Writing.Com General Discussion

Perhaps your story works better as the antagonist becoming a better person? I had something similar where I had a generic antagonist who was just evil for the sake of it and a bully. After a while, as I developed the character and gave her virtues as well as flaws, and also reasons for her actions, I realised that she actually wasn't as bad as I intended and has wound up being not only one of my most realistic characters, but also my best and I've wound up writing a whole novel around her where she is the main character.

That said, the new antagonist of this aforementioned novel has turned out to be something of a victim of her circumstances and I've actually wound up feeling sorry for her. I'm now trying to decide whether to leave it as it is and let the reader decide who they root for, or if I should rewrite the antagonist to make her more like the character I wanted her to be. As a reader myself I prefer stories with grey areas rather than simply black and white and this has come into play a lot in my writing.

It's always interesting to see where a story ends up taking you!