This week: About Secondary Characters and Sidekicks Edited by: Joy  
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“In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!"
Anton Chekhov, Letter to Alexander Chekhov, May 10, 1886
“Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's.”
Sarah Waters
“The glory of the protagonist is always paid for by a lot of secondary characters.”
Tony Hoagland
“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
“The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”
Milan Kundera
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about secondary characters and sidekicks.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Please, note that there are no rules in writing, but there are methods that work for most of us most of the time.
The ideas and suggestions in my articles and editorials have to do with those methods. You are always free to find your own way and alter the methods to your liking.
Note: If in the editorial I may refer to the third-person singular as he, it also means the female gender because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Our fiction’s secondary characters and sidekicks come in all shapes, sizes, and as animals, people, places, or things, but the one thing that unifies them is their support of the main characters and the plot. If you snatch Watson from Sherlock Holmes’s side, you get a neurotic Sherlock. In the same vein, Han Solo may become the hero and get the girls, but Chewbacca is the one who gets the viewers’ attention. Captain Kirk, too, would be an inferior captain if it weren’t for the splendid Mr. Spock. So, I have to say to all the memorable secondary characters, “Live Long, and Prosper!”
Secondary characters are important not only because they reveal the true personality of the main character or because they help progress the plot, or because maybe they provide a sense of humor or scary thrills. They are also important if the author is planning a series on the same content that is too large to fit in one book.
The series planned can be along the same story’s arc, which may be huge for one book and can be told over multiple books, or it consists of self-contained, episodic plots that follow the same cast of characters. Especially when writing the first book of the series, the second possibility of the following episodic plots demands that the writer pay attention to the secondary characters since they will become the protagonists of the other books in the series. I am touching on the idea of the series here because a series of books can play a significant role in creating a loyal fan base.
As important as the protagonists are, stories need other people with all their messiness and complications to mimic real-life even in a fantasy story. These other people or the secondary characters provide for the protagonist and the plot a social circle, family, professional relationships, authority figures, and they bring depth and authenticity to fiction.
To create strong secondary characters:
 Make them serve the story, both the plot and the primary characters.
Give each one their own passions, quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and purpose different from every other character. Show those differences.
Give them conflicting sides. A cruel character, for example, can be partial to babies or dogs.
Before an important secondary character arrives into a story or a scene, give the protagonist or other primary characters an expectation such as a sense of mystery, fear, and admiration.
Intersect his path with that of the protagonist and the antagonist in a big way; for example, can he betray the protagonist? Or what self-sacrifice can he perform for the protagonist or the antagonist?
Show his shared history with all the other characters. This is especially convenient when creating a series.
Complicate his roles and relationships and give him at least a slight change by the end of each book or episode.
Above all, through the writing of any book in a series, make sure the protagonist and the antagonist are more important to their specific story than any secondary character.
When secondary characters stick to either the protagonist or the antagonist, such as best friends, comic reliefs, leading underling partners or assistants, they are called sidekicks.
Sidekicks are in the story to strengthen the display of main characters’ traits. They never play a more important role than the main character, and neither are they at the same level at the main characters. For example, Sancho Panza to Don Quixote or Tinker Bell to Peter Pan, or Robin to Batman.
Among the sidekicks'jobs are:
 Aiding the cause of the main character or providing encouragement
Serving as a foil in a positive or negative way especially when they have contrasting characteristics to the protagonist or the antagonist
Creating a secondary tension or confronting the protagonist
Deepening the story world by revealing its present details, circumstances, and history.
In short, as secondary characters, sidekicks truly pull their own weight, especially when they make the main characters shine.
Until next time! 
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This Issue's Tip: Most sidekicks may fall into several archetypal categories. Thus, it is a good idea to keep in mind an archetype when creating a sidekick.
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Feedback for "Holding a Flashlight at Flash Fiction"
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Lilith of House Martell 
Great NL and thank you for the Trinket! Happy 19th WdC!!!!
Thanks, Lilli. Happy 19th birthday bring you much success and volumes of writing.
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StephBee - House Targaryen 
Joy, excellent points! I just got done writing a new "flash" fiction, an exercise in getting the creative juices flowing, and I was pleasantly surprised how many of your points I hit on, especially since it's been a while. Well done.
That is wonderful, Steph, and thank you for the feedback.
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Drama: September 18, 2019 Issue [#9755]
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