Today’s post is something that once wrote about on my old blog, but that was a decade ago. It’s lost in the cyber void now, and I have a different spin to put on it.

Today I have two things for authors to consider when creating those side characters we all love:

• SIDE CHARACTERS DON’T CONSIDER THEMSELVES SIDE CHARACTERS.
• EVERY CHARACTER, ESPECIALLY SIDE CHARACTERS, WILL HAVE A PARTICULAR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE OR DOMAIN TO CONTROL

Side characters don’t consider themselves side characters. We all consider ourselves the protagonists of our own stories.

Believable, engaging, fun side characters will want, even demand, to be noticed, appreciated, acknowledged, and respected by others, including your main characters.

They’re not going to unrealistically bow out for not discernible reason beyond “I’m not the protagonist.”

They do not know they are not the protagonist. They will be enveloped in a cloud of their own desires, dreams, plans, and expectations.

When, then, does a side character realistically bow out and let the protagonist take charge?

When they are forced to, perhaps, by circumstances or powers beyond their control.

Or, here’s another option: when they recognize a task or issue is outside their scope.

You see, we all have our realms of influence and our “domains” or “specialties,” to give a term from academia a wider application.

We all have a ring of relationships–family, close friends-that affords us the right to insert ourselves into the doings of certain other people.

We all have particular talents and sets of knowledge.

Those with some degree of self-knowledge and self-awareness may well be able to admit, “This isn’t for me.” It’s beyond me, or someone else is better suited.

However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any resentment, snarky comments, anger, sadness, shock–any of various human emotions, depending on your side character’s temperament and maturity level.

You always want to ask yourself: what is motivating this side character? What is he hoping to achieve?

Remember, that side character doesn’t consider himself a side character at all. He’s not thinking solely in terms of supporting the antagonist. He’s got his own things going on, his own worries and concerns.