How To Create A Compelling Ensemble With Minimal Psychological Trauma

Also known as "How to assemble for the non-Avenger".

   Say you’re a glutton for punishment. You're like the author of this article. You don’t want just one main character for your story, nooooo, you want a shit ton of characters all taking the same journey together. Like seven (that’s a lot in writer numbers). Ok maybe not seven the first time around, but five. Five characters. Five characters that all need different personalities, backgrounds, wants, needs, underwear and need to easily be defined by the reader. That's a lot of underwear.

This one pooped on your shoes

   I’m going to be honest, as much as I love me some ensembles (I'm that person that can, and will, find an excuse to bring up Firefly) they can cause nothing but anguish when writing. It’s a lot of planning, coordinating, keeping track and, frankly, it’s like herding cats. You have all these ideas for a bunch of characters but they’re all going in different directions, they won’t listen to you, you can’t get them to do what you want and one of them is probably pooping on a pair of your shoes while your chasing another one down. Meanwhile you think they’re all awesome, cute and fluffy, and if you can just get them to do what you want, everything will be perfect. You can all snuggle in triumph, and people will start calling you the next Brian K. Vaughn.

   That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. That’s why we’re here.

Why Do Ensembles Work?

Zombies terrorizing your ensemble: optional.

   First off, let’s define ensemble. An ensemble in this case is a cast of characters that will receive pretty much equal time in the story (more on this, later). You’re not focusing on just one person, but a group. While you may not tell as intimate of a story with each and every character within you allotted pages, the interaction of your characters and the diversity will enrich the story itself. People very rarely go through trials and tribulations alone, it’s within our nature to band together. With a group of characters interacting, fighting together, struggling together, loving, hating, helping each other up, back stabbing, whatever; you are exploring a lot of human nature through an array of personalities dealing with your conflict. If well crafted, an ensemble can make for a very compelling piece of story.

Our Types Of Ensembles

   It’s the same same as your Protagonist (Main Character) list. We have:

   Heroes: They may not always get along, but they are devoted to their cause and they can band together and get the job done. Sometimes these guys can be the underdogs of society, like the X-Men. 

   The Anti-Heroes: Usually the ruffians with morals. Taking a stand and saving the day isn’t in their wheelhouse, but they’ll do it if they’re forced to take a stand. They can however also be the survivors, the every-men in an extraordinary situation.

   Villains: Again, normally used for comedy. However you can get into instances where you’re writing something like Secret Six as their own title. 

As A Whole: Why Are These Guys Hanging Out Together?

Guy demonstrating ensembles don't always have to get along.

   This is more important that you think. Why these beings are together will define how they interact as a unit. Are they together because they’re all friends and they have a pact? Or are they being forced to set aside differences and work together for the greater good? Are some eager to be in the group but others not? Get an idea of the dynamic you’re going for. A body of people that is built on the concept of “the family you make” will work differently than a body of people built on the concept of “we don’t play nice with others but we’re being forced to try.” Also consider how you want the group to grow as a whole. Will they become more tightly knit as your story progresses, or split in discourse? This may help you with even plotting your stories around  your group's key moments to how they reach their intended growth.

Tropes: The Five Man Band

   We’re back to tropes (taken from TV Tropes, once again check the site out if you can waste an entire day) with The Five Man Band. Again, tropes are the bones of the character, the base. This happens to be a very helpful trope when it comes to defining the roles of your characters within the ensemble. The Five Man Band doesn’t have to be five characters, you can definitely expand it for larger groups (and there are more associated Tropes that can be applied to an expanded team). However a group of five tends to be very manageable for such a large number and breaks down into the following-

The Hero: The leader of your group. May be clean cut and upstanding, bold and charismatic, serious or driven, or some combination of the three.

The Lancer: The second-in-command. Your Lancer is usually the opposite of the Hero to provide contrast and balance. Say your Hero is a smart mouthed wild card. Then your Lancer is a stoic, calculated straight man.

The Smart Guy: Usually physically at a disadvantage, but makes up for it with brains. These guys are often the comic relief as well as a bit on the awkward side. They also tend to be young and the Big Guy’s friend.

The Big Guy: The muscle. Often not too sharp, but he’s not on the team for smarts.

The Chick: Not always a girl, but it’s often a role filled by a girl. The Chick is nice, sweet, optimistic, and often the middle ground and support of the group. They are considered the heart as they keep the peace between all of the contrasting members. If not any of the aforementioned things, they're just totally the token girl. DO NOT MAKE THEM THE TOKEN GIRL. I'll hurt you and throw Buffy The Vampire Slayer trades at your face.

Examples Of The Five Man Band Via Star Wars, Firefly, Astonishing X-Men, JLA and Runaways:

The Hero: Luke Skywalker, Mal Reynolds, Cyclops, Superman, Nico Minoru  

Frank oz mentor not included.

The Lancer: Han Solo, Zoe Washburne, Emma Frost, Batman, Xavin

She can kill you with her pinkie.

The Smart Guy: C-3PO, Wash Washburne, Beast, Martian Manhunter, Victor Mancha

One kitty who will not poop on your shoes.

The Big Guy: Chewbacca, Jayne Cobb, Wolverine, Green Lantern (Hal), Chase Stien/Molly Hayes

Because sometimes you just want to make a giant fist & punch the crap outta someone.

The Chick: Leia Organa, Kaylee Frye, Kitty Pryde, Wonder Woman, Karolina Dean

Anyone else still find it amusing they made the sparkly rainbow girl gay?

   These roles will shift if you have a continuing story. Your characters will evolve and grow over the course of the story and will inhabit different roles in the group, depending on the plot and their own personal arcs. The Hero may take a physical or mental beating so hard the Lancer may have to step in and assume the role of leading the team, maybe the Lancer leaves and the Smart Guy steps up, or some new characters enter the scene and they shift the dynamic. What I’m getting at is that while these tropes are what you should to establish your ensemble around, they are not definite and if you write your arcs correctly, your group will evolve and characters will assume different roles. If you ever watch your own social group dynamics, you’ll notice this (eerily) in real life too, as well as the roll you prefer to resume and roles you end up assuming. 

Backgrounds: This Is Short Because You Should Know Better

   Make them different. Period. It doesn’t have to be dramatically different. If you’re doing a book about a bunch of Hispanic kids trying to form their own bicycle gang you’re obviously not going to make your core cast a variety of races, but not every Hispanic kid’s upbringing is the same.

   Even if they’re siblings, they’ll have a different backstory from one another. If you have a brother or sister, ask them about your guys’ childhood. While possibly not drastically different, it’s going to be slightly different then what you remember. That lens we all view life through is slightly different. Even if we come from the same home.

    That said, if you have an ensemble you want to be from all walks of life. Holy crap, just go nuts with that. It's not the 1950s, not every character has to be white and from an All American home. There's variety out there, use it, study it, embrace it.

Wants: Not Everyone Wants The Same Thing

Some people just want a unicorn.

   Everyone wants something different. We’re not talking about a big conflict like a war where everyone wants it to just be over. No. Beyond wanting it over, your group all wants something different from that outcome. Some want to go home to their girl, some want to return home to the farm to see ma and pa, some want their money so they can spend it all on hookers and blow, some just want it over so they can get the hell away from everyone else and drink in peace. Everyone’s wants are going to be different, which means everyone’s motives will be different, which means this feeds into and effects everyone’s interactions with one another. And you need to keep track of all this.

Conflicts: AKA More Crap That Is Important & Needs To Be Unique

Like the Protagonist article, we’re looking at: 

Man vs. Man (Wolverine vs. That Four-Eyed Boyscout): Pitting them against a person. 

Man vs. Nature (Wolverine vs. Mutant Prejudice): Pitting them against an outside force. It could be the elements, it could be human nature, it could be rampaging nanobots. 

Man vs. Self (Wolverine vs. Lifetimes Of Regrets): Against themselves in some way. Issues, mental scars, a part of their self  that they struggle with confronting.

"i know you drank my last molson's, you big prick!"

   Except now, we need different conflicts for each character in our ensemble. Now, not every character needs to have all three conflicts, but they should have an external conflict and an internal conflict (and if the external conflict conflicts against the internal conflict, pat yourself on the back because that's good stuff). Some of them can be similar, but as with life we’ve all got our own conflicts for the most part. If you resolve some of the conflicts, new ones can arise.

Page Time: Not Everyone Will Be Equal

   Page time is my way of saying the amount of time the character appears in the comic. When you get down to story structure for your piece, there’s going to be a point where you’re outlining the story and looking at how often each character will get some page time. Chances are, you’ll have one or two more characters prominent in the main story than the others, with the rest taking apart of subplots. It just tends to work better this way, because you can cover a considerable amount of story and utilize each character according to the plots and subplots. Also as your main plot comes to a head, you'll tend to see that you'll have the characters who were in the subplots come back to join in on the resolution. If you have an ongoing comic, the arcs will change and new plot lines will emerge, and you can have characters rotate between main plots and subplots. 

You Seriously Need To Get Your (Non Creepy) Stalker On

Pro tip: observing like this may get you arrested

   As I said before, it's very easy to have characters that are all the same. They’re all little you clones running around, or they’re about as engaging as a piece of cold toast. However people are more often than not, more faceted than toast (if you disagree you may want to start hanging out with different people). And we all don't act the same, much less act like you (or how you think you act). So you should be watching other human beings. Constantly.

   Really watch people, and observe how they act around one another. When you're with your friends even study them. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all act differently in a group, and we act differently to the various people within the group. People assume roles (like your tropes), and people’s body language while in a group reflect this interaction. Your ensemble for your story will be the same.

Embracing Variety: The Spice Of Life, It Must Flow

variety of the not-so heroic kind

  This is particularly important for comics. While you’ll be working with an artist who should in theory know about design, you need to have a least some idea of how all these people will look visually different. Having a bunch of characters all looking the same is not only confusing, but uninteresting. Try to get a basic idea of how everyone looks. Don't be afraid of casting, as I mentioned in the first tutorial. It helps a lot with translating a character from your mind onto the page and giving your artist a springboard to work from.

Example, from a very old (see: the first) script of mine entitled Bootlegged:

"SHERMAN MCDOWELL is front and center; this big, broad guy with eyes that’ve seen things. Maybe looks like Adam Baldwin circa Full Metal Jacket"*

   Also, names. Try to variate the names of your characters. Names too similar will confuse your audience and make them have to work harder in keeping track of everyone in the story. Making it a chore to keep up with who's who tends to pull people out of a story and thus, makes them more prone to really not giving a shit. You want them to give a shit. So don't name everyone John and Mary. Use your imagination and Google to infuse some variety in the wordage that'll be in the words your audience reads.

Consistency: Don't Be That Asshole Stray

   How many times have you watched a TV show or read a comic where a character you love goes completely off the rails in the non-fun-sweeps-week sort of way. A person that supposedly learned his lesson two episodes ago is back to his original shitty self without any rhyme or reason, or a good guy does a complete heel turn and turns pure evil. Whatever it is it’s so uncharacteristic of the character and goes against what’s already been established or developed. So you’re pissed because none of this makes sense and if you’re anything like me you jump on the internet and winge about it like the professional geek you are. 

what i looked like when i used to watch glee

    So a little piece of magic advice here. Practice consistency for all characters. Big character shifts are only acceptable when there’s some crazy possession stuff going on that makes you character as insane as a shit house rat. Even then, people will question your writing ability if there’s no foreshadowing. Consistency though is big for an ensemble. Growth and shifts in the ensemble are natural, but big jumps out of character don’t work. And trying to force your characters to do something in a situation that is completely out of character is a huge no-no.

Consistency: If your character would never do it, you drop it and the hell walk away. Don’t try to shoehorn them into a story they wouldn't be apart of. 

In The End, Keep Studying

   You have all this stuff, and if you bring everything together, all of these details, you should have a group. Maybe not the greatest group in the world, but your group. You know how you can make them better though?

 Keep studying.

Why haven't you read this again?

  I know, I said this before (and I'll keep saying it). But you have permission to read comics, books or watch TV shows and movies and tell people you're doing research. An excuse to read comics and watch Netflix, how cool is that? Very. Watch and read things that have ensembles, and study how the ensembles are written. Remember that ensembles work as a whole, but they also need to work separately. It's a delicate balancing act, but there are some fantastic writers out there who make it work, make it fun, and make it powerful. It's your job to read and watch their stuff and break it down. Figure out the basic elements and why they work so well. Applying that knowledge to your own work is incredibly invaluable. 

 

   Also, again, make sure to check out bad pieces and break them down. While you may want to walk away due to the fact it's so bad, if you muscle through and take the time to analyze you can pick up on what's wrong. You'll become aware of or entirely avoid these pitfalls in your own work, and strengthen your chops as a writer.

Did this help? I hope so. In closing, you can do it! I believe in you! So onward young padawan!

Start abusing using the excuse of 'research'.