The Lone Ranger had Tonto, Superman had holograms of his parents, and Luke Skywalker had Obi Wan talking in his mind. Every hero, or heroine for that matter, needs a friend, confidante, or mentor to bounce ideas off, discuss romantic problems, or just hang with to show personality.
As romantic as our hero/heroine become, their world can’t exist in a bubble. The excitement of that first kiss has to be shared with your best friend. The misunderstanding leading to your first fight has to be shared with a buddy who will commiserate with you about “those women, who can understand them.”
In action/adventure stories the sidekick is there to be seriously hurt or to die. His death galvanizes our hero to put honor and fair play aside, and to avenge his friend. In romances, the friend/buddy is to look deeper into themselves. A friend who tells them, you are being stupid, go after the girl, don’t ever let her go. Your hero wants to go, but he needs the extra push from his friend.
The sidekick/friend can serve another purpose as well. To be a roadblock on the path of true love. He is the friend telling our hero the woman isn’t good enough for him. Who warms him not to let himself get shackled for life, yet. It is the girlfriend who lies to the heroine that she saw the hero with another woman. They are the unspoken voices within our hero and heroine, the last worries before total commitment.
Friends can be a help or a hindrance to the relationship, but mostly they add depth to our hero’s and heroine’s characteristics. Friendship will add dimension to our characters.
The sidekick can be an added tool in your writers toolbox to kick you story up a notch, to add flesh and blood to your storyline.
As romantic as our hero/heroine become, their world can’t exist in a bubble. The excitement of that first kiss has to be shared with your best friend. The misunderstanding leading to your first fight has to be shared with a buddy who will commiserate with you about “those women, who can understand them.”
In action/adventure stories the sidekick is there to be seriously hurt or to die. His death galvanizes our hero to put honor and fair play aside, and to avenge his friend. In romances, the friend/buddy is to look deeper into themselves. A friend who tells them, you are being stupid, go after the girl, don’t ever let her go. Your hero wants to go, but he needs the extra push from his friend.
The sidekick/friend can serve another purpose as well. To be a roadblock on the path of true love. He is the friend telling our hero the woman isn’t good enough for him. Who warms him not to let himself get shackled for life, yet. It is the girlfriend who lies to the heroine that she saw the hero with another woman. They are the unspoken voices within our hero and heroine, the last worries before total commitment.
Friends can be a help or a hindrance to the relationship, but mostly they add depth to our hero’s and heroine’s characteristics. Friendship will add dimension to our characters.
The sidekick can be an added tool in your writers toolbox to kick you story up a notch, to add flesh and blood to your storyline.
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Jill James, president
2 comments:
my stories don't have sidekicks. My heroines are loners for the most part and need to figure it out on their own. My heroes? Loners as well. But I guess you could call a fellow cop a sidekick, that said, my guys don't discuss women issues unless she's related to a case, which they tend to be.
Hmm, does this make me an anti-sidekick author?
Karin, you are too funny. I don't do introspective well, so I always throw in a friend for the hero or heroine to talk to.
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