Henchman, Himbos & Talking Cats: How to Create Well-written Side Characters

Hey, Story Quester, want to know how to make your side characters so they’re more than just breathing furniture? Then read on 👇

When you’re first starting out, everyone beyond the main cast might start to feel like cardboard cut-outs. Or some walk-on extra you just handed a script of lines to. And you might be at a total loss as to how to make them feel, you know, real-ish. Well, aside from having to spend way too much time building complex backstories for everyone in town. 

You don’t want to treat them like scenery. But you also don’t want to make a massive biography for every cabbage seller, either.

So what do you do, Story Quester? 

You answer these 3 questions:

1) Who are they?

The villainess’ himbo henchman? The bespectacled research assistant? The unnervingly intelligent cat? They don’t need to be a comical caricature, but they do need to be uniquely identifiable. 

2) What were they trying to accomplish before they encountered the Legendary Character?

Were they trying to sell vegetables? Were they waiting for a teammate to pick them up from work? Or maybe baking some pastries in the palace kitchens? Whatever they were trying to do, your Legendary Character just interrupted them for better or for worse. 

3) What is their purpose in the story?

Essentially, are they an ally or an obstacle? All side characters will fall into one of these two boxes. They can switch boxes later in the story. However, when they’re first introduced, they’ll always be in one or the other. If they’re not, they’re just useless filler and should be cut. 

Just knowing these 3 simple things about everyone your lead characters interact with will go a long way toward making your story feel like a real world instead of just words on a page. 

In fact, the true brilliance of series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Dragon Prince is that every character feels as though they have lives that exist beyond their interactions with the main cast, no matter how important their role in the story. 

But why is this? Because they have names, jobs, and roles in society. They’re basically going about their lives until the Legendary Characters inconvenienced them during the course of the scene. 

And these side characters adhere to the most fundamental law of character creation:

Everyone is the Legendary Character of their own story.

Well, until next time, Story Quester, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat signing off.