Scene from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), starring James Stewart & Lionel Barrymore I’ve been writing half of my new novel from the antagonist’s point of view, and two uncomfortable but important thoughts crouch in the back of my mind as I write his part of the story: 1) He doesn’t know he’s the bad guy. 2) I don’t always know when I’m the bad guy. In real life, nobody knows when they’re Mr. Potter, because everybody wants to believe they’re George Bailey . (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please find the classic Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life and watch it.) My antagonist knows he makes mistakes, but he believes that’s because he’s only human. In many ways that’s true, although this guy does such bad stuff that massive rationalizations are required for him to chalk it all up to being “only human.” Rationalizing our behavior is what we all do when we make choices we’re sure will benefit us but either aren’t sure, or hav...

In literature, an antagonist is a character or a group of characters which stand in opposition to the protagonist or the main character. The term antagonist comes from Greek word “ antagonistēs ” that means opponent, competitor or rival. We commonly think of antagonists as villains, the evil people (bad guys) who try to thwart our heroes at every turn. But that’s not necessarily the case. Sometimes the hero is his own worst enemy. Maybe he or she has an addiction or a dark phobia or some character flaw that keeps tripping him/her up and prevents success in reaching the goal. A pilot with a drinking problem might create a whole lot of problems for himself and his passengers. A young woman with self-esteem issues and no father-figure might look for love in all the wrong places. An antagonist doesn’t even need to be a person. It can be an animal, a la Moby Dick . Or it can be the weather. In Ray Bradbury’s story “The Long Rain”, the four characters are driven insane by the inc...