Writing a rival

What if your character faced not only the challenge of getting the girl, but also besting a rival too?

Raising the stakes in your story is imperative for deep audience engagement. When a reader (or viewer) worries that the protagonist may not win, he or she has gone from being a reader to being a participant in the creation of the story.

And a participant cares deeply what happens to the protagonist.

A rival character is one way to achieve this goal.

Rivals can come from any number of places in a character’s life- the office/ work, home/ family (siblings make great rivals), or maybe a bully from the past who shows up again in the present life of the protagonist. In any of these cases the rival allows the protagonist’s backstory to emerge organically so the reader/ viewer gets another peek at who he/ she is rooting for.

Consider this clip of film’s top sibling rivalries for inspiration: https://youtu.be/vAIh1gwhtIk

Is there a way to include a rival in your story? How will this help deepen reader/ audience understanding of character.

And most importantly, how will your protagonist best this person?

The challenge is on, friends.

Happy writing!