Building Your Antagonist: How to Create an Effective Enemy

Everyone loves a good bad guy. But what is it that makes them so deliciously evil? How do we write one that the audience can love to hate, or start out hating but then grow to love?

Step #1: Provide your character with a redeeming quality

The key to writing any antagonist is to make them approachable. This means that they must have some good, redeeming characteristic. Whether it's Darth Vader who has a soft spot for his son and ends up dying to save him, or Star Trek's Nero who destroys a...