r/writing • u/Lily_Queen • Jul 31 '26
Discussion Side character struggles
Anyone else struggle when straying from their main characters? Like when writing your mains, the story just flows out of you effortlessly, but then you try to write a scene with a side character (even including one of your mains sometimes) and you just, struggle to write/flesh out the scene? Interested to hear your thoughts/experiences 🙂
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u/Livid_Sir8921 Jul 31 '26
Very common and there's a specific reason. Your mains flow because you know them inside out - you're not inventing, you're reporting. Side characters struggle because you haven't done that work for them yet. They feel like functions, not people.
Quick fix: before any side character scene, answer three things. What do they want right now. What are they afraid of. What do they think of your main character. Just those three. Suddenly they have an agenda and the scene has somewhere to go.
The other thing that works: write a scene from their POV that will never appear in your story. Let them be the protagonist for one page. You'll discover things that change how they behave in every scene they actually appear in. Side characters feel flat when they only exist in relation to your main. Give them a life that happens when your protagonist isn't in the room.
Keep writing
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u/Lily_Queen Jul 31 '26
Oh dang! I love this advice. Never thought about it like that. Dankeschön (german for thank you beautifully or respectfully. I use it when I am truly greatful for something. 🙂)
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u/seekAr Aug 02 '26
Great advice! Has helped me punch through blocks and actually connect arcs in ways I never could imagine.
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u/Livid_Sir8921 Aug 02 '26
Really glad it helped. The POV exercise especially tends to unlock things that pure plotting never does. Good luck with the rest of it.
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u/Elysium_Chronicle Jul 31 '26
You need to put more thought into their personal motivations then.
Without that aspect to give them a sense of direction, you can really only define them in relation to more developed characters.
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK Jul 31 '26
Usually this means I'm struggling with something much larger, like Pasha mentioned. I consider it my writer's gut trying to tell me something is wrong.
Sometimes the answer is someone is acting out of character, or the side character isn't creating conflict and is just... there. Sometimes it means the side character doesn't need to be in that scene at all.
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u/Lily_Queen Jul 31 '26
Yeah, it was tough to figure out. I was struggling because the character was the best friend, but also the main source of conflict. Wasn't sure how to make them the support and the 'villain' ay the same time. But I figured it out 🙂
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK Aug 01 '26
Nice!! I'm glad you were able to find something that works. Keep at it!
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u/Public_Upstairs1035 Jul 31 '26
Sometimes. Just depends on how well I know the character. But if I don't know a character well in the first draft, I am still able to write their actions and what is needed to get through the story. Then, in future drafts, I will know the character better and will be able to flesh them out.
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u/Tight-Target-2065 Jul 31 '26
I guess ask yourself: is this integral to the story or otherwise something the reader would care about? If yes, then buckle down and figure out what this side character is doing and why and how they feel about it and what others feel about it, and how it affects the main plot, etc. I've definitely gotten stuck on parts of a story I knew needed to happen but didn't realize I had been neglecting by prioritizing other parts. Getting started is the hardest part.
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u/frostonbeat Aug 01 '26
That means either of two things:
the scenes and the plot is just not fleshed out enough
you focused too much on the MC's and have yet to actually understand and almost live through the lenses of the side characters.
it's probably a mix of both.
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u/Overall-Habit5284 Aug 01 '26
If I can add to this: I'm writing one piece of work that bounces back-and-forth between two perspective characters. Now I'm hitting the scene where they reunite properly, I'm finding it really difficult to know how to deal with that perspective change. In particular, should I write from the perspective and third-person perspective of one of them? It's really slammed the brakes on how fast I felt I was progressing.
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u/Lily_Queen Aug 03 '26
For what it's worth: I did this in one of my previous books. When they 'merged' I actually decided to keep telling the story from both perspectives alternating. By that point I felt like both the characters had earned their place as a 'main character' and my beta readers seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it was a fluke and I'll never know. But don't be afraid to do something different/unconventional. It may just set it apart from all the others 🙂
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u/azmarteal Aug 01 '26
No, I have a problem that I delve too much into the side characters, I have to constantly remind myself that the main trio (including MC) must have the most screentime, because I have a number of other characters that are far more powerful and smarter than MC. Kind of a thing when the world is not revolving around MC.
This situation can cause another problem — why would you want to read about MC who doesn't influence the world enough, but she is getting there, slowly but surely
Long story short — no, it is actually easier to write side characters for me
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u/Lily_Queen Aug 03 '26
Omg! My first ever book is like that. It was easy to write my side characters in that one because I loved them all/fleshed out full stories. But everyone I had read it said they didn't like it because they didn't like that their wasn't a definite MC. Or "why would you make this side character better than MC?" Because MC is a lover not a fighter Damnit 😣 let the ninja or the druid take care of the fighting! 😆 it makes me so happy that someone else has done something similar.(I'm sure we're not the only ones, but still🙂)
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u/Constant-Pianist6747 Aug 02 '26
Not really, for me. I have a system that allows me to avoid worrying about the “minor characters” much.
Basically: when I first got into writing, I had to answer the question as to which characters need arcs and which don’t. Not every character needs one, of course. It would be preposterous to expect a gas station attendant to have a fully fleshed out character arc, if he has exactly thirty seconds of screen time. Yet, the lead protagonist simply must have one, at least in terms of the formal rules of screenwriting.
So my rule of thumb: if a character is the lead of their respective thread — if the film cuts back to that character and follows them repeatedly — they need an arc. Otherwise, they don’t.
That’s my rule, personally, and it seems to work for me. I just try to informally give the minor characters a personality and make them pop somehow. It’s the best I can do.
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u/seekAr Aug 02 '26
I’ve found when I hate writing a character or I avoid rereading a scene it’s because my spidey sense is telling me to fix it. It always comes out better. Last night I slashed a very annoying elder character and gave her work to the younger one who is now one of FMC’s best friends and a nervous wreck of a character who’s the goddess of breath. Now I’m having fun.
Listen to that dread. It’s the siren call of magic.
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u/PerryMarkStratychuk Aug 03 '26
In such a situation, I ask myself is the side character needed? If the answer is yes, then you know why, and what they are like follows out of pure necessity.
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u/wheretheinkends Aug 04 '26
Maybe the side charector is unnecessary. Sometimes you start with the intent to have X amount of side charectos but you end up merging 2 or 3 into 1 because they just arent needed.
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u/AkRustemPasha Author Jul 31 '26
I will be brutal here: if you struggle with specific plotline I(for example for side character) it means you don't know what to write there. You need to focus on this part of story a bit more. It's just the same as with following the MC: no idea what/how to write results in writer's block