Difficulty in making a story

Question

This is the first time I’m writing a story, and I'm having trouble with everything , especially the conflict. I can’t think of situations the conflict might bring. I’ve changed the villain’s objective several times and I’m wondering if I should even have a villain in my story. The villain is poorly developed, and it’s hard to understand why he wants what he wants. The story I have is good, just needs some adjustments, but it’s complex and I’m having a hard time, not knowing what to do. Should I abandon the story or remove the villain? If anyone has an alternative, I’d be grateful, because it’s really hard to create a conflict that connects with the villain and challenges the protagonist.

Answer 1

Demote to Antagonist

A villain is more than a bad guy, he is elevated to a rival for story importance. If he's not speaking to you, maybe he's just not villain material.

I can think of a few ways to demote him to antagonist.

• split him into multiple smaller antagonists
• make him more of a figurehead who is talked about but does not appear
• twist: villain is not actually evil...

Character Building

Maybe the villain needs a little fleshing out as a person. It's easier to write about a character we understand. A character building excersize 5 Hours, 5 Days, 5 years (ago) can help to sketch in a person who has been derailed by the plot.

5 hours ago the villain was about to ___ (on the verge of enormous triumph or disaster)... when he was derailed by (probably the protagonist's dumb luck).

The stakes are impossibly high because 5 days ago ___, and now he is out of options.

Whatever the outcome, he has to see this through. For the past 5 years he has been ___. No silly protagonist is going to get in the way.

Villain Arc

Villains see themselves as the hero. They are the 'protagonist' who is going above and beyond, sacrificing everything, stretched past the limit to do what needs to be done.

For your actual hero to rise, the villain has to lose. Their motives are incompatible, There is no compromise or middle ground. They can't share power. The villain will understand this before the hero does, and escalate tactics before the hero does.

They are on the same journey but the polarities are reversed. Author can play with reader sympathy, defeat and triumph. They can like each other, and villain can betray.

The villain is a few steps ahead, but only a few. He doesn't need to be a mastermind to be as smart as the protagonist, plus he understands the stakes better. The protagonist only has a few obvious options. Intercepting the protag..., escalates to overturning of the protag's status quo..., escalates to destruction of the protag.

He walked in knowing he can't leave empty-handed. What he didn't know is that he'd have to burn everything to the ground. Villain should grow into his arc as his good options dwindle and he becomes more desperate.

Answer 2

Don't Box Yourself In Quickly

You may want to fall back and think more about possibilities. What possible conflict you can have. Who opposing characters could be. Whether these characters would have to be villains, that is, characters with evil motives.

It is never easy to build a sound structure for a story, and it's particularly not easy when you're first trying it. Think more about possibilities until you have a choice and can choose the most aesthetically sound.

Answer 3

I don't have enough details, just the feeling you express in your question, so I may be mistaken, but if:

I’ve changed the villain’s objective several times and I’m wondering if I should even have a villain in my story. The villain is poorly developed, and it’s hard to understand why he wants what he wants.

then it cannot quite be true that:

The story I have is good...

The antagonist and their objectives are an essential part of every story. If your antagonist isn't well integrated into your story and you cannot deduce from your story what they want, then your story isn't coherent.

You might have a good story idea, but the story (as the sum of all its parts) cannot (yet) be good.

If my analysis is correct, and you have been struggling with this story for some time, then my advice is:

Put the present story away and write another one

It is likely that when you began this story, you lacked the skill to conceive of a working story structure. Maybe your story can be salvaged, and maybe it cannot, but very likely you presently lack the skill to do so.

It will be more fruitful to just put this story away for the moment and, with the skills you have gained while working on it, start a fresh one – and maybe, if you still feel like it in a few months or years, come back to the present story when you have developed as a writer.

Generally, from a learning-to-write perspective, struggling with a story for a while is good, as you can learn to rewrite, but getting stuck on one single story for too long is obstructing your overall learning process and keeping you stuck on a skill level without allowing you further progress. You need to write many stories to become a better writer, not agonize over your first story for years.

So, if you've been struggling with this story for, say, half a year or longer, let it rest and write the next story.

For me, this has been liberating and my next story was always better and flowed more easily than the previous one.