Friend

Happy Friday! This means we're only two days away from the next episode of The Walking Dead. Yes, I might be slightly obsessed. Might. Move along.

All week we've been talking about the minor characters to include in your story, the people who push the plot forward but don't need the spotlight on them for long periods of time. Well, today I'm going to tell you about a minor character who needs a little bit more light.

The Sidekick

Okay, we may have talked a little bit about the sidekick a couple weeks ago, but I promised there would be more — and here it is!

Sidekicks are almost quintessential when it comes to traditional hero stories, and even to nontraditional fantasy fictions where the protagonist simply cannot do everything by themselves. Maybe then they wouldn't be labeled as the sidekick, but the fact still stands.

1. Give them a life

This, as always, is a very important part of character making. Your sidekick needs to have a life, outside of the story. That's usually the best way to make them a really cool person, whom your protagonist would like to hang out with.  The sidekick is usually a fun-loving, somewhat rebellious, loyal to a fault type of person.

In a lot of my stories, they end up being someone with little to no real connection to the protagonist, but someone who has a similar amount of stakes in the story. I would give you a prime example, but it's straight out of Cedwig, and I don't want to spoil anything for you. ;-)

2. Give them a challenge

From my experience, this is the real thing that makes the sidekick jump off the page. Often to the point that they want to steal the show. So you'll have to be more careful with this, but it's still a very important feature.

Sidekicks thrive on challenge. They've joined the fight not because they think they can win, but because they want the adventure of trying. They've befriended the hero not because they think they can be bettered by the hero, but because they want the challenge of trying to be like him.

Essentially, the sidekick is the same as the hero, only as in a younger self. That doesn't necessarily mean age, mind you. It could simply be that the sidekick is less mature, or that they have less knowledge on the subject at hand than the hero. Whatever the case, he's always just a couple steps behind the hero, and he never really has a problem with that.

It's why I have so much fun with sidekicks. 



This was a fun week on minor characters! Next week, we'll be talking about something even more interesting (in my honest opinion) — dynamic character duos!

For now, have a lovely weekend, and I'll see you on the other side.

[love]

{Rani Divine}