Giving Your Antagonist a POV
I read across the board genres, especially romances, thrillers, and historical fiction. I write paranormal romances and romantic thrillers. With my first two paranormal novels, Heroes Live Forever and Journey in Time, Point of View was limited to either the hero or the heroine. The antagonists in those stories were the situations they found themselves in and had to overcome. On occasion, the situations generated villainous characters for them to encounter, but those characters did not have running roles throughout the stories.
On the other hand, Golden Chariot and Byzantine Gold, the romantic thrillers, had definite antagonists. They were cunning and dangerous people who placed the protagonists in perilous circumstances. These are not characters out of a Criminal Minds episode driven by blood lust. They’re men with an agenda. They have a goal and what they consider a logical purpose for their actions. Whether it’s for revenge, financial gain, or for a cause they believe in, they feel justified in everything they do.
Golden Chariot has three antagonists. Two are the masterminds behind the artifact smuggling operation. The third is a contract killer hired by the other two. When one of the conspirators orders an agent murdered without the other’s knowledge, the co-conspirator is incensed. Their entire scheme nearly falls apart, a situation the man who ordered the murder can’t afford to have happen. I needed to give him an extraordinary reason for taking this risk. To justify his actions, he required a POV. Taking a path less traveled by handing the antagonist this power can be more than fun, it can be enlightening for both the author and reader. What resulted was suddenly seeing both the man behind the murder and the victim is a different light. That didn’t change the fact the killing was wrong, but it helped to understand why the man who ordered the murder felt justified.
I also gave the contract killer a POV. The reader sees him exactly for what he is: a man who kills for profit. He doesn’t moralize about his business or try to justify his actions. He is what he is, most of the time. In addition to a POV, I gave him moments of surprise for the reader. There is one scene where he performs a random act of kindness, totally unexpected for the amoral and generally cruel man he is.
In another scene we see him at home. Through the eyes of the heroine, we see his taste in furniture, in music, in something as simple as fine crystal. It is easy to forget that the antagonist has a mother, possibly siblings, food he/she likes, a certain style of décor or clothing. Those reveals can pull a reader in closer to the story. The enemy isn’t an indistinct, vacuous man or woman who is just evil. They have personality and that personality can go many directions.
This same killer returns in Byzantine Gold. For that story, I took him a step further and gave him a love interest. This is by no means a man who desires love or even has the capacity to give it in any deep way. As mentioned, he is amoral and without true warmth of character. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a woman who finds a way to love him. In this book, he finds himself attracted to a young woman and he chooses to let her travel with him. They share moments where he is true to his nature and brutal to her. There are other moments where he has the opportunity to show an unexpected side of himself.
Byzantine Gold also has a political terrorist who shares the role of antagonist. As horrifying as terrorism is to us, to him, his cause is righteous and he will do anything he must to achieve his goal.
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