can more easily see how that character might act. Faith Baldwin, who has written over 100 novels said “What you need is valid emotion-an identification with your characters, good, bad or indifferent; a sense of walking in their shoes for the length of time you are creatively occupied with them. If you do not care about your characters, no one else will, even if you have a perfect plot, excellent characterization and logic-and every writer needs to use logic…”

 Put yourself in the Antagonist's shoes
So, when you create a character, it’s not just a about creating a beginning, middle, end, strengths, and weaknesses. Baldwin also said “know how they feel, why they feel it, and how they would express it”. It doesn’t matter whether it is a villain or main character. Put yourself in the character’s shoes. Treat them as if they were a real person and ask yourself, how would they act and feel? If you have read my previous blog posts, you should have a back story created for your character, and a list of goals and personality traits for your antagonist. So when you insert this character into your story, ask yourself, based off of this person’s past and personality, how would this person react to a given situation/opportunity/event?

Here is a short example of making logical reactions in a character:

Emma was attacked by a dog when she was four. Ever since then, she had a terrible fear of dogs and avoided them at all costs. Now, she is eleven years old and is offered $50 to feed the next door neighbor’s dog while the neighbor is on vacation. She really wants to buy a new pair of shoes because her current ones are worn out, so she decides to take the dog-sitting job. 

When she reaches her hand to open the door to the house with the dog, how might her emotional response be?

Logically, she would be nervous; her hands would sweat. Her eyes might tear up a little from her dog attack memory. She would probably open the door very slowly and have a worried expression; eyes darting all over the house waiting for the dog to jump out at her.

As you can see here, I examined her past occurrences and logically decided how she would act when put in a certain scenario. This allows the reader to connect with the character and understand the why behind the what.

References:
Baldwin, F (2008, March 01). Infuse characters with sincere emotion. Writer (3), 20. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

The Importance of Balancing Your Character

Most people should be familiar with the term, “Mary Sue”. This is a name given to a character when they are too cliché. An example of a cliché character is someone who can easily solve the hardest dilemmas in the story; someone who has more strengths than weakness and is not evenly balanced. If your antagonist does not have a balance of strengths and weaknesses, your antagonist could fall in the cliché category. You should try to avoid this category because it can make the readers become bored with the story.

How can you make your antagonist balanced?

You need to make sure your antagonist has strengths and weaknesses, both in personality and preferably physically as well. (This concept can be applied to any character you make, not just an antagonist, so keep that in mind.)

Personality Balance
Here are a some exmaples of how you could make your character balanced:

Strength: Your antagonist may be good at planning ahead...
 Weakness: but is terrible at remembering the details when trying to execute the plan.

Strength: Your antagonist can use easily use words to break down another person...
Weakness: but the downside is that your antagonist ends up down talking his or herself as well and ends up feeling self-hatred.

When you are making your character, it is a good idea to write the strengths in one column and the weaknesses of that character in another column. Look and see if the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. You may have to make some changes to the character to balance their traits.
     
In Choate’s article, 4 WAYS to bring characters to life in children's writing she gives another useful piece of advice: “Inner conflict. Characters who have it all together are certainly admirable but will undoubtedly bore the reader. It is difficult to care about someone or even to be mildly interested in him if he doesn't have to struggle for anything.” So keep in mind that a weakness your antagonist could have is inner conflict. An example could be that your antagonist used to love the main character, but then felt betrayed and therefore has conflicting moments when taking action against the main character.
  
 Physical Balance
As for physically balancing a character, you simply want to avoid making the character cliché. You don’t want your antagonists to have a mustache and laugh maniacally every time they are mentioned in your story. Make your antagonist have a characteristic that sets him or her apart. Maybe he or she has long blonde hair with a streak of grey on the right side and one hand is scarred from a dog attack. You have so many options, so why make your character like everyone else’s? Give your character vulnerabilities, flaws, and unique twists.

References:
Choate, McBride, J. (2007, December 01). 4 WAYS to bring characters to life in children's writing. Writer (12), 24. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Forming a Background and Goals for Your Character

As I said in the previous post, forming a background for your character can help you have a better idea as to who your character is and what they might do. My rule of thumb is “always know the why behind the what”. Ask yourself, is there a reason my character is doing/saying this? Or is there a reason why my character is not?

What to include in a background
To give you some starting ideas on what should be included in your character’s back-story, Blake, a development executive with LA Film Lab Entertainment, listed some helpful guidance into creating a character. In his article How to Create Convincing Characters, he says to at least address “sex, drugs, music, parents, siblings, education, appearance and intelligence” to give your character a background.

If you would like a more in depth analysis sheet for your character, please see the Character Profile Form on DeviantArt.com.  This profile form has been extremely helpful in my own writing experience.

How to form goals for your character
Blake’s article, How to Create Convincing Characters also had an excellent method for giving your character clear cut goals. He said to list out the desires and aspirations of you character. He lists examples such as “the desire to be intellectually brilliant, the desire to be famous, the desire to hide from the world, the desire to belong to a group, the desire to be loved, the desire to party, the desire to die.”

So how does this apply to an antagonist and why is it so important? 
You apply these methods the same way you would a main character. If you want your story to be believable and have the readers form a connection with the characters, you need to have a well made antagonist. Tapply, who has written an entire book on creating antagonists says, “It takes a great villain to make a great hero.” So by making a good antagonist, it also reinforces the main character and storyline.

References
Blake, Corey (2006, July 01). How to create convincing characters. Writer (7), 31.  Retrieved from
http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Tapply, G, W. (2004, July 01). Creating a worthy villain. Writer (7), 34. Retrieved from
http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Creating a Developed Character

Before I get into the specifics of creating an antagonist, I feel you should know the major aspects of a well developed character first. I will get more in-depth with these aspects in future blog posts, but for now, here is an overview.

The first is: Think of your characters as real human beings, don't see them as mere characters.

If you consider your characters as real in-depth people, then there is more of a chance that your readers will too.

A well developed character has:

A background and clear cut, simple goals
From making a background, you can have a better idea as to who your character is and what they might do. My rule of thumb is “always know the why behind the what”. Ask yourself, is there a reason my character is doing/saying this? Or is there a reason why my character is not?

Vulnerabilities and human weaknesses.
As previously mentioned, think of your character as a human being. Have you ever met a perfect person? Well, just as in real life, a character cannot be perfect. So, when creating your character, make sure to give your character weaknesses of some sort. A few simple weaknesses that many people can relate to is procrastination or phobias of spiders and snakes.

Valid emotion and logic.
Having valid emotion and logic ties in with having a background/goals and vulnerabilities. By looking at who the character is as a person, you can more easily see how that character might act. For example, if you had a character named Alex who was deathly afraid of snakes, it would makes sense for this person to avoid snakes at all costs.

I hope this overview has given you a better idea of what a well-developed character should be like. Look forward to the next post: Forming a Background and Goals for Your Character.

References
Baldwin, F (2008, March 01). Infuse characters with sincere emotion. Writer (3), 20. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

 Kowalski, William (2006, December 01). CREATE flesh-and-blood CHARACTERS. Writer (12), 38. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Creating Believable Antagonists

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that left you wondering why the villain of the story ever tried to harm the main character?

The antagonist may want to kill off the main character, take over the world, or execute other evil deeds, but sometimes the story doesn't include a good explanation for the antagonist's actions.

 The underdeveloped antagonist
When a villain is underdeveloped with unmotivated actions, the story will suffer regardless of whether the main character is well formed or not. The story will become flat and predictable (Tapply, 2004). Many writers overlook the importance of properly developing the antagonist of their story (Baldwin, 2008). It is hard to find good information on how to develop an antagonist, because many people fail to even realize the importance of developing them.   This is why there is a need for a blog aimed at helping writers improve their character development skills.

Why this blog was made
I have created this blog to help writers such as you improve their stories by suggesting ways to create better antagonists. Although this blog is specifically aimed at creating antagonists, many of the same principles can also be applied to other characters. This makes my blog an efficient source for writers who want to improve not only their antagonist, but all the rest of their characters. My blog is not only efficient, but also reliable. I have selected only peer-reviewed scholarly journals for credible sources. And much of my information comes directly from famous novelists and professors of writing. Also, I have written one novel, various short stories, and am currently working on a second full length novel. I have been in a creative writing club and have read several books on creative writing.

Blog posts will be scheduled for every Friday, with the exception of November 21st, in observance of Thanksgiving.

Some of the topics that will be discussed in the blogs include:

    - What makes a good character in general?
    - What should a villain look like?
    - How to develop valid emotion and behavior (may span over several posts)
    - How to create a temperament for your villain
    - I’ve created my characters, now what?

In short...
Writers need to realize the importance of creating a believable, well developed antagonist. Even if they realize this importance, many writers do not know how to go about producing a great antagonist. That is why I have created this blog that will not only show the importance of a well developed antagonist, but will also provide clear, efficient ways on how to create an antagonist.

References
Baldwin, F (2008, March 01). Infuse characters with sincere emotion. Writer (3), 20. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Tapply, G, W. (2004, July 01). Creating a worthy villain. Writer (7), 34. Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com