Dynamic Duos: How to Write a Perfectly Contrasting Hero and Villain

Have you ever struggled with making your story's core conflict feel dynamic? Have you felt like your hero and villain weren’t evenly matched or developed? Wondered if your friends-to-enemies arc feels forced? Been bored

by villains who are evil just for the sake of being evil?

Not only are your protagonist and antagonist the core conflict of your story and therefore must be a compelling element, but their character arcs are essential to making sure your message comes across clearly.

In a podcast episode, the OBA story team talked about the show Smallville and how the pilot episode perfectly set up the friends-to-enemies arc that this Superman origin story is crafted around. If you would like to reference the full discussion with our team of writer/editors and story coaches, check it out on YouTube or Spotify.

So how do you write dynamic hero and villain duos? How do you make sure your friends-to-enemies arc is believable and relatable to your audience? In this mini guide, we’ll show you how to do just that in 3 steps.