I don't think you quite understand the words you're using. This is a common misconception among writers who haven't thought about the meaning of those two words. Also, writers who haven't been in the right classes.

So, a lesson, before I answer your question.

Definitions

Protagonist - Character who is working towards one or many goals. They are pro-active. They do things.

Antagonist - Entity (person, place or thing) that is in the way of the protagonist getting what they want.

Looking Deeper

Nothing in that definition says there is one protagonist, but for the purposes of story telling we're usually only worried about a few protagonists and the main character tends to be a protagonist.

Antagonists don't have to want to stop the protagonist. They just have to be in the way. A mountain can be an antagonist and a mountain can't want (in most stories). A mother who loves her child can be benevolently in the way of that child doing what they want to do. Antagonists are typically people, animals, or forces of nature; things that do things that are threatening to the main character's goals. But, what is threatening?

Threatening just means putting the protagonist's goal in jeopardy. Sure, that might mean blowing up the world (very threatening). But it also might mean one girl getting the boy to fall in love her, when the protagonist wants that boy. The boy might even be falling for non-protagonist girl. Those two might belong together.

The antagonist in that last scenario does not want to directly thwart our protagonist. In fact, the boy might die. Or the boy might realize he's gay. Or the boy might go off to war and meet someone new. Or, and this isn't the common story, the boy and both girls might get together and they all 'win' (here's looking at you wheel of time).

There is no writing contract that a protagonist or antagonist must win. That is a false dichotomy.

Endings: Comedy, Tragedy & Satisfaction

If the characters have a happy ending, it's likely the protagonist got what they wanted. If the protagonist doesn't, then their personal story may be a tragedy. It is easiest to do what you want in a tragedy. Just take away whatever both parties want. But you can also do it in a comedy if it turns out that what the protagonist wanted to do wasn't important after all.

The problem with both of those types of stories is that they can be unsatisfying. If the ending comes out of nowhere, your readership won't be pleasantly surprised at your witty expectation subverting ending. They'll put your book down and tell all of their friends not to read it. So if you want to do this you need bread crumbs to indicate where you are going, what type of story you are telling, and the ending you actually pick needs to satisfy some part of the reader so that they are given something they didn't know they wanted.

---

(0)

Login to post a comment!