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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ostrich short story

She holds her elegant neck high above the masses which she saunters through. Like a diva at a show she flaunts her plumes, casts a wary eye about for rivals, and turns up her nose at her drab brown and cream comrades.  Behold, an animal of distinction and refinement. Here is the ostrich, queen of the winged kingdom. Around her, antelope bow their heads in shame, cringing at their inferiority. Where she steps the grass seems to wither in embarrassment. Even the sun seems reluctant to disgrace her chestnut and ivory feathers. Stop. Look around. Sour musk lines the brisk breeze. She lowers the foot which was held aloft a moment ago, her previously serene expression now one of incandescent disapproval. The antelope prick up their ears. A glimpse of golden pelt in the grass and an explosion of hooves signifies the beginning of the chase. She runs like a demon, head pointed forward and wings outstretched. Long legs kick up turf, spraying it into the streak of gold fur b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plot: Wing It or Plan Every Step?

In the first idea that I had for the novel I am currently writing - which, admittedly, was when I was twelve - the only things I knew about my MC's personality were that she was a girl and she was 'feisty'. And evidently, I thought that was enough to go on. Surprise, surprise: It wasn't. Now, she is only the most main of my three main characters, rather than the only one. Her name is Taika and I love her. While she is most definitely 'feisty', she has so much more to her than that now. It's interesting to contrast this to when she first burst into my brain and refused to leave me alone. She was unrealistic, extremely two-dimensional and quickly gave up her spunk to become bland and forgettable. Needless to say, I didn't know her particularly well before I began writing with her. I guess I either thought she was fine how she was or that her well thought through character arc would just sort of come as I wrote. Given the fact that I am curre...
Post a Comment
Read more

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~
Post a Comment
Read more