Can Antagonists Have a Change of Heart?

I’m still working on my current work in progress, one page at a time. It’s going slower as I continue working to reorganize my writing time throughout each day. The story is progressing and I’m enjoying it, but it has me thinking about how people change. I have an antagonist, or at least I outlined them that way, who seems to be on the verge of a change of heart.

I know that has happened in many other stories, even though I can’t think of any right off the top of my head. But it has me thinking through the experiences I’ve had in my life. Unlike a book, life may have many antagonists. For a few months it could be one person or thing, or it could last years. Why do they stop being the antagonist in my life? Is it because they changed? Is it because I changed my perception of them?

The same thing can happen in a story. At the beginning, a character that may be out to get the protagonist could have a change of heart. When they do, it doesn’t mean the protagonist of the story sees them differently, even after the changed character does good. In my life, I have dealt with many people that at first seemed difficult or against me. Lately, I’ve realized a big portion of that is my own perception. Even some of the most difficult people can change. Sometimes, I hold onto my thoughts about them, as a safety net, and I don’t realize how much they have changed.

Even an antagonist can change and become better. I think that may happen in my current work in progress, but I’m not sure how much they will change.

My latest book, Collected Lives, is now available on Amazon Kindle and as a paperback. Check it out. This story takes place near the end of the twenty-second century, with vacations and tourism to Earth by off-worlders controlled by major corporations. The largest corporation, Collected Lives, has several enemies. The story follows the events as four people from different portions of Collected Lives’ process are thrown into the middle of a larger problem.

My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.

Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.

If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.

If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.