Help! I Fell In Love With My Antagonist

Fallen in love with your antagonist? Discover how to fix the problem with these four solutions and keep your story on track.

Help! I Fell In Love With My Antagonist

You’ve started spending too much time with your antagonist. You love writing their scenes, understanding their motivations, and feeling sympathy for them. But what happens when your villain becomes more interesting than your hero?

Here are four ways to fix it.

1. You Can Turn Them Into An Anti-Hero

An anti-hero is ‘a central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes’ (OED). These missing qualities can include idealism, courage, and morality. Anti-heroes can still do the right thing, but they often do it because it serves their own interests.

From Heroes And Anti-Heroes – What’s The Difference?

Remember that anti-heroes still need redeeming qualities. Readers need a reason to care about them and what happens to them.

Read: 9 Ways To Make Readers Care For An Amoral Protagonist

2. You Can Pull Them Back In Line

Be brave. Stand up to them and remind them what their role is in the story. Their job is to create conflict with the protagonist.

Read: The Antagonist As A Literary Device

You can still love writing them, but remember they have a purpose. They are there to challenge your protagonist and make the story more difficult. Their goal is to try to prevent the protagonist from reaching their story goal.

3. You Can Try Rekindling Your Romance With The Protagonist

Have you accidentally made your protagonist passive?

Do they spend too much time observing, judging, thinking, and talking about what they should do instead of taking action? There is nothing worse than a protagonist who does not react to what is happening around them.

Readers want characters who act. This is why creating a clear, tangible story goal at the beginning of your book is so important. It gives your protagonist something to do.

Make sure they have challenges to face and people to interact with.

Read: The Protagonist As A Literary Device

‘One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.’ ~Chuck Palahniuk

Read: The Challenge Of Writing A Passive Lead Character

4. Make Your Protagonist As Interesting As Your Antagonist

Your protagonist’s story goal must be as strong as your antagonist’s goal. One way to do this is to define your antagonist first. Then work out what your protagonist must do to overcome them.

Read: How To Use Your Antagonist To Define Your Story Goal.

The Last Word

You can fall in love with your antagonist. In fact, it can help you create a better character. But don’t let them take over the story. Your protagonist still needs to be the person who drives the action.

Interested in more posts on antagonists? Try these:

1. The Antagonist As A Literary Device
2. Use These 7 Gaslighting Phrases To Make Your Antagonist More Manipulative
3. Use The 7 Deadly Sins To Strengthen Your Antagonist’s Motives
4. The Least You Should Know About Your Protagonist And Antagonist
5. 7 Deadly Rules For Creating A Villain

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