Hello! So What I've Noticed In My Writing Is That The 'bad Guys' The Antagonists, Generally Become The

Hello! So what I've noticed in my writing is that the 'bad guys' the antagonists, generally become the same thing. As in: an organization out to get protagonist and they avoid said antagonists. I was wondering if you had any advice on how to add variety to 'villains' in stories. Because the only other kind of villain I can come up with is one who tries to to take over the world or city and that feels over used and stale....

It might help to try exposing yourself to more stories, because there are many different examples of antagonists out there and a good chunk of them aren’t trying to take over the world.

I’ll direct you to this older ask about writing interesting antagonists as a start!

An antagonist isn’t always a straight-up “bad guy”, in fact, the best antagonists aren’t horrible people. They’re just people opposing the protagonist– that’s what “antagonist” means. They don’t have to be evil or crazy, they just work against the main character. Sometimes they’re just normal people with a bad reputation. 

You need to think of your antagonists like any other character, just with goals that clash with the main cast instead of a “bad guy”. Try thinking smaller than “taking over the world”, what if the antagonist was only a threat to the protagonist’s world or way of life?

“Taking over the world” is an easy conflict to fall back on because it’s kind of black-and-white, but the best conflicts aren’t that simple.A bigger conflict doesn’t make a better story. The world is swimming in shades of gray and good antagonists (and protagonists!) show that. 

Good antagonists also tend to be tied to good protagonists– to find variety in conflict, look at the main characters you create. If all their goals are to save the world, then you’d have to have a main antagonist trying to take it over (or some variation). If the protag’s goal is to win a competition, then the antag would likely be someone on a different team, a rival, or maybe their own insecurity.

It also all comes down to details. Your antagonists need motivation. Why are they trying to take over the world? Did the effects of climate change make them think humans are a plague that need to be destroyed? Do they have a power complex and need to subjugate others to feel better about themselves? Are they immortal and bored?

Start treating your antagonists like real characters instead of a plain force that works against the protagonist. They’re people too (most of the time, man vs environment is a thing) and that means they’re going to have motivation, depth, feeling– everything that your protagonist needs to be “developed”, they need as well! It’s true that you may not be able to explore that development as heavily because they aren’t the focus of the story, but you can use the information to craft them so they work specifically in your story. A cliche antagonist is likely a sign of a cliche story in general.

Here’s Ways to Flesh-Out Characters, and then the only extra thing that would make someone an antagonist is that they’re opposing the protagonist. Try to creating more personal conflicts (revenge can be a decent place to start) and variety of antagonists can come out of that.

Good luck with your antagonists!