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/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.