Happy Hump Day. I thought I’d start sharing with you some of the method behind the madness that is plotting and researching to write one of my novels. This piece is the first of a 4 part series on Giving the Antagonist a POV. Don’t forget that the giveaway is still open and make sure you enter.
Giving the Antagonist a POV
I read across the board genres, especially romances, thrillers, and historical fiction. I write paranormal romances and romantic thrillers. With my first two paranormal novels, Heroes Live Forever and Journey in Time, Point of View was limited to either the hero or heroine. The antagonist(s) in those stories were mainly the situations the hero and heroine found themselves in and had to overcome. On occasion, the situations generated villainous characters for them to encounter, but those characters did not have running roles throughout the stories.
In Knight Blindness, book three of my paranormal romance series, I took a somewhat different direction with the antagonist. Although he’s the hero’s nemesis, he is not a villain. Like the hero, he is a man who believes in his king’s cause, a man who goes into battle to fight for his country. During the course of the story, he goes from battlefield enemy to dogged pursuer of the hero. I knew as the plot progressed that I wanted him to be as three-dimensional and fleshed out as the hero. That meant giving him a POV, a personal history. Like the hero, he too generated a lot of reader comments. He evoked some strong feelings, some really disliked him and others felt a connection, a certain empathy for him.
I didn’t realize when I started the book that building a world, a backstory for him to create a credible POV, would open the door to a potential story where he is the hero.
