Creating My Antagonist

So after many months of pondering, I have finally put together a plausible and tangible antagonist for my book "Dis-Ease" (working title).  My protagonists are average citizens turned mental patients thanks to some of the side-effects of their cure.  However, Jacob, my main character, is out to prove to the world that the government is wrong and that these people are not crazy but possess special gifts.  As much as I hate writing politics it makes perfect sense that the antagonist be some kind of government authority or interest group.  The Food and Drug Administration or the Department of Health (which oversees that agency) would be what I was shooting for, and I would create a character who leads the efforts to suppress media coverage.  The goal of my protagonists are to expose the truth on national television and broadcast to the world what's really going on with the cure for Miller's Disease.  Think John Carpenter's "They Live" minus aliens and a brainwashing satellite signal.

Pre-writing

One of my favorite pre-writing exercises to do is a character profile.  I like character profiles because it gives me a chance to get to know my character 100% and flesh him/her out so that they are as real and tangible as possible.

When I began writing The Mechanical Room, I knew I had three main characters definitely--John Noah (my protagonist), Penn Wolfgang, and Kade Strongarm (my antagonist).  I began writing the character profiles for each, detailing their likes/dislikes, age, birth marks, sense of humor, parents, spouse, etc. etc.

I did all of this before I started the novel.  Of course, once I started writing I realized I had more characters to delve into and eventually I wrote a few other character profiles.

Here are some of the basics that my character profiles cover:

Age
Height
Weight
Eye Color
Hair Color
Date of Birth
Birth Place
Scars/Handicap
Education
Work
Best Friend
Marital Status
Enemies
Parents
Present Problem
Character Traits
Humor
Ambitions
Philosophy
Favorite Colors
Pastimes
Dress
Hobbies

After I've answered all of these things about my character I usually feel quite satisfied with the layers of their personality.  Test it on yourself just for fun... fill out all of these sections about yourself to see how much it covers.


(Recommended reading:  Writing Fiction: A Guide To Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway)