I'm getting towards the antagonist exercises now, and facing an interesting choice. As I realised when working on "PLOT: Premise" , "the bandit leader is the enemy whom Suri believes to be her friend, and the commissioner is the friend whom Suri believes to be her enemy".

Commissioner Nesh is certainly the antagonist. She's the one who forces change on Suri, who disrupts Suri's life and threatens her peace. However, the commissioner is absolutely not the villain of the piece. That role falls to the bandit leader (as Suri discovers).

Now, for the antagonist profile, I can to do both the bandit leader and the commissioner; but for the backstory, I need to choose one. Commissioner Nesh's backstory is long and complex (in fact, it's book two of Fragments and is still being written). The bandit leader's backstory is fairly short and simple, but not at all sympathetic. The bandit leader isn't misunderstood, misguided, or mistaken; he's just foul.

I can see three options:
1 Tell a condensed version of book two, giving the commissioner's backstory,
2 Tell the story of how the bandit leader and his cronies set up their camp, or
3 Tell a story about the bandit leader's early days, and what lead him into a life of crime. This still won't make him sympathetic, but could go some way towards making it clear just how completely self-absorbed he is.

I've got until Saturday to decide. Meanwhile, I'd like to ask if anyone else is facing a similar situation, where the villain and the antagonist are not be the same person, or even on the same side. How have you decided to handle it?

Kwills