In a recent post on DIY MFA, Gabriela Pereira discusses the importance of supporting characters, whom she calls the unsung heroes of storytelling. “Regardless of whether there is one (or more than one) main character, the supporting characters still serve the same purpose: to support the journey of the protagonist(s),” she writes.
One important element to creating great supporting characters is that they don’t know they aren’t the star of your story. “Every character believes they are the protagonist of their own life, which means they will behave according to their own motivations or desires,” Pereira says. The benefits of a strong supporting cast include:
- They prevent the story from getting boring. Very few characters can carry a whole novel without some supporting characters. Even in single-character stories, the protagonist may interact with someone, whether that’s an animal, a memory, or a volleyball.
- They have backstories and goals. The stars of their own story, supporting characters have backstories and goals. “When you explore where your supporting characters have come from (history) and where they want to go (goal), you can potentially uncover material for an interesting subplot,” Pereira writes.
- They give us an alternate view of the protagonist. Supporting characters give your protagonist another perspective on the story worlds and its events, the occasional reality check, and a counterpoint to your theme. “Simply by bouncing the two characters off each other, we get a more objective view of the protagonist because we see them in relation to that supporting character,” Pereira says.
- They give the protagonist the opportunity to grow. When characters have different motivations and goals, conflict arises and characters grow. Even helping supporting characters can create obstacles and conflict.
- They have specific roles in the story. Supporting characters have a role to play, as antagonist, confessor, advisor, or example.
How many supporting characters should you create? “The truth is, there is no hard and fast rule for how many characters you should have; it should be whatever number your story needs,” Pereira writes. “”If you have multiple characters that fill the same purpose, maybe you can fold them together into one composite character.” Similarly, one character can fill multiple roles, such as a mentor who becomes a villain. “The important thing is that readers understand who the characters are and how they relate to each other,” Pereira notes.
