Monica Leonelle shows how to organize novel characters into groups with a leader and specialized roles, each with different beliefs to create moral complexity. Use an organizational chart to map each character's relationship to your protagonist and the tensions between groups, like the vampire coven hierarchy in Twilight.
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Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle from theworldneedsyourbook.com. Today is day 5 of the challenge, and we are talking about characters in your novel. We are on day 5 of the challenge, which is focused on characters. So what we're gonna do on this day is really put different characters into the groups we just created on day 4. And so if you don't have any groups, that's totally fine. You can just create characters that represent The main worldviews in your story, which was from day 3. So definitely check that out if you're, if you're catching up on the content, feel free to go back and look at that. So, um, what can we say about this? Um, you'll have different groups in your story that are working toward common goals, uh, especially if you have a larger cast of characters. But within each group, there's going to be different shades of belief. So the characters are not all going to think the same. Two characters can be presented with a, um, the same problem and they can have the same goal, but they can come at it with two different solutions based on their beliefs. So you want to give, uh, give your characters some shading, basically. Um, and there are a number of ways you can do this. You know, there's also people who, you know, maybe start out good guy and then eventually switch sides to the bad team, the bad guys, or the antagonist team. There are going to be people who are in the gray area that don't belong in any of these groups. So there are lots of, lots of different ways to create more characters in your story. So we, the way I think about this is I really think about it as an organizational chart. So within each group, I think of, you know, who is the leader of that group. Often it can be like the mentor of the protagonist or one of the mentors of the protagonist. So who is the person that everybody really looks to to lead? They don't have to be the official leader, but it's really the person who people look to. So in the Twilight Saga, for example, there's the vampire coven that Edward belongs to, and his coven has a leader, and it's Carlisle. Carlisle is the leader. He's the dad of the family. He's the patriarch of the family. And he, you know, no matter what the family is going through, everybody looks to him for the final, like, the final word or the final answer. So once you know the leader, you have other ranking roles. They don't have to be people who are ranking. It can also be specializations that people have. So maybe one person is really good at hunting, so that's their role in the group, or one person is kind of the softer side, or one person is the relationships person, or one person is the poet. So, you know, just think of like what other roles need to be filled within your group, or what other roles can your characters fill? What is their place in this group? And there's also room for lesser roles. So however you want to think about that, that can be side characters, that can be characters who are just not all in There's always gonna be those characters who, or maybe a character who's there for the wrong reasons. Maybe they don't really believe in the cause. Maybe they're being like blackmailed into being there, or they are there through intimidation. Like that's another common one. So be thinking about those power dynamics and how that works. So there are lots of workbook pages on this, Basically, again, for up to 6 groups, there's also a page for notes if that's needed. And, you know, for each of these people, for each of the characters, there's room for name, for their role and title, for their worldview, and then also for their relationships. And specifically what I use that section for is what is their relationship to the protagonist. So are they the mentor of the protagonist? Are they the father of the protagonist or the mother of the protagonist? Are they, you know, the best friend? And just kind of building out those relationships. I also talk about tension or conflict, complicated relationships between the characters within one group, or even complicated relationships that they may have to another group. So you see this a lot in fiction where, you know, somebody on the antagonistic side has a has or had a close relationship with somebody who is on the protagonist side. And you see like how that causes additional conflict in the story. Thank you so much for watching and listening. I hope this content was helpful to you. If you have any questions, make sure you leave them in the comments section. And if you want to join the challenge, you haven't joined the challenge yet, make sure that you check out the links below in the description Those links will take you to the sign-up page, and once you sign up, there's lots of free and good stuff on the other side. So definitely check it out and see if it is of interest to you. I hope this was helpful to you. Have a wonderful day.
