In my story, my antagonist is this guy named James. James is 37, married to Christine, and has one "daughter", Alex(I say "daughter" because she isn't really his). He is also a police officer (actually he doesn't have to be, but he is for now). To make a long story short, about 14 years prior to the current time of my story, Christine was engaged to James' younger brother, Erik, and she was pregnate. James was also in love with Christine and wanted her for himself, so he wanted to get rid of his brother without killing him. So he found a way to make Erik forget who he was completely. James told Christine that Erik went missing and no one ever found him. Christine was very sad about this, but she was still pregnate. She married James. Now, this story is from Alex's point of view. She thinks that James is her father. But I need to make James in a way that Alex doesn't like him that much. My problem is that I don't know how to make a 14 year old girl dislike her own father, I need to give her a reason. If anyone has any ideas, I'm sure it would really help me! Thanks, ~Alex
Actually you don't have to give her a reason. 14 year olds tend to see everything their parents do as unfair and totalitarian. Why not have James be a normal fatehr and simply skew the girl's impressions of him.
That could work. Maybe what I've been doing is thinking that she needs a reason so it doesn't hurt her as badly... Oh wait, I remember now, Alex needs a way to not like James as much because James doesn't like her. James hates Erik, therefore, he hates his daughter too. But Alex doesn't know why he doesn't like her that much...that's just the way he is to her. The only thing is, is that finding a reason for her to not like him is not very easy... -Alex
I sometimes get the feeling my dad doesn't like me. He tells me he loves me, but what's that? All fathers "love" their daughters. I feel like dirt because my own father doesn't care about me. ^^ not how I feel, but try something along those lines with your character.
You could add a minor conflict with James' character...you know, an affair that perhaps she stumbled upon and never really forgave him for, or a past drinking problem...uhmm..that could become too detailed, however, to work in your story. Those are just some suggestions to get your mind turning. I am sure with enough advice you can gather some pretty good ideas! All the best to you!
You could also have him constantly get after her for the smallest things, or obvious favoritism. Here are some things that come to mind: She gets a "C" and is grounded for a month. She incorrectly folded her mothers underwear and her internet access is taken away. There is no time to take her to the movies, to that party, to any extra-curicular activity, but there is time to go to the bar, or take a walk, or watch TV. There is no money for a new pair of shoes for her, but he just bought new rims for his car.
Make the guy an alcoholic. He could be one of those guys who is really subtle about the fact that they heavily drink, yet it's obvious to the people that are around him constantly. Whenever he drinks heavily, he treats the mother like garbage, and there you go. That's a sure fire way to make her hate him and make the reader go along with it.
As an antagonist, how is he going to thwart your main character? That's going to show you what you need to develop. If for example, she's a soccer player and he's the uber sports comptative dad, the conflict is pretty clear. Etc. Etc. Think about him in regards to the landscape of the rest of the story.
