#because a lot of the time we've internalised some from mass media and people around us

[not-poignant]

I'm just finishing up FFS and i just wanted to say that I really like the way you bring the side characters to life, like Leo, Han Yuen and Professor Adeyemi. They feel very real considering they have very little time in the narrative, it's something i think a lot of writers struggle with

Hi anon,

Thank you so much!!

Honestly, I think a big part of it, especially with those characters, is that I actually just like to imagine them as being real people themselves with their own motivations and quirks etc. That's something I really love doing. :D

The rest is under a cut because it's basically suggestions to writers and idk if you're a writer anon dslakfjasd

Part of making side characters seem realistic is giving them motives that often have nothing to do with the main character, or only have a little to do with the main character. We can tell Leo's got stuff going on his life, especially around his parents, based on the content of his poetry. He has a shy and friendly disposition, and seems eager to please, so he might be someone who's got some boundary issues in his own life, and some stuff he's working through!

Han Yuen is clearly competitive and very involved in poetry, and has a theme that she strongly adheres to. We get the sense that she's very passionate while also enjoying the deep connections poetry gives her. She doesn't have much interest in Efnisien at all, but she's friends with Leo, and by the time she does come into Efnisien's life, we get the sense she's been living her own just fine.

Professor Adayemi is the same. She has her own motives, she'd absolutely fire Efnisien if he wasn't efficient and she sees him as nothing more than a fast typist/worker who keeps late hours for reasons she doesn't really care about. While she's a great boss that's convenient for Efnisien, she doesn't exist to be a great boss to him, they're just compatible in that sense. She's ferociously competitive in her area of academia (anyone who is publishing as much as she does, is).

When we finally get to see her office, and meet her, we realise that she's a lot more complex than even Efnisien's given her credit! She has a femme side, she can be girly, she likes simple pleasures, she can be messy. In a way, they were both kind of 'useful' to each other until they became people to each other. We also know from her surname and her area of study in anthropology, that she's likely an extremely strong feminist and voice for Black people in her arena, and potentially has some political motivations for the direction she chose in life, or at least informing the reason she's publishing as much as she is.

I really love writing side characters actually, because part of the fun is realising them as people and then picking some thing - something big, something small - that will make them interact with the main character. I enjoy seeing them even if I'm only writing a handful of lines for them in a chapter, because in my head, they're so much more richly realised, it's like meeting a friend you haven't caught up with in a while.

This doesn't have to involve days and days of research or work, either. All of these things are constructed around several key points, and at least one or two things the side character is passionate about.

It doesn't have to be a struggle, and it's something writers can do in their spare time when they have writer's block and are too tired to work on their story, but want to get 'some writing' done. Sitting down and banking some side characters and attaching some passions, motivations, culture etc. to them and putting them in a document somewhere, can give them side characters in a pinch when they need them.

Constructing side characters - both minor and major - is one of those things that can be done at any time, independently of a story. Adayemi could work in a sci fi, fantasy, contemporary, etc. setting. So could Han Yuen and Leo. What makes them them isn't the setting, and that stretches them into 'real beings' or solid characters that are transferable and can exist in many different places.

If you're stuck thinking of how to describe side characters, you can try practice runs with real characters. Pick a handful of main or side characters from your favourite TV shows or movies, and then give yourself only 3 sentences to describe them (or three paragraphs). Practice getting the hang of seeing the big details the fastest, and then adding on what I would call 'textural details' that add sensory anchors (it might be the foods they like to eat, the clothing they like to wear and its texture, the flowers they like to sniff, the scents they wear etc.)

It doesn't take long to build confidence doing this! And then you'll have to stop yourself from adding too many side characters to your stories like I do lmao

Because you only use three sentences or paragraphs to describe them, then - along with the dialogue - that's actually all you need to establish them in your story!

Establishing good/solid dialogue is another part of this, and I've written about that before but am too lazy to link it here. But constructing character can happen long before you get to dialogue. :D

[icarusfallsforwalls]

tbh... people would rather discuss his name than have to have more painful discussions about the role they and their faves have played in the racism he faced, lbr. a LOT of 1d fans have done racist things over the years. some of them blatantly openly racist (the ones holding terrorist signs, throwing things at him, etc) but a lot more have been passively racist (pushing ugly narratives, having double standards, believing unsourced tabloid nonsense about him that they'd instantly question about the others, the whole "he's so mysterious~ and brooding~" shit, etc).

we've ALL done it at some point, as much as it hurts to admit. i'm a woc and zayn has always been my #1, but even i'm guilty of holding him to different standards than the whites. it's a societal thing. we've all been raised in a racist world and we've all internalised certain messages, even those of us who are literally asian sjfhsjf.

it's like women claiming they shave their legs because they "want to". we all know that's nonsense and we do it because if we go outside hairy we'll be ridiculed and considered lazy and disgusting, but none of us like to admit we've crumbled to societal misogyny. "i just like having smooth legs!" we say, even thought we are all aware that when we're home alone and won't be seen, we never shave or do our makeup or anything. racism works the same - it infiltrates every aspect of life and all our interactions and none of us have escaped its web of deceit.

i mean, hell, how many of us have gone "omg i'd love a 1d reunion" or "i wish zouis would talk again" or whatever? i would NEVER talk to any of my white ex-colleagues who had stayed silent while i was being racially abused en masse, and yet, despite that fact, i still expect zayn to put himself through it just because i like louis. even if the individual 1d boys weren't the issue (zayn has the bus1 tattoo for a reason - clearly louis was his friend and not just a colleague), having to put himself back into 1d territory would undoubtedly stir up a lot of traumatic memories of things and people who WERE racist.

and we all know that! we're not stupid! we are 100% aware of the trauma he faced in that band, both from the fandom and the management and the media. and yet we still expect him to package it all up into a neat little box, tie a bow around it, and hand it to us like a gift. even those of us who are poc, who have similar trauma, who KNOW who awful that would be to go through. it's so insidious! we're all guilty!

and i think a lot of fans are stuck in a very childish mindset where you are either a good person or you are a big scary racist. (to be cringey and quote sirius black: "the world isn't divided into good people and death eaters, harry"). but that isn't how it works. no one is perfect and pure. no one has escaped the societal pressure of racism. it isn't a moral failing to put your hands up and go "damn, i'm part of the problem, i'll try and do better in future". like, that's literally all it would take! no one is expecting white fans to start whipping themselves in repentance!!! but a lot of these fans are struggling with that, clearly lol. they'd rather hyperfocus on one little line of cathartic and pretend it's a big deal, cus it's easier to talk about "zayn vs zain" or whatever than it is for them to analyse their own behaviour. but, like, their refusal to discuss the part they've played in the fandom's racism is literally just reinforcing the issue!! this is what zayn meant when he was said nobody is listening!

sfjsfhs sorry i've written you such an huge essay lmaooo. might set it to a cool beat and drop it on soundcloud, @zayn hit me up boy!!! sjfhsfjs

Oh my gosh, this was such a great read. Thank you for sending this to me! And quoting Sirius Black! And your joke at the end; this is iconic. You also touch on some very real and important points.

I have always felt so deeply for and sympathized with these issues, but I could never truly understand because while I am white and hispanic, I am white-passing and have white privilege. I hate evil and discrimination and racism, but I'm also sure I have at times contributed to it, even unintentionally. As you said, it is deeply engrained into our society, our entertainment, our jobs, our conversations, our jokes, our lives, our thoughts, our homes. It is in fandom too and I've always noticed a different tone (mainly when I'm on twitter) when people speak about Zayn. They cut him no slack. They question his motives. He is always judged so harshly. His music and lyrics are often ignored. And the Zouis breakup is usually always placed on his shoulders, even though we don't know the actual truth of what happened between the two. I've been thinking about this the last couple of days and even more so after listening to Cathartic. Zayn Malik is a grown ass man. A POC who was mistreated and discriminated against while in One Direction and still. He knows his trauma and is allowed to do what is best for him (Calamity). I wish Louis and Zayn would publicly be friends again, that is no secret, but it's not necessarily fair of me to put that on their shoulders because it has more to do with me than what is best for them. I still love and always will love Zouis, but it's in the past and that's how I'll celebrate it from now on because I do think they cared for each other very much.

@anon thank you so much for sharing this perspective. It’s always welcome and appreciated.