In this instructional video, presenter Winnie (Miss Tang) teaches writers how to create a compelling antagonist that drives conflict and engages readers. She explains why an antagonist should be relatable and opposite to the protagonist, outlines a step‑by‑step template for defining the villain’s traits, motives, goals, fears, and relationships, and demonstrates the process with a concrete example: protagonist Amber (cheerful, hardworking, but lacking confidence) versus antagonist Viviana (angry, jealous, cruel, confident). The video shows how to map opposite traits, identify shared traits, and derive the antagonist’s agenda (bullying Amber to keep her from becoming cheer captain). It then uses this antagonist profile to generate story complications (bullying, sabotage) and hints at the resolution (Amber must learn to stand up for herself and others). The presenter also provides a downloadable character‑development booklet, references previous videos on protagonist creation, and previews the next lesson on developing mentors and allies.
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Hi everyone, this is Winnie or Miss Tang. Today we are learning to develop relatable and engaging characters, namely the antagonist. This is because we want to entertain our readers and we want our audience to relate to and connect with our characters that we develop in our story. Now, some things to think about with, with developing the antagonist, and I will also share with you a template that I use to create my characters. The antagonist might have some powers that are superior to the protagonist. They may have an agenda or desire that goes against the protagonist's goal. So it would be a good idea to think about what does your main character want and how does the antagonist go against it. They might— may have a motive behind their actions, a reason why they are doing what they're doing, and the antagonists will have their own goals. So it would be a good idea to figure out what does your main antagonist want? What happened in the past which influences how they're acting now, and why is that their goal? And to give your antagonist something that people can relate to, you can give them some traits, some character traits, and even some positive character traits. They are usually opposite to your protagonist, so it'd be a good idea to develop this main character first. In my last video, we developed the main character, the protagonist that grows. We did link it to the theme and the message of the story. I'm thinking that the story that I'm going to write, the theme is going to be centered around courage and bravery, and this is going to influence how I develop my characters, my, um, both my protagonist and my antagonist. We also did analyze the protagonist as well as the the antagonist as well. So if you haven't checked out those videos, then make sure you do that. Success criteria for today: I can develop the antagonist in my narrative. I can identify how my antagonist is the opposite of my protagonist. I can identify the goals, motives, and characteristics of my antagonist. And this will also help us develop ideas for your complication of the story. So here is a template that we are going to use, and I'm going to give you an example of a short story that I'm going to write. My hero's name is going to be Amber, like we fleshed out in the previous videos, and our villain, or our shadow, or our antagonist, is— her name is going to be Viviana. So now we are going to break down their characteristics, how they view the world, what they're scared of, their aims, their plans, and why they may dislike each other. And this will help us figure out and develop our antagonist. She can be described as cheerful, resilient, kind, responsible. She is going to be hardworking, optimistic, and determined. With our antagonist, Viana, she's going to be the opposite of that. So have a think about opposite traits. So maybe instead of cheerful, she is angry. Maybe instead of being resilient, she is jealous. Instead of being kind, maybe she's cruel. Instead of being responsible, maybe she is disrespectful. Maybe she is manipulative, competitive. And maybe we can give them a similar trait, so they could both be determined. Amber works hard, but she is not confident. She avoids speaking up for herself. She thinks that if she avoids the situation, then it's not there or it's not happening. Amber is not confident, which means that we can have Viviana as very confident. And maybe she feels like if she's nice to the right people, then she'll get her way. Amber is kind to other people, but Viviana mistreats others. How does she mistreat others? Well, Viviana could pick on Amber and then straight away compliment someone else to try to cover it up. So Amber is scared of standing up for herself, speaking up. Feels like she is not a good enough cheerleader, as we established in our previous um, video. For Viviana, um, because she's pretty jealous, maybe she is jealous of other people, um, thinking highly of, um, Amber, and that maybe she is scared that Amber is going to take the, um, cheerleading captain position. Other people thinking highly of Amber, Amber taking the cheer captain position. Amber's aim is is to be the best cheerleader she can be. Her aim is to be cheer captain even though she is already the school captain. For her to achieve her goal, she'd need to believe in herself, stand up for herself, and others and would be to tear Amber down so that she doesn't nominate herself as well as anyone else who may want to go for it. Well, Amber doesn't like Viviana because Viviana constantly puts her down. She is a bully, is jealous of Amber's talent and her work ethic. Now we're going to use what we have come up with to develop some ideas for the complication, the problems in our story, because it's usually the antagonist who causes the conflicts and the problems for our protagonist. So let's have a scan through and see what we can use for our complication. So already here I can see that, um, our complication is going to be that Viviana is a bit of a bully. She picks on Amber and then straight away compliments someone else to, to cover it up. Another complication could be that not only does Viviana try to tear Amber down, but she may try to do it, um, she may try to tear other people down as well. So that could be another complication. This may also give you some ideas of how to resolve your complication as well, because as you can see here, you— we can tell that for Amber to resolve these issues, she's going to have to start believing in herself and be able to stand up for not only herself but also for others as well. So I'm going to highlight this in a different color because this is kind of like our resolution. And there you have it. This is how you can develop your antagonist. Just remember to come up with your hero or your protagonist first, so check out one of my previous videos on how I've done that if you haven't already, and then you can give it a go on your own and use this template as well. You can also download this booklet that I will put in the link in the description below where you can develop your protagonist and the antagonist, as well as the other characters in your story like the mentor or the allies and the enemies. Up next, in the next video, I'm going to go through how to help your main character survive. So we're going to look at developing the mentor character and the allies for our main character. See you in my next video. Bye! [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
