How to Write Side Characters Your Readers Will Love
I’m a big believer in nailing the big, overarching concepts and arcs of a story, but I also think that by focusing on details, you just might end up making all the difference. Like how to write side characters your readers will love.
First things first, I want to look to a couple of storytellers who really know what they’re doing (especially when it comes to side characters): Wes Anderson and Madeleine L’Engle.
How to Write Side Characters Case Study: Moonrise Kingdom
Have you seen Moonrise Kingdom? You should. I enjoyed the story as a whole, but I think the thing I most enjoyed was the side characters in this film.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a quick synopsis:
A twelve-year-old orphaned boy escapes from a scouting camp in order to run away with a girl with whom he has been exchanging letters. Together they flee, pursued by her family members, his fellow scouts, and the island’s police captain.
Cute, right? But while there was plenty to love, I found my heart gravitating most toward not the orphaned boy and troubled girl, but the island’s police captain and the boy’s adult scout leader.
Why?
As I do, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I wanted to figure out what this movie did so right with its side characters (I was a huge fan of the boy’s fellow scouts and the island’s other characters, as well).
2 Key Ingredients for Writing Strong Side Characters
Here's what Wes Anderson did right:
He gave these characters the space to show their vulnerability (which I’ll touch on first), and
that vulnerability contributed to the greater themes of the story (which I’ll get to in a minute).
Of course, vulnerability is a really vague concept with more than one potential explanation. So let’s flesh it out a little more. First, we’ll discuss what vulnerability means in this context, and then we’ll go through specific ways you can show vulnerability in a side character.
Show Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the number one concept you need to have clear in your head when thinking about how to write side characters (and, really, any character).
But what is vulnerability?
Agh! I want so badly to have a simple, straightforward answer to this question. I’ve thought about it, written about it, and researched it. But here’s the best I’ve been able to do so far in terms of really distilling vulnerability down into a bite-sized explanation (with regards to writing, specifically):
Vulnerability is sharing or showing the emotions you are most inclined to conceal. Specifically, emotions hidden beneath other emotions you feel more comfortable displaying to the world.
Okay, I know that description had lots of the word “emotion” in it. I apologize. But let’s keep exploring.
Importantly, and I think this will help to make the concept clearer, the specific emotions we may be referencing are different for everyone.
For example, where one person might feel safer displaying their anger and hiding their sadness, that might be flipped for someone else.
How to Use Emotions to Show Vulnerability When Writing Side Characters
Let’s say we have two men who have each lost their wife.
For the first man, he might approach the world displaying his anger and hiding his sadness. He might be described as volatile or violent or hot-headed. He yells a lot and is quick to turn things into an argument. But underneath that anger is sadness, which is the emotion he feels uncomfortable revealing to the world. He hides it. So if he were to get vulnerable with another character in his story, that might mean he was willing to show that sadness in some way, whether through dialogue, crying, or some other action.
For the second man, these emotions are flipped. He approaches the world displaying his sadness and hiding his anger. He is described as forlorn, timid, and quiet. He cries easily and openly shares his sadness by easily discussing his grief. But underneath that sadness is a layer of anger. He is mad that his wife is gone, that she was ripped from him too early. But he tries to hide it, he feels uncomfortable (for reasons perhaps based on a Wound) letting people see his rage. In order for him to get vulnerable, he would have to share with someone that anger. Not by exploding on them, but by discussing it or being honest about how he feels beneath that top layer of emotion.
See what I mean? Both characters feel both emotions, but because of who they uniquely are, they are more comfortable with one and less comfortable with the other.
Hopefully I’m making sense. But let’s get back to Moonrise Kingdom in order to see this in action and get this idea a little clearer.
Vulnerable Emotions in Moonrise Kingdom
The scout leader and police captain in this story are two adult men. More importantly, they are antagonists, trying to thwart the goal of our heroes as they attempt to run away together. But we still like them!
Of course, if you’ve watched the film, you know we ultimately fall in love with them because of the ending (which I won’t spoil here). But throughout, we also get glimpses into who they are because we are able to see their hidden emotions.
For both of them, these include feelings of loneliness and inadequacy, which they attempt to hide from the world, but which we get special insights into as viewers.
This resonates even more because these are themes the story touches on as a whole.
Fit that Vulnerability Into the Overarching Themes of the Story
Our heroes (the young boy and girl) feel lonely and inadequate. Their families (or lack of families) have directly and indirectly said or done things to deepen these emotions. Because of this, they are grappling with how to interact with the world in a way that makes them feel connected and sufficient.
What Moonrise Kingdom does well, is it lets us see these themes in a variety of people, stories, and settings. It's not just the two protagonists who are dealing with these themes, it's everyone. All in their own way.
If you want to learn how to write side characters that can stand on their own two feet and bolster your story, the key is to allow us to see their vulnerability (the vulnerability that fits with the story's themes) outside of the main story.
In just a second, I'll explain more clearly what this means by giving one more example.
But first, just to reiterate, here are the ingredients we have discussed so far with Moonrise Kingdom.
3 Steps to Writing Vulnerability in Side Characters
We’re seeing vulnerability (hidden emotions) in our most important side characters (the scout leader and the police chief).
Those hidden emotions correlate beautifully with the overall themes of the story as a whole.
We are seeing these emotions in regards to the side characters' own stories, not as reactions to the story of the two heroes (the runaway boy and girl).
To really hammer in this last point, I want to give one more example from Miss Madeleine L’Engle on how to write side characters.
How to Write Side Characters Case Study: A Ring of Endless Light
In her book, A Ring of Endless Light (one of my faves), we are following 15-year-old Vicky Austin.
Vicky is trying to make sense of the world. More specifically, she is trying to understand the way loss and death fit into life. In the span of one summer, she experiences and witnesses several devastating losses.
At one point, she is washing up for bed when she hears a sound through the walls. She quickly realizes it is the sound of her mother crying. Vicky has been trying to figure out her own feelings about her grandfather’s illness and his imminent death, but here she is able to see outside of her own feelings and into her mother's grief, which is separate and whole, having nothing to do with Vicky's experience. Vicky stands there for a moment, deciding what to do. Ultimately, she leaves quietly, telling herself it’s what her mother would want. If she interrupted, her mother might feel obligated to hide her vulnerability rather than expressing it the way she is. But before she goes, she questions this motive. Is she really leaving for the sake of her mother, or is it because she is being cowardly? Maybe there is no clear answer.
3 Steps, One More Time
This short scene incorporates all 3 ingredients (steps) of an engaging, three-dimensional side character that boosts the story as a whole:
Mrs. Austin (Vicky's mother) is displaying vulnerability. She has been doing her best to appear strong and resilient for her children through the course of the story. We know she is uncomfortable revealing her more hidden emotion. But here, we see those hidden emotions: grief, loss, sadness, fear.
Mrs. Austin’s hidden emotions fit perfectly into the narrative as a whole: Vicky’s struggle to understand loss - what it means, what it looks like for the people left behind as well as the ones who go, the best way to deal with it for yourself and others, etc.
Mrs. Austin is displaying these hidden emotions in reaction to her own story. She is reacting to the illness and impending loss of her father, as opposed to reacting to Vicky’s experience and emotions, which the main bulk of the narrative is centered around.
When it comes down to it, I honestly believe the answer to improving most things within a story is simply sharing more authentic emotions. Emotions are universal. They help us feel more connected. And the better you can get at tapping into your character's most vulnerable emotions and sharing them authentically, the better your story will be.
The Most Compelling (and Vulnerable) Emotion: Desire
As an additional note, I’ll add that desire is arguably the most potent emotion. We don’t feel connected to a protagonist until we understand what they want. And desire is in the subtext of each of these examples, as well.
The scout leader and police captain want to feel connection and adequacy. Vicky’s mother wants her father to be okay. And because we are seeing their vulnerable emotions, we want these things for them. We cheer for them, resonate with them, and engage with them more deeply. And, on a bigger scale with the story as a whole.
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