Skip to main content

How to Make Your Protagonist Have Friends and Enemies...Disney-Style

Admit it. Every Disney princess has a good share of friends and enemies. Your protagonists definitely need their share of these, too.



It’s easy to give them loads of friends and develop awesome humorous side characters. But villains? It’s harder to formulate the perfect antagonist. One method of doing this is having your character make enemies, which make life so much more exciting. Here are some tips...

For enemies, have your protagonist...

  • Be born
  • Have a magical power
  • Be beautiful and charming
  • Have royal blood
  • Rouse a deadly rage in someone unintentionally
  • Have parents with sworn enemies
  • Be a Dalmatian

For friends, have your protagonist...

  • Be beautiful and charming (yes, I realize this is also how you make enemies)
  • Have animal friends who require no effort
  • Sing nicely
  • Be naturally friendly and extroverted

And now for ideas that would actually be plot...

Enemies can be made if the protagonist...

  • Turns down someone who wants to marry you
  • Goes to  live in a jungle with a ferocious tiger
  • Makes a crocodile bite off someone's hand
  • Meets a bloodthirsty queen and challenge her to a game of croquet
  • Becomes a naive, exploitable child (preferably made of wood) in a corrupt world

Likewise, the protagonist can make friends by...

  • Forcing someone to bring them to see the lanterns (don't ask me which lanterns)
  • Being nice, and optionally passive, constantly (side effects of a soft voice)
  • Baking gooseberry pie
  • Making their dog’s leash trip someone into a lake, then helping them up
  • Having someone come with them into danger (elephant graveyards suffice)
  • Going to die in the desert and being rescued by two loners

If you’re going for realism, these things won't probably work. But as for making them friends Disney-style, being friendly is a really great start. If they are open and give everyone a chance, like Belle, adding friends into the book for them will be easy. Singing actually can help, and it’s super fun to write songs you can include in your book. Also having cute pets in your book is definitely a goal.

Signing off,

Brynbellion

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Can't You See the Shapes

I can see the shapes But my hands can't form them right They're trapped in my mind Why can’t I see the light? Dancing and soaring I forget what's around me Electric body Won’t you do what I do? Come sit in the shade Let the arid world fly by Luscious, dark gray shade Take my hand, come and fly Can’t you see the shapes Our fingers form them right Trapped in our minds Can’t you see the bright light? ~a poem by Gemaine~ ~based on a series of haikus by Hannah~

Spoiler-Free Book Review - The Squire's Tales (Gerald Morris)

Okay, so it's technically an entire series, but that's irrelevant. I am reviewing books and it is therefore a book review.  The Squire's Tales , by Gerald Morris, is a series of novels that retell in hilarious fashion the lesser known tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Don't worry, you won't have to hear about the sword in the stone again or anything at all about Arthur's childhood. Because this is where the best part comes in: these stories are told from the perspectives of those that other renditions tend to gloss over, mock or forget entirely. These characters are a squire, (as the title would imply) a page, three women and a knight who is objectively terrible at being a knight. He sings and plays music instead. His name's Dinadan. He's wonderful. Over the ten books in the series, you get seven different characters from whose points of view the stories are told (plus a couple extra in the last book, but that's a spec...

Write Whatever You Want

This is probably the most obvious thing you've ever heard/read about writing: write whatever you want. This is it. You've finally motivated yourself, and a startling burst of courage makes you place your fingers on the keyboard (or pick up your writing instrument). The white blankness of the page awaits you. And then suddenly, you're doubting yourself. Thoughts like these begin to bombard you: Can I really write this? Is it worth publishing? What do I even write?  I'm just going to straight up say: Write. Write whatever you want to write. Your thoughts, a random story, a poem about the tedious job of staring at blank pages all the time. It doesn't matter. Just write. Write about anything you're passionate about. What motivates you? What do you want to say to the world? Write about anything you like. Even if the topic isn't in demand. Even if no one's interested in it. Keep those words flowing. If you think your words can help hum...