: Re: How can I write a character whom I have no knowledge of? In my current novel, my main character has a rival for whom he has a deep personal hatred. Think Harry Potter and Malfoy, but with

@Debbie451

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A rival, as opposed to a mere villain or antagonist, is someone who is competing with you for the thing, person, or goal you both want. The only place where Malfoy and Harry directly competed was in Quidditch, where they were both Seekers and were both after the Golden Snitch during games.

Beyond that, Draco was mostly Harry's antagonist — someone who is opposed to Harry and trying to prevent him from doing what he wants or being happy. An antagonist doesn't necessarily want what you want, or want it instead of you.

So depending on what kind of character you're writing, you have to figure out a reason for your protagonist to hate this person. Are they competing for something or someone? Is the other person trying to sabotage him, personally or professionally? Are they from different social strata? races? religions? political parties? schools? office departments? businesses? Is one a crook and the other a cop? Do they play for different sports teams? Is one the other's manager? et cetera.

You need to figure out why they are at odds. This will give you the basic structure of their conflict. If you don't know why your protagonist hates your villain, then you need to do more work on your plot and your characters, because you don't have the bones of your story yet. Right now your Bad Guy is just a prop.

If you don't have enough life experience to figure out how or why someone would want to thwart you personally, all I can suggest (besides getting out more) is to read more books and watch more TV and movies to study how other creators have established conflicts.

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