Many of my favorite characters aren’t the hero of the story at all- I love Gimli and Legolas over Frodo, Robin over Batman, and Donkey over Shrek. Just because they aren’t in the main character role doesn’t mean they are any less important, memorable, or amazing!
A sidekick is a character that is a partner to the hero in some way. Today we’re looking at four reasons why these characters are important as well as five steps for writing our own spectacular sidekicks.
As always, your mileage may vary but hopefully this will get us thinking and writing! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.
The Importance of Sidekicks
The sidekick character fills several important roles in a story:
1. Entertainment
Stories are often meant to be entertaining and a sidekick can be a big part of that! They are often used to add humor to a situation.
2. Different Perspectives
A sidekick can be a great way to explore and show different sides of an issue instead of just showing the hero’s perspective. A lot of depth can be added when a side character is present to challenge the hero or offer a different viewpoint, allowing them to have dialog or even disagreements.
Real life is filled with many different experiences and beliefs. Having the ability to represent that in our writing is honest and strengthens our story.
3. Dialogue
Most stories are more fun if there are conversations and interactions between characters instead of just all inside the main characters head all the time. Even if the hero is just talking to a cat it makes it more interesting!
Giving the hero a sidekick to talk to opens up lots of possibilities for them to bounce ideas back and forth (cue witty banter!) and talk about their plans instead of just a constant internal monologue.
4. Helping Out … or Causing Trouble
The sidekick is a great character to have available to help out in a pinch!
Sidekicks are also great if we need to get our hero in trouble or make mistakes that will make things more difficult. Whether there are miscommunications, bad ideas, or straight up incompetence, the sidekick can create problems the hero will then need to fix.
5 Steps To Spectacular Sidekicks
Sidekicks can be completely different from story to story, for example Mushu from Mulan would be pretty out of place in The Lord Of The Rings, but these steps can help us brainstorm what sidekick may work well for us.
1. Identify What You Need
Brainstorm what functions your sidekick will serve: Are they primarily to add humor? Act as a helper or just someone for the hero to talk to? A bit of everything?
2. Match Tone
Each story has a different style or tone to it, whether it’s more serious or lighthearted. A bumbling idiot of a sidekick may be out of place in a more serious drama but may be perfect if you are looking to turn it into a more humorous story. Try to identify what characters may fit the worldbuilding and feel of the story you’re writing.
3. Compliment/Contrast The Hero
Often we actually want sidekicks that contrast with the hero, such as the differing personalities of Sherlock and Watson. This provides natural opportunities for depth, conflict, and tension which can be used in many ways and it can be used to compliment and better showcase the hero.
4. Have A Character Arc
Our sidekicks should be well rounded and full characters in their own rights!! This allows for a greater depth in our story as a whole.
We should also be ensuring we aren’t subconsciously including stereotypes in our characters, this is an all-too-common occurrence especially with sidekicks.
5. Have Fun!!
More than any other character, a sidekick provides numerous opportunities to have a lot of fun. So don’t miss out! Brainstorm what crazy things would be fun to include in your story. Think about what you love in the books you’ve read and the movies you’ve watched- then think about how to steal those favorite parts and rework them for your own story.
While a hero may need to drive the plot and defeat the bad guy, a sidekick has no such strict path!
The sidekick is a unique character who can add so many great aspects to a story so let’s give them the attention they deserve and take our time crafting their role. We’ll be glad we did 🙂
For further reading check out my earlier post on the subject over at Fiction University!
