My antagonists are often nebulous in nature. They tend to be a prickly Universe or a flaw in my protagonists that needs to be overcome in order to complete their goals.
They don’t often take the form of a person because my style of writing doesn’t lend itself easily to shifting points of view. I’m always experimenting so evolution will be served.
I recently reorganized the Mind Map/Outline for Lights and Shadows and realized that I had the perfect Antagonist already there but in my rush to write the story, I neglected to fully reveal them. Sure, I did a little foreshadowing, but I left them at the train station waiting for the car to pick them up.
The purpose of the Antagonist is to prevent the Protagonist from achieving the goals of their quest. Without the Antagonist, the story has the potential to meander from one mishap to another to hopefully get to a meaningful resolution.
So, give your antagonists some love and let them strut their time upon the stage. They will thank you for it.
If you can locate them, of course. 😉
Writing in Real Time 
You must be logged in to post a comment.