: Re: Can a book be written without an antagonist? I have had this thought running through my head and wondered what your thoughts were on it. Can a book, a story I should say, be written without

@Speyer920

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Absolutely, unequivocally no. There is absolutely no way to write a story without some kind of antagonist.
By definition, a story is a logical series of related events which resolve something and seem to have a meaning greater than the sum of their parts when strung together. You can't resolve something without an antagonist, because there is no problem without one.

What are the three classic types of plot in literature?
Man Versus Man -Obviously, Man is the antagonist (probably a bad man, but this can take lots of different forms).
Man Versus Nature -Nature is the antagonist. Nature can be cruel, it can be deadly, and it is unmerciful. Nature actually makes a pretty good antagonist.
Man Versus Himself -Man is still the antagonist! Now, he's just getting in his own way, which is very much in character for him.

Notice a pattern? It's the "versus". There must be a "versus" in order to have a plot. You can get very experimental and actually write a story with no protagonist (I wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done). What you cannot do is go without some kind of antagonist at all. This need not be a "bad guy", but a "bad guy" is actually more important to telling a story than a "good guy" is!

Your problem here is a philosophical/theological one, not a problem of storytelling. You want to write a story set in a place with no conflict of any kind? How about a realistic novel about the residents of a graveyard? The only way that people can have no conflicts at all between them is if their are either dead or no longer human. I might submit that the Christian view of heaven as being entirely without conflict is not necessarily supported by the text of Scripture, but that is a totally different argument. Conflict isn't bad per se, in fact it is part of our nature. Even God engages in conflict in the Bible... There are many types of interesting conflict beyond an apocalyptic clash between ultimate good and ultimate evil for the ownership of the world. In fact, that is a pretty boring scenario. People would much rather read about the difficulties of learning to live with your newly dead relatives who you keep having misunderstandings with when they move into heaven down the street from your own little personal piece of paradise.

I'd suggest that if you can't conceive of a "heaven" where some kind of conflict is possible, do not write about it unless you want to create something indescribably boring.

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