When Your Side Character Grabs the Wheel (and Drives Off With the Plot)

#writingcommunity #booksky #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle

I gave them three lines.
That’s it. Three perfectly reasonable lines of dialogue. One was even just “Huh.”

They were supposed to walk on, deliver some exposition, maybe smirk enigmatically, and then disappear back into the narrative ether from whence they came.

Instead, they lit a metaphorical cigarette, pulled up a chair they were never offered, and refused to leave. They renamed themselves something cooler. They got better lines. And then, God help me, they started getting fan mail from my beta readers.

Meanwhile, my protagonist, who I carefully designed with trauma, goals, and a three-act structure, is now sitting in the corner like a sad loaf of sourdough, wondering why nobody wants to hear their character arc anymore.

Ok, none of that actually happened, but you get the idea.

Writers don’t always like to admit this, but sometimes, the character who’s supposed to be a side dish ends up being the main course. They show up with more charisma, more voice, and more unhinged energy than anyone else on the page. They are chaos goblins wrapped in charm, and we love them for it.

Unfortunately, they also make your main character look like an unpaid intern.

You know the one. The morally gray engineer with a tragic past and a smug look. The best friend who was supposed to die in Act II but won’t stop stealing scenes with sarcastic wisdom and suspiciously well-timed monologues. Or the bartender who got one paragraph and now has a love triangle and a five-book arc.

Because side characters are free. They don’t have to carry the emotional weight of the plot.

They don’t need to be relatable or reliable. They just need to be interesting. They get the punchy lines, the wild quirks, the surprise knife in their boot. And they don’t have to worry about emotional growth unless it’s sexy, tragic, or both.

Main characters, on the other hand? They have responsibilities. They have to have arcs and backstory wounds and make decisions that aren’t completely terrible (unless your protagonist is an antihero.) They’re under constant scrutiny. They’re the narrative equivalent of the designated driver. Important? Yes. Fun? Not always.

So, what do you do about it? That depends. If your side character is simply upstaging your protagonist because they’re more dynamic…it might be time to do some work on your main character. Give them more agency. Let them be weird. Let them say the thing out loud that they’ve been bottling up since chapter one. Let them bleed a little.

But if your side character has grabbed the story like it owes them money and refuses to give it back…well, maybe that’s your story now. Sometimes the spotlight shifts for a reason.

Characters tell you what they want.

And sometimes what they want is your entire plot outline shredded and fed to a space goat while they monologue from a balcony with excellent lighting.

A Cautionary Tale (from Me)

One of my side characters, let’s call her Kasia (because that’s literally her name,) was supposed to be an occasional voice of opposition. A little spice. A complication.

She ended up being my favorite character in Effacement. She said the things the other characters wouldn’t. She was smart (smart-assed mostly) and funny and was hella fun to write.

I didn’t plan for her to take over. But when she did? I ended up giving some of her scenes to another character to tone her down a little. Still not sure that was the right call.

Funny thing is, I’m now planning another book, with Kasia as the protagonist.
She’s finally getting her turn in the spotlight.

There’s a very real possibility that someone else, some scrappy, unpredictable side character with too much charm and not enough boundaries, is going to waltz into her story and steal it right out from under her. Poetic justice? Maybe.

I like to imagine her reacting the same way I did:
With confusion, mild offense, and a grudging admiration.
Maybe even a little pride.

“So, this is what it feels like,” she’ll say, scowling while someone else delivers the killer line.
“Tough gig.”

We’ll see how she handles it.

What’s the Moral Here?

Side characters are like raccoons. Fascinating, chaotic, and not to be trusted around your carefully arranged garbage. But sometimes, they find something in the trash worth keeping.

Your main character is the meal. But that doesn’t mean the side dish gets to run for office. You’ll have to find the balance or make your protagonist more interesting or rewrite the whole damned thing. Easy right?

Have you ever had a character hijack your story? Did you fight it, or give in and rewrite everything? Let me know in the comments. And if you’re reading this, Kasia, you still owe me an ending.