Metaphor Fruitcake

A good antagonist in a novel is like yeast in a loaf of bread in that the addition expands the loaf in a way other leavening agents can't quite. Thus the historical popularity of using yeast for baking bread and good antagonists for infusing gripping action into novels that stand apart from the rest.

For my novel, I've identified two potential antagonists. One a man, the other a woman. Because most of the characters in the story are women, it seemed better to me to make the antagonist a woman too. Don't want to appear sexist or anything. Also the male antagonist is a bit cartoon like. The search for the antagonist it turns out is closely linked to genre.

The cartoon man is a good fit for cheeky, light, women's fiction. And would be a lot of fun, and would provide a lot of possibilities for moving the plot forward. The woman would work better in literary fiction, as her role as antagonist is less plot related and more psychological. For now, I'm keeping them both, waiting in the wings like Michelle Obama's inaugural ball gown.

Will the winner be the bright, colorful, fun choice? Or will it be the more understated, subtle one? Moving forward, weaving together the rest of the many components of good novel writing will reveal the winner I believe. At this point, the whole thing is still amorphous, with many variables making themselves clearer, dynamically interacting with one another to make the whole.

It must be this way. Like making a loaf of bread. If you decide at the last minute to add more raisins, you want to do it while the dough is yet unbaked, so the raisins will be evenly distributed throughout the loaf. A novel is like a loaf of bread in that once baked, or published, it cannot be altered. But up until the time you put it in the oven, you can keep adding and mixing and kneading, to ensure that any addition is integral to the whole thing.

This is my argument with the Fifty Shades of Grey series. It reads as though the author added characters and meaning after the first book was baked, so the series does not hang together the way it would have, had the whole series been thought all the way through together. Not altogether unsuccessful, but could have been much better. E. L. James could learn a thing or two from J. K. Rowling.

Writing a novel is a lot like designing a building. You work on parts, never forgetting the whole.

More later.