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I’m a little late, but today I’m going to try to answer @r-m-archer‘s question about how to create realistic antagonists, especially in the area of motivations.

I want to start by pointing out the difference between an antagonist and a villain. An antagonist is anyone who resists your character’s goals, while the villain is an evil antagonist specifically out to do bad things. For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll be looking particularly at villains, since I think that’s mainly where the question lies.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in to some ways to create realistically motivated antagonists.

1. Study the world as much as possible. Fiction is really just an unleashing of our understanding of the world, so it should come as no surprise that the better we understand the world the more potential our fiction has. An unrealistic character is probably just a character type you’re unused to. For instance, if you’ve grown up in a sheltered world, it may be hard for you to understand the mind of a swindler. Likewise, if you’ve never paid much attention to politics or history, it may be difficult for you to write from the viewpoint of an emperor. You can expand your knowledge of the world by actively seeking new experiences, asking better questions and paying better attention to the world around you, and just hunkering down and doing some old-fashioned research.
2. Place yourself in the villain’s shoes and try to chart how you could become them. Backstory has a lot to do with motivation. It can be hard to see how anyone could fall so low as to become a villain, but if you break it down step by step, it really isn’t. As an example, I recently wrote the backstory of a bitter-minded drug addict. He began as a normal boy, emotionally imbalanced by poverty, but basically honest. It only took small missteps for him to gradually turn into the addict he became. While this character is very different from me, I was able to empathize with the mindsets that drove him to become an addict. He chief mistakes were believing that he could find success in life by overworking and giving into mild escapism. These are things I can understand and they unlocked for me an understanding of his overall condition.
3. Also, yearning and motivation are closely connected. https://storyembers.org/how-to-make-a-character-come-alive/
4. Lastly, you may find it helpful to break up the cliches a little bit. You may have heard that Kylo Ren is my favorite villain. Why? Well, one of the main things is that he’s so personable. I think this had a great effect. Now, I’m not advocating we just switch cliches here. Villains don’t have to be so personable, emotionally vulnerable, or morally sensitive as Kylo Ren. A stern, aloof, evil mastermind villain could make a great villain! The point is simply that if the status quo isn’t working for you, you might want to shake things up and see what happens.

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