WRITING POWERFUL SIDE CHARACTERS

what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life wednesdays today we are talking about side characters or secondary characters more specifically how you can make your side characters super powerful and three-dimensional so that they don't distract from your story or just fade into the background of your story but they actually add layers of goodness and depth to your story few months ago we talked about subplots which are almost the same thing as what we're talking about today because in that video we talked about how subplots are actually side characters plots adding to the main plot of your story but I got a request for this video so we are taking it from a slightly different angle today before things that every side character must have in order to be powerful to your story and memorable to your reader let's go okay so four things that all powerful side characters must have number one in agenda I talked about this in the subplots video all side characters must have an agenda that's what makes side characters feel three-dimensional instead of like two-dimensional filler people who just make background noise and tell an occasional joke think of it this way a side character doesn't enter the story because the plot needs them to they enter the story because they need to so ask yourself why is it important for this side character to be a part of the main character's story what is their agenda here I know agenda sounds kind of like a malicious word but you could use motive or goal whatever something the character has an end result in mind something they desire now you could take this to the next level take this one step further and flesh out your side characters whole internal conflict okay their desire their fear their misbelief but you don't have to get that detailed with characters who aren't gonna have as much screen time as the main character this is not the main character don't forget second thing every side character must have and impact that's another thing we talked about in the subplots video the impact that this side character will have on the main conflict or better yet main character in your story you can ask yourself one question and immediately know whether or not your side character matters does my side character directly engage with or impact the main character in my story see the reason why we care about any character other than the main character is because we are shown why this other character is important to the character we care about I've talked about this before but the protagonist in your story the main character is the yardstick by which we measure the importance of everything in every one in your story our subconscious is constantly asking and whispers in the back of our mind is this important is this matter and the subconscious is super strict about what information it classifies as important and allows you to hold on to so when our brain is asking does this matter what it's really asking is how is this important to the protagonist we live in the skin of the protagonist which means everything that happens past a matter somehow to the protagonist otherwise our brains are confused and a computer's mind always says no or in this case DNF so let your side character directly engage with or impact the main character in your story third thing your side character must have a theme the cool thing about side characters is that they can single-handedly carry a theme through your story that's like an extra theme on top of the main theme with your main character which just adds extra layers of goodness and depth and dimension to your story and makes the reader feel super satisfied again we briefly talked about this in the subplots video which if you haven't seen that video I highly recommend watching it's a great companion to this video but basically here's the question you have to ask yourself what lesson do I want this side character to teach my main character inadvertently see the cool thing about side characters is that they can add this extra layer of theme to your story and theme as we all know can be better described as a powerful lesson learned by the main character and conveyed to your reader not every side character has to fulfill this but the ones who get a lot of screen time should and finally number four all side characters must have a deciding vote in the end like I just said what is this side character going to inadvertently teach the main character and the reader if your side character does not have a deciding vote in how the story ends your readers gonna feel like they were pretty pointless like they were here this whole time just to make occasional jokes and be a comic relief you don't want this okay you want your side character to matter it's pretty easy to figure out whether or not your side character matters just ask yourself this question without this character could my protagonist arrive at their ultimate realization in the end of the story if the answer is yes your side character is not strong enough not saying all side characters have to be this seminal just the ones that you give a lot of screen time to okay so a powerful side character has these four things an agenda of their own an impact on the emcee a theme they bring to the story and a deciding vote in how things turn out for the emcee so I realized that this is kind of all very conceptual and I like to use story examples to kind of bring this full circle so you can see how it works in an actual story so it's been a while since we did a story example and today for our story example we are going to use the beloved Oh this isn't even the right book Wow I think that Mansfield Park instead of the beloved novel Emma by Jane Austen you're all like why the heck do you always use Jane Austen as an example because Jane Austen is a legend obviously I chose Emma because it includes a great cast of powerful side characters that all contribute something important and impactful to the main character's story Emma's story is affected by the side characters around her mr. Knightley her best friend soon to be love interest Harriet Smith her new best friend Frank Churchill Emma's real crush and mrs. dates Emma's very talkative old family friend there are other side characters obviously who are important to the storyline but these four characters get the most screen time so let's dive into those four things that I talked about the four must-haves of powerful side characters and see how they translate into a real story okay first thing all side characters must have an agenda the side characters of Emma don't enter the story because the plot needs them too they enter the story because they need to mr. Knightley is present in Emma's life to be her friend and offer her guidance sometimes unwelcome but always the unvarnished truth What nonsense I really think it is time for tea and yes it does not appear do you think I should call father in Harriet Smith is brought into Emma's life to be a sort of companion to her but also for her benefit as Emma as well-bred and Harriet is not Frank Churchill enters the story for his own ulterior motive to see his secret fiance who's living nearby with mrs. Bates who has always been a family friend in Emma's duty to visit even if all she does is talk incessantly of Jane Fairfax all the characters have their own motive or agenda thus making their involvement in the story important to them not just important to the plot second thing all side characters must have an impact or in other words they have to matter to the main character's story all the side characters in Emma matter because well they matter to Emma their interactions and conflict and decisions are constantly interleaving and interfering with Emma's story third thing all side characters must have a theme in Emma what lessons do the side characters teach the main character inadvertently Emma tries to matchmake Harriet with mr. Elton only to break Harriet's heart when she discovers mr. Elton doesn't want Harriet he wants Emma I've never paid the slightest attention to Miss Smith except was your friend who herself through her relationship with Frank Churchill emma realizes that her public flirtations with him have caused pain and confusion to the people around her with mrs. Bates emma is impatient and rude and highlights a lesson of humility in the stories threat and finally with mr. Knightley Emma learns lots of valuable lessons through his brutal honest advice and opinions and in turn nightly comes to a realization that his lectures have been pretty harsh and the fourth and final thing all side characters must have a deciding vote in the stories ending in other words without these side characters Emma wouldn't be able to arrive at her ultimate realization her aha moment because of the Frank Churchill's subplot Emma learns that selfishness and thoughtlessness comes at a great cost ruining the happiness of others because of the mrs. Bates subplot Emma learns that patience and compassion are the only bright responses to people who are less fortunate than you and that loyalty goes a long way because of the Harriet subplot Emma learns that meddling in other people's love lives cannot end your own when she inadvertently gets Harriet interested in mr. Knightley which leads her to the ultimate realization of the story that she's in love with mr. Knightley and it couldn't be any other way boom that's how you do side characters seriously if you nail all these points congratulations you're gonna have some freaking powerful side characters in your story characters who don't fade into the background or steal the show but add more layers of goodness to your story comment below and tell me who are some of your favorite side characters in fiction or films smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community also hit that little Bell icon right next to the subscribe button so that you are the first to know when I drop a new video until next week my friend rock on [Music]

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 25,673

Rating: 4.9767308 out of 5

Keywords: writing tips, characters, side characters, internal conflict, nanowrimo, outlining, novel, fiction, abbie emmons, authortube, character development

Id: ENCEMzTmIYo

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019