1 framework for adding conflict to your story

Why Antagonism is the glue that holds together theme and character

The antagonist is the most interesting part of your story.

Take the movie The Dark Knight for example, the Joker is nuanced and has a cool backstory. By comparison Batman is a one-note character that never changes.

In his book, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee shares lessons from his decades long career as a teacher and mentor to screenwriters. In the chapter "Principles of Antagonism" he shares a framework for adding antagonism to your story based on the theme you are exploring.

For a story to have tension and stakes, the main character must go on a journey that changes their outlook on the central theme. The antagonist is someone with the same goal, but goes about achieving it in the opposite way as the protagonist.

Using this framework, you can craft characters and scenes that have tension to push the main character through their arc.

Making the Antagonist the opposite of the protagonist.

Usually, the protagonist is the positive value of the theme.

Let's say you are writing a detective story. The theme of a detective story is Justice, the story begins with a crime, usually a murder. The detective solves the crime by catching the perp, thus restoring justice.

The antagonist is the contradictory (or negative), injustice, their goal is to get away with it.

Adding depth with ambiguity.

You add ambiguity by exploring the gray area between the positive and negative values of the theme with the contrary.

Between Justice and Injustice is unfairness. In detective stories, this manifests as a corrupt cop turning a blind eye to crime because it benefits them in some way. While they are not breaking the law, it is unfair, posing an obstacle for the main character.

Having the main character enter into the contrary as part of their arc can be useful as well.

Taking your character to the end of the line with the negation of the negation.

In the finale, the character goes through their "all hope is lost" scene before they can have their "happily ever after."

The negation of the negation, meant as an emphasis like in Spanish not a double negative, is the fate worse than death in horror, damnation. In a detective story, the negation of the negation is tyranny because justice ceases to matter when it’s replaced with the will of a dictator. 

In the TV show Mr. Robot, when they needed to up the stakes for ther last season, they plunged their world into a full tyrannical dystopia. 

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Stories don't have to go from negative to positive. 

Examples: 

• Cinderella

• Charlotte's Web

• Any Romance Novel 

They can go from positive to negative, or even negative to the negation of the negation.

Examples:

• Oliver Twist

• The Fault in Our Stars

• A Streetcar Named Desire

The technique can be used for crafting scenes as well. A good scene will move from one value to the other as a result of the tension between the characters.

To craft an engaging narrative your forces of antagonism must be compelling, so compelling it forces your main character to become the person they were always meant to be.

For a complete list of the themes and their antagonistic counterparts from Robert Mckee's book, see the end of this post.

♥️ My Favorite Things This Week

• 🎧Podcast: Huberman Lab with Dr. Martha Beck - In this episode Martha Beck shares a thought experiment called the Ideal Day. It works by visualizing an average day, in the kind of life you want. The theme of the episode is self-discovery and being true to yourself, I found it very inspiring.

• 📜Short Story: Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer - A wonderful science fiction story about an app designed to make us happy. It explores provocative questions about community, choice, and freedom. It's a pleasant break from the usual portrayal of AI as evil.

• 📚Novel: Legends & Lattes By Travis Baldtree - I have been enjoying this cozy mystery fantasy book about an adventurer starting a cafe. The middle section of this book was so well executed, the author managed to provide a satisfying reveal to the mystery at the 50% mark to keep us hooked until the finale. The middle build is by far the most challenging part to execute in a novel.

📚 Quote of the Week 

The Complete Principles of Antagonism

Here are all the examples transcribed from Robert McKee's book. 

As an exercise to the reader, try to think of which genre uses each theme.

• Justice

  • Contrary: Unfairness

  • Contradictory: Injustice

  • Negation of the Negation: Tyranny

• Love

  • Contrary: Indifference

  • Contradictory: Hate

  • Negation of the Negation: Self-Hate

• Truth

  • Contrary: White Lies and Half-Truths

  • Contradictory: Lies

  • Negation of the Negation: Self-Deception

• Consciousness

  • Contrary: Unconsciousness

  • Contradictory: Death

  • Negation of the Negation: Damnation

• Rich

  • Contrary: Middle-Class

  • Contradictory: Poor and suffering the pains of poverty

  • Negation of the Negation: Rich but suffering the pains of poverty

• Communication

  • Contrary: Alienation

  • Contradictory: Stupidity

  • Negation of the Negation: Stupidity perceived as intelligence

• Freedom

  • Contrary: Restraint

  • Contradictory: Slavery

  • Negation of the Negation: Slavery perceived as freedom

• Bravery

  • Contrary: Fear

  • Contradictory: Cowardice

  • Negation of the Negation: Cowardice perceived as courage

• Loyalty

  • Contrary: Split Allegiance

  • Contradictory: Betrayal

  • Negation of the Negation: Self-Betrayal

• Maturity

  • Contrary: Childishness

  • Contradictory: Immaturity

  • Negation of the Negation: Immaturity perceived as maturity