Antagonistic Beats of a Story: Understanding the Role of the Antagonist in Story Structure

Antagonistic Beats of a Story: Understanding the Role of the Antagonist in Story Structure

Story is about more than just the protagonist

Regular consumers of story, either written or film, learn to recognize the patterns that come with the rise and fall of action. They develop this innate instinct about when things should happen. If something is off with the pacing of a story, the readers know. They can feel it. They may not be able to explain why the pacing is off, but they still know that it's off.

Story structure models help to provide reasoning and some mathematics to what the readers know by instinct. However, many story structure models focus on the protagonist of the story. The antagonist is often treated as an afterthought or ignored completely. As such, the dynamic interplay between the protagonist and the antagonist is not leveraged to its full potential.

This book aims to examine the role that the antagonist plays within story structure, recognizing the different types of antagonists present in story.

Whether you are writing a romance or a high-octane action thriller, this book will help you gain a better understanding of the antagonist in your story and the significance they have in driving the story action.

About the Book

This book is currently under development, slated for release in February 2026. For more information on this book and its scheduled release, please consider signing up for the newsletter.

Details
Author: Judy L Mohr
Genre: Non-Fiction
Tags: Coming Soon, Under Development
Publisher: Black Wolf Publications
Publication Year: 2026
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