by Judy L. Mohr

Regular consumers of story, either written or film, learn to recognize the patterns that come with the rise and fall of action. If something is off with the pacing, the readers know. Story structure models help to provide reasoning to what the readers know by instinct. There are so many story structure models out there, all talking about the same thing, but in different ways.

Common beat points include: 1) the inciting incident, 2) a point where the main character lets go of the status quo to embark on their journey, 3) a reflective moment that occurs at roughly 50%, 4) a moment of loss, and 5) the climactic moment where the protagonist faces off with the main antagonist.

But notice how the list above focuses on the protagonist. The antagonist is mentioned during the climax, but in the beginning parts of the story, the antagonist is often treated as a background force with no tangible influence over the story. Because we tend to focus on the protagonist’s actions and decisions, we often treat the antagonist as irrelevant or ignore them completely. As such, the dynamic interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist is not leveraged to its full potential, often resulting in what we affectionately call the saggy middle.

Without the antagonist, there’s no conflict. And without conflict, there is nothing pushing the protagonist to embark on their journey. Without the antagonist, all you have is a series of events with no real plot. So, if we recognize the importance of the antagonist within a story for conflict generation, why do we tend to ignore the antagonist when it comes to story structure? Some of the confusion likely comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of the antagonist, which can be a character, a force of nature, the environment of the world, a societal construct, an idea, or an internal philosophy of the protagonist. A good strategy for giving our antagonists more influence over the story is to remember that the action within the story is cyclic. Something happens, driven by the antagonist. The protagonist reacts, then makes a decision on how to proceed. Then something else happens, also driven by the antagonist, occasionally in reaction to the protagonist. And around the cycle we go. Don’t ignore your antagonist. The antagonist needs to take an active role in the story to encourage the protagonist to grow or change.

About Judy L. Mohr:
Judy L. Mohr (a proud New Zealander) is a multi-award-winning author, editor, writing coach, and an amateur photographic on the constant search for the perfect place to hide the bodies. She is the author of Antagonistic Beats of a Story: Understanding the Role of the Antagonist in Story Structure. Follow her adventures (and get writing tips) on her website.

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