Developing an Antagonist

What makes an antagonist vile yet memorable? Paul Azeti will conduct a workshop on creating interesting villains. This workshop will run to 3 p.m. The critique workshop will immediately follow.

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Develop Your Antagonist Workshop:

This is a repeat of a successful workshop done a few years ago at MinnSpec. Its purpose is to define, examine, layer, and discuss the antagonist in our current works in progress. Our goal is to make our antagonists more complex and believable, and discover new elements that will impact the protagonist and help move the plot forward. To accomplish this, we’re planning a series of hands on writing exercises and small group discussion, based on Donald Maass's book and exercises.

Participants should bring a notebook, pen, along with scenes from your manuscript, if you have any available. These scenes ideally include the scene that introduces your antagonist as well as one or more middle novel scenes including the antagonist. We will provide some handouts as well.

Please note that this is a longer session and will last up to three hours. Food and drink are available in the store downstairs. Due to time restrictions, the meeting will be extremely structured, so the usual "meet and greet' will not be a part of this meeting, though newcomers and first-timers are still welcome.