Anti-heroes

(Alicia, we ought to do some posts on antiheroes. I love me some bad boys.)


Okay, Theresa, you're on. My first question is, how about some examples of anti-heroes?

What do you say about Michael Corleone in Godfather I and II?

Andy would say he's the hero of I and the anti-hero of II. (And he alone in the world loves III, and he'd probably say he's the hero again of that.)

(All, Andy is my film student son, and Theresa has known him all his little life, since she was a mere toddler herself. )
Alicia

Antagonists and Antagonism

I'm sure my high school English teacher meant well when she uttered this definition:
Protagonists are striving for something. Pro = for.
Antagonists are striving against something. Anti = against.

She only got it half right. As we saw yesterday, the pro in protagonist comes from proto, meaning first. The protagonist is the first actor, the deuteragonist is the second, the tritagonist is the third. And they're all working against the backdrop of a Greek chorus. So that's four classes of humans on the stage (though more than four physical bodies -- if memory serves, a Greek chorus had between a dozen and fifty people).

The protagonist was not originally defined as the character with the goal. It was defined as the character on stage with the chorus all the time. This meant, by extension, that the protagonist's character would be most central to the story. Otherwise, there would be no need to have him on stage all the time. The deuteragonist and tritagonist, with the many roles they fulfilled, could be on or off stage as the scene required. My understanding is that they generally remained on stage and changed their props in full view of the audience.

Where is the antagonist on the stage?

If you've asked this question, you've assumed that the antagonist is a character. And the thing is, maybe the antagonist is a character, and maybe not. Maybe the antagonist is different characters at different times. Maybe the protagonist gets a turn at being the antagonist. Maybe the antagonist is something intangible like the weather, not a character at all.

I think this begins to snap into focus if we stop talking about "the antagonist" and start talking about "antagonism." What is the source of antagonism in a particular story? Are there multiple sources or a single source?

In some stories, the antagonism will be embodied in a single identifiable character: the sheriff wears the white hat, and the outlaw wears the black hat, and good and bad collide over the course of the story until justice prevails and the noose is tied. It's very easy to understand this story model and apply literary definitions to the various component parts. Maybe that's ultimately a source of confusion, though, if we come to think of protagonists as always the "good guys" and antagonists as always the "bad guys."

In some stories, particularly in ensemble stories, the antagonism will be embodied in different characters at different times. Alliances are built and shift and fall. The protagonist gathers different pieces of the puzzle from different sources. Conflict can be very subtle and abstract in these stories -- think of The Big Chill, for example, which is built in layers of interaction between the protagonist (Kevin Kline) and his college friends. We might identify the conflict as Kline's struggle to cling to his nostalgic idealism in the face of what they've all become. The antagonism is released through different characters at different times: Goldblum's bitterness, Tilly's objectivity, Close's earth-mothering all serve to reveal different nuances of the conflict.

In some stories, the antagonism will not originate with a character at all. In Castaway, for example, the classic human versus nature struggle, there is only one character on screen for most of the story. There is no other body, so the antagonism quite literally can never be embodied. Does this mean the Tom Hanks character has no struggles? Of course not. But his struggles originate with something other than another human being. The antagonism is revealed and shaped through rain, coconuts, volleyballs, and so on.

Keep in mind that any of the four classes of people on stage can provide a source of antagonism. The deuteragonist mother may be loving and supportive in one scene, and then cast the protagonist into the wilderness in the next scene. The chorus may sing a character's praises in one scene, and lament his foolishness in the next.

So when we say that conflict is defined as the interaction of the protagonist and the antagonist, we're really talking about notions that came into existence through different channels and, in some ways, are independent story functions. Protagonist originates in character. Antagonist originates in conflict.

When you're doing global, big-picture thinking about your story, think about the source of the antagonism. Have you slotted your characters into "good" and "bad" roles, and missed out on potential ways to twist the conflict? Have you ignored the possibility of antagonism from non-human sources?

Theresa

A Structure Primer

What is this odd and blurry diagram? A toddler's crayon scribbles?

Nope. This is large-scale structure, one rendition of what is sometimes referred to as Aristotle's incline.

We're going to kick off our structure talks by looking at this diagram and some simple definitions. Most of you probably know this stuff already. But we want to take the time to go through it just so we all know we're on the same page.

And then, once we establish the foundation, we'll move into a discussion of the openings of books. Preview: They almost always start in the wrong place, and we end up having to do first chapter revisions on -- what would you say, Alicia? 75% of manuscripts? 80%? 90%? All I know is that it feels like a bonus when I get a manuscript with a good opening.

So. To Aristotle. Some of you may have seen a map like this in your high school English classes. Or perhaps you've seen similar diagrams that focus on the angled portion, the line between the circles. I like the above diagram because it goes into a bit more detail than other version's of the incline.

If you were to map a typical story beginning on page one and through to the last page, it might look something like that diagram. We begin in the ordinary world, usually with our protagonist, sometimes with our antagonist.

Ordinary World: In simplest terms, this is the starting point, the place and space all the characters occupy before the initiation of the conflict.

Protagonist: There are a thousand ways to define the protagonist. Someday maybe we'll talk about that in more depth. For today, we'll define the protagonist as the focus character for the story -- the character who plays an important role in most of the scenes.

Antagonist: The antagonist is the person or thing standing in direct opposition to the protagonist. Antagonists can be people, but they can also be circumstances.

In the ordinary world, the protagonist is coasting along, maintaining whatever his or her status quo might be. Then one day, something happens to disrupt the flow. This something can be positive or negative. It can be the death of a loved one, or a winning lottery ticket, or a dead body found in an alley, or the arrival of a prince charming. It can even be as simple as a decision: I'd like to walk the Appalachian Trail.

Inciting Incident: The event, positive or negative, that disrupts the status quo of the ordinary world.

Once the inciting incident occurs, you're out of the ordinary world and into the plot. (Plot is not structure -- we'll also examine that notion in another post some day.) The inciting incident, more often than not, also introduces the conflict or directly leads to the conflict.

Conflict: The opposition of the antagonist to the protagonist. (Special note to romance writers: you sometimes have a dual-protagonist structure that results in dual conflicts, external and internal.)

If your inciting incident is: death of a loved one
Your conflict might be: return of a prodigal relative intent on stealing an inheritance

If your inciting incident is: arrival of a prince charming
Your conflict might be: he's competing for the promotion the heroine wants

If your inciting incident is: a dead body found in the alley
Your conflict might be: a killer on the loose who might strike again

If your inciting incident is: a winning lottery ticket
Your conflict might be: misplacing the ticket

This little exercise takes us through the flat portion, bottom left of the diagram (ordinary world) and into the circled part (inciting incident and introduction of the conflict).

Next time, we'll look at another way to break these pieces down. For now, your homework is to look at one of your manuscripts and identify your protagonist, your antagonist, and your inciting incident. You might find this harder than expected, especially the inciting incident.

Theresa