Is it a problem if the antagonist appears later in the novel?

Question

Is there any problem with presenting the villain only later in the story? Or could that give the impression that he is without action? I intend to introduce him more toward the middle of the plot, since the protagonist is searching for clues to find certain artifacts — the same ones the villain also desires.

Answer 1

No, there is not, as long as the effects of the villain exist throughout the plot. The villain may be purposely hidden.

Another ploy is to make the villain somebody the MC (main character) knows, and trusts, and does not realize is the villain. As far as the MC is concerned, and the reader is concerned, the actual villain is a friend or ally. Only late in the story are they revealed as the villain.

An absent villain will not be perceived as "without action" if they are causing things to happen that actively thwart the hero and her allies.

They may or may not know who is doing that. If they know, they may know it is the King, but all they ever see is the King's minions causing them trouble.

If they don't know, same thing -- minions of their mystery villain are all they see, operatives that sabotage them, or kill the informants they were trying to visit. Every time they get a lead, things go south in a hurry, people die, towns are burned, plagues unleashed.

Since your hero and your villain are after the same artifacts; it is fine for the hero to discover time and again she is one step behind whoever the mystery villain may be. It might take her a minute to realize the description of the person that beat her to the artifact du jour is always different -- so there must be a villain that is using surrogates to hide their identity! It is a plot point.

Present the villain in person when it is right for the story. Just ensure the villain's efforts are successful and apparent long before they appear. Don't make this search for clues and artifacts a cake-walk for the hero. Cake walks are boring. Make it frustrating. Make her angry.

First rule of story telling -- Make life difficult and full of failures for hero; readers want to see her fail her way to a final success. That's why they will sympathize with her and root for her, she needs to be the underdog and overcome daunting odds.

And although the villain can have a few minor failures, a few bright spots for the hero, you want the villain to appear to be winning the war until the very end.

EDIT: in response to OP comment:

Thanks for this! My character ended up staying "Mary Sue" I had a problem with the clues, I finally managed to create them but it was easy for the protagonist as you said, she is not failing. But I don't know how to solve this, if she fails too much and doesn't get any clues the story gets slow. If she does I'll fall into the character Mary Sue.

Most stories can be divided into roughly 8 equal parts. Part 1: Introduce your hero in her Normal World. (No rumination allowed!) She interacts with people, deals with some minor problem, we see what she is like. At the end of Part 1, we have the "inciting incident", a problem she must solve that is not easy.

Part 2, She attempts to solve it; but it gets worse. In fact, by the end of Part 2, the problem has grown so much worse she must leave her Normal World (mentally or physically) in order to address it.

In your case, the inciting incident may be the villain's fault; and your hero discovers a clue to the villain or what the villain is up to. By the end of Part 2, she may learn of other victims in similar circumstances, and she leaves to investigate.

But she is always one or several clues behind the villain. The clues gathered always cost her, emotionally or physically (beat her up!). Nevertheless, she perseveres.

The villain is after something, and hurting people to get it, and she has to figure out what the villain is after in order to stop the carnage and destruction she sees in the villain's wake. Every clue leads her to the next place -- she is gaining on the villain. Perhaps the villain doesn't even know she is coming -- until she catches up and gets victimized directly by the villain.

But she gets back up, the clues are giving her an idea about what the villain is trying to do, and she has to stop it.

She tries again, meets the villain face to face, but gets her ass kicked, again.

Finally, Part 7 of 8 -- Bloody and defeated but not giving up, she comes up with a desperate plan. She has to risk everything, including her life, to beat the villain to the final clue. She has to destroy it so nobody can do what the villain aims to do.

Part 8 of 8 -- She executes her plan, and despite the pain and horror, she succeeds and conquers the villain somehow. The world is saved.

Then she either returns to her normal world, or if that isn't possible, starts her new normal life, as the person she has become.

Something like that. It is okay if the clues are easy for her to discover after it is too late to use them; after the villain has already caused death and carnage to gather the same clue.

EDIT: At the request of @wetcircuit; the eight act summary (based on the Three Act structure; roughly equal parts each 12.5% of the story, give or take 3% or so).

Part 1: Intro and Normal World: Establish the MC (Main Character or Main Crew, the protagonist[s]) "Normal World", including relationships, how she resolves some minor problem or dispute, her personality.

Part 2: Inciting Incident: A problem is encountered; this is the "catalyst" that upsets her status quo. It may be big (aliens land) or small (a discrepancy in accounting records). It is (or quickly becomes) something she cannot ignore. Attempts at dealing with it make the problem worse, until she is forced to (mentally or physically) abandon the status quo to deal with the threat. (In The Hunger Games, the only way Katniss can save her sister is to volunteer to take her place.)

Part 3: First Reactions, trying to cope. Often the MC is in shock or denial, confused. They seek a way to cope, they have no plan. They may hesitate or make mistakes, reactive instead of proactive trying to hurriedly fix the problem. Often meet others here, may be allies, informants, mentors -- or tricksters, opportunists or villains. Katniss has no grand strategy when she arrives at the Capitol; she's overwhelmed. She focuses on sizing up other tributes, and survival skills.

Part 4: First Major Obstacle or Test: Conflict escalates, often here we have a first battle (or major argument), we need to show the MC this is not a cake walk -- we need to beat them up. Usually they lose this battle, or if they win, it was definitely not easy, they get hurt. Remember, your hero must "fail their way to victory". We build sympathy for our hero by having our bad guys kick the crap out of her; but she will get back up. Heroes get back up, even when they don't want to.

Also, these events (in Part 4) often complicate the plot or reveal a twist in the problem that makes it bigger or more difficult than the MC thought. New complications, perhaps sub-plots emerge.

End of Part 4 is the midpoint of the story; often a high point of action, and a low point for the MC, things are not as simple as they thought. Katniss must survive the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, it is intense and she must find food and water; she nearly dies of thirst.

Part 5: Starts at the midpoint; here the MC shifts gears, from "reactive" to "proactive". She may have new knowledge (from Part 4), she may have gained or lost something that changes her attitude.

Including knowledge; perhaps she understands the antagonist or their goals better. It is the middle of the novel, we need to put some energy into this story so it doesn't sag. So a new revelation, a new ally, some sort of transformation for our hero. We want them to leave Part 5 as a point of no return.

Of course you need to work the setup for this into Part 4; but Part 5 is where she understands and puts it all together.

In the Hunger Games, the Gameskeeper announces a new rule; and this changes Katniss's strategy completey; she can seek out and partner with Peeta (her fellow tribute from her district).

Part 6: All Is Lost. Twist again, like you did last summer. This is the lowest point for the MC; she loses again. Some crushing reversal of fortunes from the positive tone of Part 5. A heartbreaking loss, a terrible defeat, a death. Our hero at her lowest point in the story.

Complications have accumulate to their worst. Her plans have failed, her allies are dead or in peril, the antagonist is poised to win, and it is all on her, and what she does now.

At the end of Part 6, she conceives of an impossible plan, and risks everything (her life if it is this kind of story) on one desperate gamble to recover (because heroes always get back up, no matter how badly beaten and broken).

In the Hunger Games, the Capitol rescinds the partnership rule, and Katniss and Peeta must fight to death. Katniss is beaten, exhausted, but has a plan...

Part 7: The Climax. The Final Confrontation. High energy, usually, the final battle. The Hero acts with determination and resolve, taking lethal risks (literally or figuratively or emotionally).

This is where final secrets are revealed, like the villain's true motivations are exposed. Basically all questions are resolved and the conflict is settled; Darth Vader spins off into space when the Death Star is destroyed.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta, the last two standing, refuse to fight and together threaten to commit suicide by eating "nightlock" berries, which would leave the Capitol with no winner: Unacceptable for their propaganda campaign. The Capitol is forced to declare them co-winners.

Part 8: Resolution; the New Normal or Return (to the hero's normal world). This is low action; reflective. We answer any hanging threads or questions; we show how the (surviving) characters have changed, and how they fit in to the new world they have created.

If they cannot return to their old roles; we show how the world is now for them, after their victory.

Typically, our hero (or crew) has grown positively, they are a better person for their ordeal.

But it is important to understand that readers will only find this happy ending satisfying if we beat the crap out of our MC along they way -- They must suffer for the reader to feel they deserve a happy ending.

Answer 2

I am going to do a sort of Frame Challenge-esque answer here:

Why do you want to introduce him later on in the plot?

The better the Why, the more stronger the case is.

Consider Agatha Christie and her (now) cliche ending of having all the potential killers in a room, their potential motivations exposed, only for one person to be proved to be the guilty party all along.

However, you might say that the Character has already been introduced in the story - just merely not revealed as the villain.

There are other stories where the Villain is not revealed until much later because either to misdirect the reader or (in the case of a book series) to setup a much larger evil later on.

For example - Emperor Palpatine is mentioned in A New Hope - but does not make an onscreen appearance until The Empire strikes back - but even then, only as a Hologram

He is not fully in the picture (pun intended) until the 3rd movie of the Trilogy.

If your why is good enough, people will forgive you subverting a convention, to a degree - things like Foreshadowing and sub-text are still very much your friends - you don't want a Deus Ex Machina moment - you want it to be something that draws together your story like the tightening of a cord that has been meticulously placed throughout.

In short: Focus more on the Why.

Answer 3

Yes, if he is a Deus ex Machina: we can't have the villain spring from nowhere on the last page. No, if he is prepared properly, by being introduced deceptively. Several successful writers have done just that. In addition to the examples listed in other answers:

1. Dan Brown, the Da Vinci Code.

There is a powerful guy who protects the hero: we only find out at the end that he is the secret Villain, and is the cause of all the hero's misfortunes.

2. George Orwell, 1984.

O'Brien is a villain, but also he is introduced earlier as a Good Guy.

3. Roger Zelazny, Isle of the Dead. The Bad Guy appears towards the end, for cultural reasons. In the culture invented for this SF novel, an artistic revenge involves organizing a chain of misfortunes for the revengee, who is meant to find out who was responsible just before his demise.

4. Ursula Le Guin, in the 3rd and 4th volumes of the Earth Sea series. She conceals the her villain in each case: he is mentioned early, but she gives the impression that he is a nebbish, until we find that he isn't...