This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 600th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

podcast. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. What are antagonistic proxies?

And how can they help your story?

Understanding how story works means stripping it down to the basic mechanics that undergird

story form itself. At its simplest, story is

protagonist versus antagonist. However, it's important to understand the definitions. Although we most commonly and

usefully think of protagonist and antagonist as vibrant three-dimensional

personalities, the functional reality is a bit simpler.

Protagivist is the part of the story that drives the plot via a forward moving

goal.

Antagonist is the corresponding part of the story that creates conflict by obstructing that

forward momentum.

So what are antagonistic proxies and how do they fit into this mix? It's true that on

a mechanical level the antagonist is simply whoever or whatever stands between the

protagonist and the ultimate goal. But when we start layering on all the enticing

nuances and details that take story from a basic

equation into a full-blown facsimile of real life we start discovering a couple

more rules of thumb.

One is that the antagonistic force needs to be consistent throughout the story.

Just as the protagonist's forward drive should create a cohesive through line all the way through the story, from inciting event to climactic moment, so too should the antagonistic force present a united affront that consistently opposes the protagonist

for a thematically resonant reasons.

But this gets tricky. As you deepen the complexity of your story in pursuit of that

...