: Re: How can I make believable motivations for antagonists? I am writing a book. However, I can't quite wrap my head around making my character do bad things, while still making their actions and/or

Antagonists and villains (which are not identical) do things for the same reasons that protagonists and heroes (which are not identical) do. They have the same motivations. Antagonists and villains feel like they are the protagonists and heroes of their own stories.

In the case of real historical persons and real historical conflicts used in fiction, writers can choose which sides and persons to make protagonists and/or heroes and which sides and persons to make antagonists and/or villains. Thus there are examples of the same historical sides and persons being depicted as protagonists and/or heroes in some works of fiction and depicted as antagonists and/or villains in others.

The ability of writers to chose the protagonists and antagonists in a fictional situation should not be abused. When both sides are more or less equally good, and neither is evil, then the writer is free to make either one the protagonist. For example, in sports stories both teams are usually fairly good people, and the writer thus has perfect freedom to depict either team as the protagonists.

If either side is evil, they must be depicted as antagonists and villains. if both sides are evil, both sides must be depicted as antagonists and villains; and the writer must be careful to avoid making either side too sympathetic.

Remember that a person or group can have: 1) good goals and ethical methods of achieving them, or 2) good goals and unethical methods of achieving them, or 3) evil goals and ethical methods of achieving them, or 4) evil goals and unethical methods of achieving them. A person in the last three categories is evil, only those persons in the first category are good.

Since antagonists do not have to be villains, or more evil than the protagonists, or evil in objective terms, they can have good goals and ethical methods. Thus antagonists can have exactly the same motivations as writers and readers and other hopefully good persons, and use methods that are similarly as ethical.

Evil villains can have evil goals, but they don't have to. An evil villain can have good goals and unethical methods of achieving them. Thus evil villains can have exactly the same motivations as writers and readers and other hopefully good persons, but sometimes use unethical and evil methods to achieve them.

Thus it seems perfectly easy to imagine a situation in which the protagonist wants a certain event to happen to achieve his goal, while the antagonist ants to prevent that event to achieve his goal, without either being evil. And it seems perfectly easy to give an evil villain a perfectly normal and understandable goal that he sometimes uses unethical and evil methods to strive for.

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: Whether your main character (MC) is similar to or better than a particular reader depends largely on your intent. If your intent is to have the reader identify with the MC, then you should

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: How do I write from a non-person point of view? I am writing a novel with an ensemble cast. Each chapter is told from a different person's point of view. Some of the chapters are about a

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: How do I find total sales of my book? Sales reports for my book from the publisher (about 2 per quarter) are grossly inconsistent with visits to the novel's Web site (about 100 per month)

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: I believe you are too young to publish a novel. Look at work you have from a year ago, chances are you likely want to change it and don't like it. You aren't even in high school yet,

: Re: How can I make believable motivations for antagonists? I am writing a book. However, I can't quite wrap my head around making my character do bad things, while still making their actions and/or

More posts by @Cofer669

: Whether your main character (MC) is similar to or better than a particular reader depends largely on your intent. If your intent is to have the reader identify with the MC, then you should

: How do I write from a non-person point of view? I am writing a novel with an ensemble cast. Each chapter is told from a different person's point of view. Some of the chapters are about a

: How do I find total sales of my book? Sales reports for my book from the publisher (about 2 per quarter) are grossly inconsistent with visits to the novel's Web site (about 100 per month)

: I believe you are too young to publish a novel. Look at work you have from a year ago, chances are you likely want to change it and don't like it. You aren't even in high school yet,

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