Finding your Antagonist

Sometimes it’s incredibly easy to identify the antagonist in a book. That’s the bad guy, right? The villain.

But what if there isn’t one bad guy? What if the antagonist is society, expectations (from either society or a particular person) or the protagonist themself?

As I’m sitting down to begin rewriting A Rake’s Reward, the last of my Merry Men Quartet books, I know that I will make my life so much easier if I identify the antagonist before I begin writing.

I didn’t do that in Bridging the Storm.

In fact, there isn’t one antagonist in that book. I’ve got three main characters – my hero, Dagonet; my heroine, Kate; and Tatiana.

Kate’s antagonist is easy—that would be her aunt, Tatiana Vallentyn. The woman makes Kate’s life nearly unbearable and is the one stopping her from moving on with her life. Phew! That is so nice! Well… not for Kate, but definitely nice for me.

 Dagonet’s antagonist isn’t so easy. His is actually Merlin. At the end of the Children of Avalon series, Merlin gives Dagonet the gift to become young whenever he wants. The catch is that he has to do this. He can’t not become young. But Dagonet is tired of living. He’s watched all those he’s loved die and he wants to join them, but Merlin’s gift forces him to become young again and again, therefore keeping him alive. So I’ve got an unreachable antagonist who isn’t actively doing anything, but is still the one keeping my hero from getting what he wants. Oy!

Tatiana, although she is Kate’s antagonist, has her own goal in the book—to cure her children of consumption. Her antagonist is her own lack of magical power or knowledge—the only way she can cure her children. So… she’s her own antagonist. Tricky, huh?

What I’m really hoping right now, as I begin to work on rewriting (and it’s going to be probably a complete rewrite of the entire book) Rake is that I have an easy-to-identify antagonist. The thing is… I’ve got a nasty feeling things aren’t going to work out so nicely.

Have you had this problem or do you make sure your antagonists are easy to identify? Have you ever had any problems figuring out the antagonist in your story?

**We've got nine days (9!) before Bridging the Storm is "officially" published! Have you ordered your copy yet? If not, you should because the price is going to go up on March 16th. Click here to go to my book page where there are links to all the stores where you can get it or click the book title to go directly to Amazon.