Burt’s Comments (group member since Feb 23, 2017)

Burt’s comments from the Help For Writers group.

I've begun preparing my second novel but having a potential structural problem. I don't have a principal antagonist. From what I've learned, this is nearly taboo in the world of fiction, but I don't know how to resolve it. The book is about a man that has all sorts of things go wrong in his life, but all of it is at the expense of one form of government intrusion or another. It comes from all levels of government: municipal, state, and federal government. Each of the incidents are based on things that have actually happened to real people.

I can't come up with a credible scenario where one individual is the source of this. If I did, it would be conspiracy of some sort and I don't want that to happen. The book should illustrate that all these things can happen to anyone without there being some single evil force behind it. Essentially, the antagonist is out-of-control government, not a person

Is this a bad idea? It just seems strange not having one person as a antagonist.