This is K.M.

and you are listening to the 360th episode of the Helping Writers

Become Authors Podcast. All of the character sketches I've done for my

portal fantasy sequel Dreamlanders outlineline have been for new characters and most of them have been

antagonist I admit it I used to skimp on antagonist character sketches They're just not as important as pro tags right this was especially true for me since I rarely feature

Antigonist poves but these days I always do complete character sketches for all my important

antagonists. I felt for a long time that antagonists were one of my weak points, but doubling down on the character sketches

has allowed me to discover so much depth in what is so often an easily clicheted archetype.

When you look deep into someone's life, even someone who is

less than morally good, it's amazing how easy it is to understand and empathize to find

their dimensions, both good and bad, their shades of gray, and also

learn a little something about your own shades of gray along the way.

It's been time intensive, but definitely worth the extra work so far.

And in that same vein, the latest post on my blog is

How to Properly Motivate Your Bad Guy. The worst mistake you can... how to properly motivate your bad guy.

The worst mistake you can make with your antagonist is failing to give him a reason for his

evil actions.

Learn to motivate your bad guy in compelling ways. To read the post visit my site at

helping writers become authors.com. And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast entitled How to Outline for Nanowroimo Part 5

Four Ways to Write Back Story that Matters.

There are two equally vital parts to any story. The part you see and the part you don't.

The context and the subtext, the story and the backstory. Whether you're trying to figure out how to outline for

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