Writing Workshop: Write Side Characters that Support the Theme

So far we’ve set up a premise, a protagonist, a theme, and even loosely outlined a plot for a story. But one thing we haven’t talked about almost at all on the blog is how to write good side characters, so that’s what we’re going to be discussing today.

Side-characters can do a lot for storytelling. They can harmonize with your theme and your character’s arc, amplifying your message and making it all the stronger. In some cases, they become the best-loved characters in the story due to the fact that they can be more interesting, vivid, and funny. Often the author has more freedom to make them more interesting, less realistic, and overall more fun to be around because they aren’t there to carry the entire story.

On the other hand, some side characters seem just to be… there. The main character needed a best friend, after all, or a foil to help them grow, or a love interest for the romantic subplot. 

Side-characters can be so much more.

So don’t settle for writing a character — no matter the size of the role — that is just there.

And in this workshop, we’re going to show you exactly how you can do that.

How to Make Theme and Side-Characters Fit Together

At this point we’ve already talked about how your theme makes a story cohesive and gives everything — from plot events to characters — relevance to the story. So the way to make side-characters seem relevant is by tying them into the theme.

Thus the first step to writing awesome side-characters is picking a theme. Since we already walked through that in a recent Workshop, we can use one of the themes from that Workshop for our side characters.

Side characters add nuance and depth to otherwise one-dimensional or simplistic themes. They are meant to explore unusual or opposing ideas within a theme, so that the protagonist can freely develop the main theme throughout the story. That allows the protagonist to fully flesh out their side of the theme without being hampered by a dozen caveats and nuances. Without that sort of division, things can get messy really quickly, and the theme can have so much nuance that it doesn’t really have a point. Books can only discuss so much. That means you have to pick a main theme for the protagonist and let the side-characters explore lesser facets of that theme.

Think of the theme like a gemstone. Each side of the gem is a different character’s theme, and so while the side that you’re looking at straight on might seem like the most important, the other sides refract the light and add depth and meaning to it. Without the other sides, there would be no dimension or interest to the gem (and your theme), but with too much you don’t know what you’re looking at.

So, how can we add nuance to the theme above? Like we talked about in this workshop, everything can be taken too far, even good, wholesome themes. So let’s look at some of the ways that this theme could be taken too far. That will give nuance and depth by acknowledging that this theme isn’t an absolute. Ironically, by admitting the weaknesses of your theme (through your side characters’ journeys) you make it stronger.

One way this theme could be taken too far is if a character used friendship not only as a way to deal with pain, but also as a way to vent about everything. This character could struggle with complaining and venting about every little thing that happens to her. 

Another way that we can look at this is if a character is looking at the theme in the wrong way or misunderstanding its true meaning. For example, a side-character could understand this theme but miss the fact that it works both ways. He could assume that friends are there to help bear pain but then forget that means that sometimes he has to help bear someone else’s pain.

Another way someone could take this theme too far is if they are too trusting with their secrets. They want help bearing them, and because they know friendship can help with that, they aren’t always careful with who their real friends are.

Now we have to pick one to write a side-character with. Honestly, you could take any one of these ideas and make a fully fleshed-out character, but personally I am most interested in the middle option. I think it could make a very compelling character, and in this Workshop I’d like to see where we can take it.

Now that we have an idea for what part this character plays in the overall themes and storytelling, we can flesh out the other parts of what makes him who he is. That starts, of course, with his goal, desire, fear, and flaw.

His flaw is pretty easy to see from the twisted version of the theme we have below. He seems to think he’s the only one who needs help bearing pain, or maybe he sees himself as the protagonist of this story.

Now that sounds very harsh, but it doesn’t necessarily have to make him an unlikeable person. He can still be interesting or fun as a character while he’s convinced that this entire story is really about his journey. In fact, he wouldn’t be completely wrong. This story is at least partially about him. He’d just be missing the fact that his friend (the actual main character) is actually the most important person in this story, and that not every story has to be about him.

Ultimately, it’s up to you as the writer how far you want to take this flaw. It could make him utterly unlikeable in the beginning, creating an awesome opportunity for character development and improvement, or it could just be a minor flaw in the way that he looks at his relationship with the protagonist.

From this flaw, I think a reasonable fear can be inferred that he’s afraid of living a futile or insignificant life. That makes his view of himself as the main character make sense. He can wrestle with wondering if not being the main character makes his life futile or worthless, generating the internal conflict that makes goals, desires, and fears interesting.

This means that he desires to have a purpose and make a difference in the world. Without that, he feels insignificant.

Now we’re just left with finding his goal, which changes depending on his role in the story, the story’s setting, and his relationship with the other characters. It’s one of the most flexible parts of developing his character, but definitely still just as important. It just has to be the way that he thinks he can fulfill his desire (in this case, changing the world.)

I haven’t written a “writery” character in a while, so I think he can be a character who sees his skills as a writer as his biggest asset, and therefore the way he plans to change the world. He can be a journalist, fresh out of college and searching for a job where he can use his skills to bring new information to the public and change the world through journalism. 

Since we have his goal, desire, and fear, we can sketch out a rough character arc, or at least outline where he begins and where he ends up as a character. This will of course depend on how far you want to take his flaw and therefore how much development he has to do as a character.

Now that we know where he starts the story and how he ends it, we should come up with a little more than just the core of who he is. We’ve talked about the importance of having two contradicting personality traits and how to develop them before, so here I’m just going to pick two that would seem to go with a person who’s both determined to change the world and fun to be around.

Of course there are driven characters who are funny, but not enough for it to be considered a troupe or very common at all. I think this makes a good combination for our side-character, and creates the foundation for developing an interesting and relevant person to befriend our main protagonist.

But this is just the beginning. After fleshing this all out, he still needs a name, age, backstory, appearance, family history, friendships, relationship to the protagonist, and so much more.

And most of this will come naturally as the story progresses or as more of the pieces fall into place through the plotting process. For now, we have what really drives him as a person, what will ensure he’s an interesting character, and (most importantly) what makes him relevant to the story. Once you have that piece, you can ensure your side-character is not only an indispensable support to the protagonist and her arc, but also the kind of characters that readers will root for from the very first page to the last.