Andrew Seiple's Blog: Transmissions From the Teslaverse - Posts Tagged "pacing"

How often have you seen it? If you play video games or RPGs at all, I guarantee you've seen it. If you've read some lazily-plotted books, it's likely that the problem's cropped up there, too. The problem of reactive antagonists.

They only seem to exist when the heroes are coming after them. They sit in their lairs and are pretty much just window-dressing, up until the point that the hero kicks in the door and initiates the final throwdown. Maybe their minions are doing things, or every now and then they're shown kicking a puppy or something to reinforce the fact that they're EVIL, but... well, they might as well not exist, as far as the narrative goes.

They don't do anything unless the hero does something. That's what a reactive antagonist is.

How do you fix this problem? Well, first you need to be sure it's a problem. If you're writing kid's books, it's okay to have an evil dark lord off being evil somewhere. He's more an end goal than a character, and matters less than the hero's development and growth. (Usually. There are no hard rules here, only guidelines.) Or if you've got a fantasy potboiler, it's okay if the dark lord's off in Mordor Equivalent #42 running the show and making sure the Nazgul don't go snacking on the orc hordes when they get peckish. Running dark empires is hard, yo.

But in a modern genre? Bad guys have no excuse for sitting still! They're going to have to be constantly taking steps toward their plan, and if you don't show them doing that, then take a hard look at it. If they're not throwing problems toward the hero every few chapters, at least, then they need a solid reason for NOT doing that, and the reason needs to be shown if at all possible. Maybe evil businessman A is counterbalanced by mad scientist B, and if he moves on hero c, then B gets all up in his grille? Stuff like that. Doesn't have to be complicated, just has to make a bit of sense.

Or hell, maybe the villain's incompetent, or doesn't have the resources to do it. Those guys are usually better served as mid-bosses, (to dip into video game terminology for a bit,) but again, there are no rules just guidelines.

So the next time you go writing, remember... conflict is at the heart of all stories. Is your villain living up to his conflict potential? If not, then consider rewriting until he/she/it/they do. Thank you and good night.