Creating antagonists can be challenging and fun for writers.  The challenge of course, is creating villains that are believable.  Gone are the days when you immediately recognized the villain because of the black  hat.  Last week I picked up a book I had read as a child.  The cover had a storm-shrouded house on a cliff edge, with the young governess running from it, lit by moonlight, and looking back over her shoulder in horror.  I got so much enjoyment out of re-reading that book.  Took me about five minutes.  These days, though, the villain must be realistic, believable, and with recognizable reasons for doing what he/she does, even if the reasons are insane.  Jessica Page Morrell has a great book called Bullies, Bastards, and Bitches, about creating believable antagonists; it’s well worth reading. 

One odd question I’ve received lately, is for suggestions on ‘evil’ names.  It appears some beginning writers think that a villain’s name must be evil, although I’m not sure what an ‘evil’ name sounds like.  I usually respond that the character makes the name evil, not the other way around.  ‘Ted’ wasn’t an evil name until associated with Ted Bundy.  Most writers already know this, and know that a truly horrific and terrifying antagonist is one that could live next door and not be recognized as the wearer of the black hat. 

Personally, the antagonist is, for me, my favorite character.  I think it goes back to highschool days and secret crushes on the bad boys.  Plus, that character can be the most challenging to write.  A story I wrote had a character based loosely on a relative.  As my own private retaliation, the character died in the first draft.  Oh, the outcry in the writer’s group!  Turns out that character was their favorite and many recognized aspects of the character from people they knew.  I took their advice, resurrected the character and ended up with a much stronger story. 

A character who creates strong reactions in the readers is one to hang on to and not kill off, which sounds obvious to writers until we have a character we really want to do away with.  Antagonists can be the character who holds the whole story together, keeps the reader turning the pages, and can be more important than the protagonist.  Which can actually be something to watch out for if you don’t want that antagonist taking over. 

So what antagonists remain with you after finishing a book, and why?  Do you prefer developing the protagonist or the antagonist and why?  Have you learned more about the craft of writing through the protagonist or the antagonist?  How do you develop an antagonist that is believable?

I love mysteries.  Well, any story where I have to figure out who did what by the end.  Last night I finished a novel by a very prolific author that my husband and I like.  I’ve read all of his books, and this one last night was written about mid-way through his career so he wasn’t a beginner by any means.  And yet, the antagonist at the end turned out to be a character that was never introduced until that final moment.  I say that’s cheating the reader.  How can a reader know what subplots are relevant, which threads to try to unravel, which embedded clues should be remembered, if none of that points to a known character?  And why should I spend the time it takes to read a whole novel, if I don’t have a chance of figuring out what’s going on?  That’s like playing poker when you know the hands everyone has.  Why play and where’s the fun? 

Two favorite authors of mine, Karen Slaughter and Cornelia Read, are masters of the mystery.  They are able to insert clues, misdirect the reader, and suck you into caring about even villains, with such a subtle pen that many times I have to reread the book in order to see what I missed.  A recent book of Karen Slaughter’s opened with the point of view of a police officer.  I inherently trust the police.  I wanted to like this guy as the main point of view, but little things in his dialog, tiny ways he responded to people, made me not like him a whole lot.  As the book moved along, more characters and more points of view were introduced, and eventually I found out Slaughter had done a fantastic job of tricking me, while at the same time giving me enough information that I should have been able to figure it out.  Unlike the previous author who cheated me. 

I love that subtle, very experienced way of drawing me into a story, into a character’s mind, and most importantly, into having to think and pay attention.  The other style of writing just makes me question whether or not to pick up another book by that author.  He’s lost my trust because now I won’t know if I’m being cheated again.  I do like the way he draws characters though so maybe I’ll just have to read the ending first.

So what are your thoughts on building trust with a reader?  Have you ever felt cheated by techniques an author employed?  What are the personal ways you  balance giving just enough information to the reader without giving away the ending?

When does description become too much in a story?  Writer Patrick McManus said that if you have a character going upstairs in an old house, and you describe it as thirteen steps, ending at a landing three feet by four, with two doors on the left hand side and a two by three window at the end of an eight foot long hallway…you’re obviously going to lose the reader.  But if you write that the character climbed creaking stairs to a cobweb-draped landing and crept through a doorway, the reader can see the setting just as easily.  Patrick pointed out that most readers want to visualize the setting themselves and only need a little description to drop them into the scene.

The same holds true, I believe, for character description.  I recently saw a posting where someone wanted to know what eye color to give the character in their story.  This person was trying to decide between ‘blue-violet’ or ‘stormy grey’.  Have to say the person lost me there.  First off, preceding ‘grey’ with ‘stormy’ makes me think of romance novels.  While my sister loves them, I personally don’t.  Second, why couldn’t a character simply have grey eyes?  Now that I think of it, I’ve never seen grey eyes. 

I agree with Patrick.  I want just enough description to point my imagination in the right direction.  I want to spend time with a character that I recognize, not one that is described down to the color of the hair in their nose.  And I guess I also want to choose my own shades of grey.  Which makes me laugh because earlier I mentioned pulling out a story I wrote years ago and starting to rework it.  So many parts make me cringe.  I admit I gave the character grey eyes.  Although I spelled it ‘gray’ and wrote about wind blowing black hair into ‘slate gray eyes’.  I’m laughing as I write this, because why can’t a character ever have just plain blue, brown, or green eyes?  Tell me a character has brown eyes, and I’ll immediately picture the shade I want to look into as I read. 

So what do you think about description?  When does it become too much, when does it destroy the reader’s imagination, and conversely, when is it not enough?  Any favorite descriptions you’ve come across?