1. Create the antagonist at the same time as you create the protagonist. Both of them should have backstory, a motivation, fears, wishes, flaws etc. Their fates are intertwined after all.
2. Antagonist is supposed to create conflict for the protagonist; they don't have to be evil. Having different values or different ways of dealing with life can be enough.
3. An antagonist should have a strong specific goal (motivation) which should then be developed throughout the book. The reasoning behind it should be strong as well.
4. Antagonist isn't the same as the villain. Villain is an archetype of the antagonist, an embodiment of evil.
5. An antagonist should have both good and bad qualities. That will make them more realistic and not shallow.
6. Antagonist should be the opposite of the protagonist in a way; for example, a protagonist is very humble, and the antagonist goes after material possessions.
7. Get in your antagonist's shoes.
• Why do they believe they're doing the right thing
• How do they themselves feel about their actions?
• What are the stakes behind their motivation?
• Are those motivations something we can sympathise with or at least understand?
• How are they planning to get what they want?
8. An antagonist can be more than just another character. It can be…
→ the shadow self of the protagonist - making them two halves of one
→ a group of people / an organisation
→ someone from the past whose influence remains
→ someone who doesn't truly exist, or only exists in the mind of the protagonist
→ someone who's loved and cherished by the protagonist
9. Antagonist's actions should be a metaphor for what's going on in the protagonist's life and psyche.
For example in My Nepenthe, the protagonist - Conn - deeply values people and wants to get to know them, he believes in their value. The antagonists - in this case the occupants - don't value human lives, they see them as trash, they don't care about them.
That's how a protagonist and antagonist are intertwined.
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