While Its Not Enough, Its A Strong Foundation. Good Side Characters Need All Of These Things, Yes, But

While it’s not enough, it’s a strong foundation. Good side characters need all of these things, yes, but they also need:

-things that won’t change about them, most commonly their personalities

-their relationship to the MC

-Morals and motivations of their own

-Mannerisms and the way they speak / do things

-notable differences to the mc

-their mental state

-how they talk to different people, like a best friend or a stranger.

-ect.

There are plenty of things side characters should need, because they are people in the story just as much as the MC is. It’s a lot more time consuming to write fully fledged out side characters, but it will be so much more enjoyable if you do.

Creating Memorable Side Characters

                Not everyone gets to be the star of the show. Side characters fill out your world and add context to your main character’s journey. Often they are the parents, friends, or coworkers of your main character and as important of a role they play in the MCs life, it’s easy to forget they exist until we need them next.

                While they shouldn’t take the main stage, creating memorable side characters gives them a sense of realism and importance. They can provide motivation, inspiration, or a little bit of support when the MC needs it next, which will all land harder if we care about them as people. So here’s a few ways to do it:

Give them a little arc.

While the journey of the main character is why we’re reading your story, they aren’t the only people who can change. Allowing your side characters some development across the story, even in small ways, can add a layer of depth and intrigue to them. This can look like going from “dad hates all of MC’s friends” to “dad houses and feeds all the friends when they need it most”.

2. Give them a space

Unmemorable characters are treated more like tools to the narrative than people. If your side character shows up wherever they are needed at any given time, they’ve become a plot convenience rather than a person. Give them a place to exist—they hang out in the library, they can be found at the café down the street, they’re three phone calls and a flare in the sky away. Give them a reliable place that’s just theirs.

3. Give them a point of interest

While your side characters aren’t going to be as fully developed as your MCs, you can pretty easily give them some intrigue and the hint of a broader life by giving them a specific point of interest. Maybe the friend is in the photography club, the parents go out to drag shows on the weekend, the coworker always has a new crochet scarf to bring to work, etc. Just make sure it doesn't stand in alone for further character development.

                What are some examples of memorable side characters you can think of?

I actually just wrote a legend today! It’s written like a parent reading their kid a bedtime story, because I enjoy seeing how different people react to the same thing.

Writing Legend and Folklore

                Unlike mythology, legends are more rooted in historical events and may even have recorded, proven details. Your legend will likely feature real humans as characters experiencing something that happened in a real place in your world. The fun things about legends is that often the truth of the past has been twisted and changed over time. While it’s important for you as the writer to know the absolute truth about your history, your characters may never learn the truth behind the legend, or may trade slightly different alternate stories.

                Legends reflect the values or fears of a society. Much of Folklore comes from parents intending to shield their children from danger—whether going out at night and getting snatched by the boogeyman, or wandering too close to the rapids and being dragged in by a dangerous Kelpie. So start with a real value or danger, and begin to embellish.

                Maybe in your world society really values compassion. A tale may start out with someone hoarding resources and ignoring those in need which then manifests a shadow monster that gobbles both them and their riches right up! Name the monster, and you have a campfire-worthy folk tale for your characters to tell late into the night.

                Or, if your legend has no moral or lesson, it may feature something unexplainable that happened to real people. Stories you hear of disappearing cities or villages come from this place—people witnessing something or experiencing something they can’t explain, and creating a story to explain it anyway.

                The original teller of this story, or the original source, should be difficult if not impossible to track down, to make sure it remains shrouded in mystery.

                Does your world feature any legends or folktales? Let me know!

I knew it. Suck on that Garrick!

(Ignore my comment, just busy winning a bet)

5 Signs your protagonist is a Mary Sue

Does your protagonist pass the vibe check? Mary Sues are unfortunately more common than not - especially in novels aimed at a YA audience. You might not know what a Mary Sue is - typically, it’s described as a “self-insert” by the author. It’s where the author creates an idealized version of themselves in the story, and generally won’t let anything touch or change the character, as it ends up feeling too personal. They might be described as the ordinary shy girl/boy next door, with no distinct personality, yet somehow they’re perfect to everyone around them (and have several people adoring them at all times!).

Make sure your hero doesn’t fall into this category, by crossing off each of the 5 signs on this list!

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DID SOMEONE SAY Sir James William Hudson Honorborn?

How to write charming characters

With both positive and negative aspects to their personalities, charming characters can be difficult to write convincingly.

Whether you're writing a romantic love interest or a compelling con man, here are some examples for giving your charming characters depth.

How do they behave?

Attentive listeners: they pay close attention to people around them

Take pride in their appearance

Are happy to share personal space

Speak with a strong voice and an energetic tone

Are often hospitable and give off an air of welcome

Always give the impression that they are happy to see you

Demonstrate empathy

How do they interact?

Have a firm handshake and make strong eye contact

Are often encouraging

Compliment freely

Use humour to create a fun atmosphere

Communicate physically (through touch and gesture)

Make a point of using a person's name

Initiate conversations

Describe their body language

Have a relaxed stance with a straight and confident posture

Inclusive and attentive

Mirroring: they will mirror the body language of the person they are interacting with

Will lean forward to show attention

Lightly touch to create connection

A slight head tilt to show interest

Rarely cross their arms or legs

Maintain eye contact

Describe their attitude

Carefree

Good sense of humour

Friendly and playful

Self-aware

Opinionated and confident

Exhude an impression of honesty

Good intuition

Highly social

Polite and respectful

Eager to please

Potentially manipulative

The positive aspects of charm

Charming characters put people at ease, praise them freely, and boost their confidence. They make friends easily, talk their way to favourable resolutions, and are often the centre of attention.

They have impeccable grooming, conveying trustworthiness and concern for others, leading to a sense that they have your best interests at heart.

The negative aspects of charm

A charming character can manipulate others for personal gain. They can be overbearing, exerting their will on less confident individuals.

Their charm often draws focus, making others feel inferior, making them perfect for a protagonist to exhibit personal growth, or for a villain that a reader will fall in love with.

You forgot the language you accidentally started writing

Problems only writers understand

Having very chaotic notes on your phone

Having secret files that you will NEVER let anyone ever see

WHAT THAT WORD THAT MEANS THAT THING????

Why cant I think of a name?

Writing 10k words in a day then never again

Time for some information about Lord Valthoraxe.

Visual appearance;

Valthoraxe is a large bipedal with similar proportions to a human male. He is 265, 438cm (roughly 8’8”), weights 482,66 kg (1064,08 lbs), and is extremely muscular. Beyond that, all other features are the stuff of our nightmares. Horizontal slits for pupils, irises that burn dark orange, and eye whites as gray as stone. He possesses no hair, ears or nose, yet is still able to smell and hear. There are deep slits where his ears ought to be that glow a faint orange, and reports say there are similar “glands” at the roof of his mouth. Speaking of his mouth, you can only barely make out a pointed and very thin grey tongue behind a set of massive pointed grey teeth. The bottom row of teeth is slightly further back in the mouth, but it still perfectly aligns with the top row, creating a wall of knives whenever he grins.

His skin is perhaps the most unsettling of all. It’s an extremely dark purple, borderline black, and has a cracked and rough texture like rock or obsidian. This stone hide is strong enough to stop any known blade dead in it’s tracks, and a very faint orange glow seeps through the cracks in the skin. Several bones can be seen pushing against the skin, being his two spines, shoulder blades, knuckles, calf bones, and forearm bones. The should, forearm, and calf bones look more akin to armour than actual bone, and the dual spines form a v-shape that goes all the way to the base of the skull. He has no finger or toenails, but all of their tips end in razor sharp points that can cut through iron, and dent steel. Each foot only has 3 toes, two at the front, and one at the heel.

Whenever Valthoraxe is seen in public, it’s usually without his armour, or any other clothing for that matter. He possesses no reproductive organs or holes to remove bodily wastes, suggesting that he does not need to eat or drink to survive. He also has no want or need to intimacy, as he very clearly demonstrated when a half-orc prostitute attempted to flirt and caress the cursed lord, to which he responded by stabbing her through the head with his hand the moment she touched him. If it even is a him.

(Out of character)

Abilities;

I’m assuming you guys want to know what makes the great Lord Valthoraxe so powerful, well who am I to refuse.

-Incredibly durable hide: Valthoraxe’s hide is like a very dense, flexible stone, and is completely immune to any force not greater than that of a 9mm bullet. Even if a force breaks the skin, his blood reacts with air and instantly scabs over, even while a projectile is moving through him. This causes the projectile to slow rapidly, and his high internal body temperature will either melt or vaporize anything in his body, letting it pour out of the wound. Though a wound like this takes a long time to fully heal, taking about 3 months on earth to heal from the equivalent of a paper cut.

-Temperature immunity: Valthoraxe is simply not effected by changes in temperature, as his internal body temperature is roughly 44 million degrees Celsius.

-Lava-like blood: his blood, known as nyxor, is incredibly good at absorbing heat, which allows his skin to stay perfect lukewarm while being hotter than the center of a star. It reacts with almost anything to scab over wounds, as he would bleed out before a cut would be able to heal.

-Heat Control: Valthoraxe can control heat in it’s entirety, but can only create heat as hot as he can expel through his skin. This one power is so extremely overpowered it broke all sense of balancing I tried to maintain. Valthoraxe was going to be a hero originally, but this one ability made him so absurdly strong that it would take several instances of divine intervention to stop. The more you think about it, the stronger it is. It starts at beams of plasma, and ends up at disintegration while simultaneously freezing someone.

-strength: Valthoraxe’s size, weight, and muscle mass make him extremely strong, capable of lifting about 3-7 metric tons.

Weaknesses;

I had a bit of a panic when I realized how op heat control was, so I had to come up with a bunch of tiny weaknesses that are based off of his strengths.

-Less sensitive: His durability and lack of external sensory organ come at a cost. There is a very thick material covering his eyes that, while durable, make everything seem less saturated and darker. His lack of external ears also make his hearing capabilities less than ideal. He isn’t by any means hard of hearing, but he probably couldn’t pick up on someone sneaking up behind him or whispering something. His eyes are also farther back in his skull, giving him only 170 degrees on vision instead of a Human’s 220 degrees. On top of that, he has to open his mouth the smell, or breath in to be able to speak. He doesn’t require oxygen to live, but still needs to breath if he wishes to speak. He also has less sensitive nerves and this physically feels less, coming with the terrible curse of barely being able to taste anything. The only things he can noticeably taste are honey, extremely sour foods such as lemons, and alcohol. He can’t taste spicy foods at all.

-Weight: Valthoraxe weighs almost half a ton, making it impossible to go up most stairs, platforms, or even higher floors of a building. Due to this, I can legally say one of his biggest weaknesses is just upstairs.

-Depression, aggression, and many other mental disorders: I’m not going to get into this one, just know he has a therapist.

-Anxiety: Valthoraxe is paranoid as shit, and spends almost all of his time either forging more equipment or training by killing demons of Hell. Valthoraxe is absolutely terrified of …, heh heh, almost dropped a massive spoiler. Guess you’ll have to wait for the book to come out to learn what godless monstrosity could scare the second Hellwalker.

(Btw, don’t tell bethesda, but the Hell of Alterra is the same Hell as Doom. Valthoraxe canonically knows and trains with the DOOM SLAYER, but there is only a vague mention or two of this in the actual book to avoid getting sued out of existence.)

Bad drawing of Valthoraxe, this is my first time drawing a humanoid outside of pixel-art;