Opposing Character (the antagonist)
The bad guy or thing is what tries to stop the main character from changing. It can be a mean person, a tough problem, or even something inside the main character’s own feelings. This is a character opposing the protagonist. They’re the character presenting obstacles or challenges that keep the hero or main character from getting what they want. Note: You can have more than one antagonists in your story.
Secondary Characters
These are other characters appearing in your story to support the main character or the opposing character. They can appear once or several times in your story.
How to Build Your Characters (repeat same steps used to build main character)
Step 1 – Create your character’s background
Think about your character like a little seed growing into a big tree. Before your story begins, your character has already been through a lot! They’ve had happy times, sad times, and everything in between.
Let’s give our characters some life by understanding their background better!
How is their life like?
By understanding these things about our characters, we can make them feel real and alive in our stories!
Step 2 – Describe your characters (profile)
Imagine you’re in a big group of friends playing a game. You want to be able to tell who’s who, right? Maybe one friend has a big smile, another has curly hair, and someone else wears glasses. That way, it’s easy to know who’s who!
In your story, you can do the same thing! You want your readers to be able to imagine your characters in their minds, like they’re watching a movie. So, make a special list for your characters, like you are drawing pictures of them!
Write down one thing that makes each character different from the others.
What is your character’s name?
Describe their physique ie how they look
What special feature makes them stand out? A big scar on their cheek, always wears a hat, laughs or smiles all the time…
This will help our readers imagine them better when they are reading your story.
Remember, your characters don’t all have to look super different, but it’s good to have little things that make them stand out. Even if two characters are siblings, they can still have their own unique features!
Step 3 – Decribe your character’s strengths and weaknesses
Just like you and I have strengths and weaknesses, your characters have things they’re really good at and things they find a little tricky.
What are three things your character is super good at? Maybe they’re great at making new friends, or they’re really good at solving puzzles!
Then think about three things that might be a little tricky for them. Maybe they’re scared of the dark, or they’re not very good at swimming.