Monica Leonelle walks through building a relationship map for your protagonist and antagonist, listing supporting characters by type: mentors and allies for the hero, lieutenants and henchmen for the villain. She uses examples like Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games and Bellatrix Lestrange, and explains why knowing when each character enters matters for first impressions.
Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle with theworldneedsyourbook.com. Today is day 6 of the challenge, and we are talking about character relationships, specifically for the protagonist and the antagonist.
We are on day 6 of the challenge, and we're talking about character relationships. And so we're specifically going to work on relationships for the protagonist and then for the antagonist. And the reason why is, uh, we really just want to get the basics of the character relationships down. There's lots of other opportunities to start to think about the relationships between various characters in your novel, but, um, this is just going to give you a really solid head start without getting you too deep into your story and while, while basically keeping it manageable. So as you write, you're going to discover more about these relationships, of course. So, um, you know, basically we're going to take some of the characters that we've created over the last couple days and we're going to really start to define their relationship to either the protagonist or the antagonist. Not every character is going to fit into that, of course. We're really, we're really just trying to find the characters that fit the roles best. And so we're gonna, uh, talk specifically about mentors, henchmen, and tempters or temptresses on the antagonist side, and then mentors, allies, sidekicks, love interests, family members on the protagonist side. Um, yeah, so let's just jump into it. So the question is, who is on team protagonist? I've laid this out very similarly to, um, to basically a, uh, set of wall fixtures, um, frames that you would hang on the wall, kind of like a family tree. So I have the protagonist, the different mentors, and then sidekicks, frenemies, and love interests for the protagonist. For each, for each of these relationships, I have the name, the chapter that they are introduced in, and then notes. And the reason I include the chapter that they're introduced in, and it doesn't have to be a— you don't have to know, like, you know, the exact number, but, you know, having an idea of when they are introduced, that's pretty important because most likely it's going to dictate what the scene is about. So every time you introduce somebody important to your protagonist, then you really want to spend a little bit of time developing how that meeting came about and first impressions, that sort of thing. So then I have the same thing for the antagonist. So it's really, um, it's really a similar layout, uh, you know, name, chapter, introduce, and notes. Specifically, I have the antagonists themselves, uh, lieutenants. So this would be, you know, kind of like, um yeah, basically like the leadership that's right underneath them. So like kind of their right-hand men. Then I have henchmen. These are people that are very likely to interact with the protagonist in the early stages. So in The Hunger Games, for example, some of the henchmen would be— so like, it's like an example of a henchman might be like Effie Trinket, even though she's not— she, she kind of like plays both sides, you know. She's trying to help Katniss in many ways. She's also very much upholding, um, the, you know, the Hunger Games. Um, but yeah, they're, you know, there are just some pieces or just some parts of her that support the antagonist, especially toward the beginning. But Basically, the henchmen are going to be people who are low level who are supporting your antagonist or representing your antagonist. The protagonist and antagonist don't typically meet, um, that early on face to face. That's pretty rare. Usually there's going to be a buildup until we discover who the bad guy is, or maybe we hear the bad guy's name but we experience we experience trouble through like henchmen and lieutenants first. So we also have double agents. This is really important. There are definitely going to be people on the antagonist side who are going to— either they are coerced into helping the antagonist, or like Effie Trinket, who we find out she's not really a double agent, but she ends up being fairly innocent overall. So we do find out who is, you know, kind of just there not because they are evil or bad, but just because of circumstances, situations. So you can put those people under double agents. And then we have like the tempters, temptresses, and these are really love interests for the antagonists A lot of times there is not a love interest, but these would be people who would be, they would have like a very almost romantic relationship with the antagonist. So an example would be like Bellatrix Lestrange, or, you know, on the, I'm trying to think. Oh, in Twilight there was a vampire in Alaska. So I guess that was a protagonist. I'm trying to think of another example. I think Bellatrix Lestrange is a great example though of somebody who, you know, she is basically in love with Voldemort and she has influence over him as a result and is A, um, is used by him to attack, uh, Harry Potter, the protagonist.
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 a comment below. And if you would like to sign up for the challenge, you can find the links below in the description that will take you to a page that will explain the challenge in full detail, that will tell you all the free stuff that you get when you join the challenge, and will just give you more information on how you can get involved, how you can participate. I hope you enjoyed this content. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.
