How can I write a character whom I have no knowledge of?
In my current novel, my main character has a rival for whom he has a deep personal hatred. Think Harry Potter and Malfoy, but with something solid at the beginning. I'm attempting to come up with a good reason for this hatred, but I'm quickly realizing that I don't know where to start. I don't know how to write a rival.
I was homeschooled, so I was never in the public school system. I never had anyone remotely close to a rival. I have no experience of such an individual. How can I write a character whom I have no knowledge of?
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No one is a rival. Lots of people have a rival. The distinction is crucial. Your protagonist's rival does not think of himself as a rival, and neither should you. He thinks of himself as having a rival. That is how you should write him.
This is not to say that there are not characters in fiction that are just evil. They certainly exist. There is Sauron in LOTR, for example. But Sauron is also completely remote from the story. We never even meet him.
Saruman, on the other hand, we do neet. But Saruman, though he had picked the wrong side, is not simply evil the Sauron is. We don't get to know him well, but he has some depth to him.
Then there is Boromir, who give in to temptation but is final redeemed. He is an enemy for some period, but dies well. Him we know much better than either Sauron or Saruman.
Choosing makes us human. Choosing is what makes a character human. You can make your rival a Sauron, a pure unreasoning evil, but then you will never know him. Or you can make him a Boromir, one who chooses and whose choices make sense from his point of view, even if they are not always nobel in the grander scheme of things, or even if they thwart the personal agenda of your protagonist (who may not be making the grand noble choices either).
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A rival, as opposed to a mere villain or antagonist, is someone who is competing with you for the thing, person, or goal you both want. The only place where Malfoy and Harry directly competed was in Quidditch, where they were both Seekers and were both after the Golden Snitch during games.
Beyond that, Draco was mostly Harry's antagonist — someone who is opposed to Harry and trying to prevent him from doing what he wants or being happy. An antagonist doesn't necessarily want what you want, or want it instead of you.
So depending on what kind of character you're writing, you have to figure out a reason for your protagonist to hate this person. Are they competing for something or someone? Is the other person trying to sabotage him, personally or professionally? Are they from different social strata? races? religions? political parties? schools? office departments? businesses? Is one a crook and the other a cop? Do they play for different sports teams? Is one the other's manager? et cetera.
You need to figure out why they are at odds. This will give you the basic structure of their conflict. If you don't know why your protagonist hates your villain, then you need to do more work on your plot and your characters, because you don't have the bones of your story yet. Right now your Bad Guy is just a prop.
If you don't have enough life experience to figure out how or why someone would want to thwart you personally, all I can suggest (besides getting out more) is to read more books and watch more TV and movies to study how other creators have established conflicts.
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