The Value of Side Characters
Hey Story Crafters,
I’d like to briefly touch on the value of side characters. While they don’t need to be as fleshed out as your major characters, side characters should be able to stand out as “real” people in your story.
Side characters are important because they show that your main character, or major characters, don’t exist in a vacuum. Main characters exist in a world where they can, do, and should interact with characters other than the ones who help move the plot forward. Side characters offer opportunities for world-building and character development, without you (the author) having to risk the temptation to info-dump.
However, you do need to be careful not to let side characters overshadow the main character(s), or dominate scenes. They should leave brief, snapshot impressions that help your main character(s)—and the world of your story—shine brighter.
To break it down into specifics, three tips that can be useful for creating side characters include:
1. Unique Appearance
For anyone who’s read or watched Gintama, this tip may sound familiar. During one of the anime’s many side or minor arcs, Gintoki “helps” a mangaka-editor pair brainstorm a manga. He advises the mangaka on creating a main character whose silhouette is recognizable, and then shows silhouettes of familiar protagonists from other popular shonen manga. Of course, this tip isn’t limited to main characters or silhouettes, but other characters and features as well.
[Examples of memorable traits in book main characters include Harry Potter’s messy black hair, bright green eyes, and his lightning bolt scar, and Addie LaRue’s distinct constellation of 7 freckles across her face (from V. E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.). There are, of course, several others.]
This tip can apply to side characters too. Unique appearance traits for side characters can be as simple as distinct skin, hair, or eye color, or what they choose to wear or carry, or unexpected, mismatched appearance expectations, like an elderly woman dressing like a teenager. Appearance can be used to sum up who a side character is, so you don’t have to spend too many words doing so.
Since side characters are part of the world your main character(s) inhabits, how and where they appear in the story (or the description of their appearance) can be useful in shaping the world of the story. They can show the amount of diversity in a specific location in terms of race, class, and other factors.
For example, if we look back at Shrek, there’s a clear distinction between the side characters who are forced to relocate to Shrek’s swamp, and those inhabiting Duloc. The side characters in Shrek’s swamp are all fairy tale creatures, from the expected fairies, witches, and dwarves, to familiar faces like Pinocchio and the Big Bad Wolf. Those in Duloc are all human, though their classes vary from peasants (the average citizen) to knights and the nobility. Shrek, as the main character, is able to move between and interact with these two different types of side characters, which gives insight into how he interacts with each group, and how he is treated by each group as well. To the fairy tale creatures, he’s a hero; the humans think he’s a monster.
2. Unique Personality and/or Abilities
A character’s personality can match or contrast their appearance. Either option can be interesting, if you avoid falling into familiar stereotypes or clichés, like the wise old mentor or the delinquent with a heart of gold. Or, if you do use them, add an unexpected or original twist that makes them seem fresh.
In line with a unique appearance, side characters who make an impact may have a unique personality and/or ability that helps shape and color to the world of your story. If the unique appearance is an alien or magical race, side characters that identify as such may have a particular way of speaking or behaving, or may have special abilities (e.g. can shapeshift, bend earth, etc.). This is, again, just a way side characters can help shape the world your main character(s) live in.
3. Relationship with the Main Character(s) [if applicable]
Not all side characters will interact with the main character(s), but the ones who do may reveal sides to the main character(s) the reader might not otherwise learn when the MC is by herself, or when she is only interacting within the bubble of the major characters.
For example, say you have a story that follows the Enemies to Friends to Lovers trope, where the characters of your main pairing are in the “Enemies” stage of their relationship. I’ll use a cis-het relationship for this example, but you can use any type of relationship you like.
Let’s say your main character is the female lead (FL), who isn’t on good terms with the male lead (ML). The ML happens to meet the FL at the grocery store in her neighborhood, and much to the FL’s dismay, her neighbor who is overly invested in her love-life—or lack thereof—stumbles into the tense argument she’s having with the ML.
All that’s needed to give this neighbor side character a personality is how the neighbor (let’s say she’s an elderly woman) chooses to react in this situation. If the elderly neighbor approves of the ML, she might be encouraging (such as flash a knowing smile and give a thumb’s up that only the FL sees) and choose not to interfere; if she disapproves of the ML, she might swoop in and force herself into the conversation.
Side characters can help with character development by giving opportunities for the main character to show sides of herself—good or bad—she might not show to other major characters, and show how those sides change throughout the story. Side characters are also important for world-building, since they give insight to socioeconomic status, class, or just the kinds of privileges or setbacks and/or obstacles that exist in the world the main character(s) inhabit.
Happy writing!
Leah