Despicable Perspective

At the moment I am editing my story, and at the moment, I am also stuck. This is not the "I can't come up with an idea" kind of stuck. It is the "I refuse to admit defeat but can't continue to move forward unless I, like, dislocate my shoulder" kind. Maybe I'm not stuck as much as stubborn.

Amusingly, it is the antagonist that is causing me problems. I'm wrestling with his motivation to return to the conflict with the protagonist again, with his perspective. His perspective is important, it is what makes his actions and reactions believable and is a source of constant questions. What is he trying to accomplish? Why is his preferred path to go through the protagonist? When is the soonest I can have him eaten by owlbears?

With a complex antagonist this is a somewhat enjoyable frustration, a matter of dissecting motives. My antagonist is his own person with his own motivations and own interests. He likes long walks in the woods, getting in touch with his fellow humans, and wandering away from his simple-minded author. He is also a character of shifting motivations which, to me, is good as I find more compelling characters are more difficult to categorize.

Many postings like the one above or this post or this other post, lay out broadly-defined categories of Antagonist. Labels such as The Villain, the Zealot, the Disturbed, the Nosy Housewife, help characterize a character's main drive. But just as there are many reasons for a protagonist to act, the antagonist has their own perspective and may be multi-motivated, as well.

Some of those motivations are in direct defiance of the hero, but the antagonist in my story is not merely defined by the protagonist. My antagonist h
as other interests with which the protagonist is not involved and visa versa. Their conflict is more a result of role requirements, like boss and employee; it is aim not animus that causes both to circle inward. They move steadily toward one another and inevitable battle as would knight and monster, or a mountain climber and a mountain, or the knight and the mountain climber returning from their respective struggles to find only one cupcake is left. 


My story, sadly, has no cupcakes. My editing process doesn't either, I'm afraid. Yet, I am determined to make the antagonist's perspective believable, to avoid simple opposition. As outlined in Chuck Wendig's classic post, it is more fulfilling to let the reader spend a few moments understanding the antagonist and let them see things from that character's perspective. Perspective matters. An enemy soldier is just a paper target until we see how similar they are to the hero but merely born somewhere else. From a different perspective, One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a story about an old lady trying to stay warm.

I work at this because I want a compelling counterpart to the protagonist, someone who will attract enough attention to make a reader wonder what they had for dinner last night (tacos), or if they eat at all. I'm interested in what the antagonist would be doing absent the protagonist. Taking over the world? Enjoying overseeing a dutiful and respectful populace? Lying on a sunny atoll instead of Stomping Tokyo?

Right now, this is where the problem lies. My antagonist's perspective does not fully explain his calm, his indifference to his counterpart. To him the protagonist is one of many. At the moment, I cannot say, I have made their conflict apparent enough. I cannot yet say it is clear why this pair cannot simply agree to disagree, or avoid each other like their respective mothers told them to do. However; I'm stubborn. So I'll find a way ...even if I have to dislocate both my arms to do it.