Characters: Development, Ranking, and More

Character Hierarchy: My Terms

Character hierarchy is, in my own description, the order in which characters are placed based on importance and effect on the storyline. Different people often have different definitions for character hierarchy, and there really is no correct one, nor are there correct terms. I will define the importance of character hierarchy, give my own terms, and provide examples as to how these different rankings work.

Before we begin, I should define hierarchy. Hierarchy is a system in which people are placed one above the other in ranks according to status or authority. A character hierarchy for me, however, is every character ranked from most important to least important.

Let's start with the importance of character hierarchy. Many would question why they should plan out character rankings. Well, making it clear who your main character is is important. If the main character is not clear, this can confuse readers in multiple ways. The main character holds up the whole story. Without them, there is little to no plot or development. Of course, this is only true for stories, and even some stories can either have multiple main characters that have the same top role in the hierarchy and some stories even work with having no main characters at all, but that's beside the point. Outlining your character hierarchy can make character development easier for you to figure out and help you figure out when to input certain characters. Where do you put certain characters, you may ask? Well, that's completely up to you, but let's take a look at some of my examples.

I'm going to pick a handful of characters from the book I'm currently writing. I'll choose Emerald, Tidal Wave, Jade, Fox, Snow, Spark, Lilac, The Knight, Smoke, and Ink. This is a fairly wide variety of these cat characters, some of which were picked specifically to use as an example. Let's start with the characters at the top of the hierarchy.

Lead Main Character: Emerald
Emerald is the lead main character which the book's perspective is in. She has the most overall development, is the most involved, and holds up the storyline, which is why she is the leading main character.

Supporting Main Character: Tidal Wave
Tidal Wave is often beside Emerald. He is a key factor in how Emerald develops over time and helps to hold up the storyline, which is why he is a supporting main character.

Supporting Main Character: Fox
Fox is also commonly seen and is another key factor in Emerald's development over time. She is the general, meaning she has power over Emerald and can command her, and helps hold up the story, causing her to be a supporting main character.

Secondary Supporting Main Characters: Snow and Jade
Snow and Jade are ranked about evenly. They are seen often and are commonly around Emerald, and Jade especially plays into the way Emerald grows throughout the book. Snow is the lieutenant general, meaning he also has power over Emerald. Together, they both are important factors in the story.

Leading Villain: The Knight
The Knight is the only villain that is a main character and matters ultimately to the storyline, perhaps even more so than Tidal Wave. He was ultimately responsible for most of the book, including changes in Emerald, shaping Emerald for many early years, and many key storyline events.

Side Characters:
Side characters are done differently for me. I rank the highest at the top and group the even ones together but don't give the ranks names as I don't feel they are important enough to lead, but some are just more important or common than others.

Timber, Shadow, and Smoke:
As the highest ranked side characters, these three are seen more often than most others, and while they do play into how the story works and how Emerald develops, it would not affect the story too badly if they were taken away. Others could fill in for them and still make the story work. Although Shadow is a love interest for Emerald, Jade and Smoke, Emerald's other love interests, overpower him. Smoke herself is a strong character, but not important enough to sway the way the story ultimately goes or change Emerald enough.

Ink and Violet:
While Ink and Violet are relatively important characters, they don't matter much in the end and could be taken away with few changes. They serve their purpose, and that is to add to certain elements in the story such as character interaction and dialogue, but other than that, they do not sway the events of the book.

Lilac, Rose, Thorn, and Spark:
These are characters that appear in the story, have dialogue, and may help move the story from place to place, but in the end, have little to no effect on the book and could be removed with few or any problems. Lilac hardly appears at all, Rose and Thorn die early and help a major plot point by contributing to it with their death, and Spark contrasts her character to Tidal Wave's to put his into a clearer light. While most of this is unneeded and the most important of these things is Rose and Thorn's death, they don't ultimately matter as a whole to the story and most of the experiences they create could be deemed as unneeded. Think of them as little tiny details on a piece of artwork: Likely unneeded and often to go unnoticed, just accents that add a little bit of flavor to the overall piece, mostly hidden by more distracting and extravagant details (In this case, the extravagant details are the main characters).

To sum it all up, placing characters in a hierarchy can give you an idea of the purposes of your characters and help you determine what about them sways the storyline. It also makes it easier for you to switch characters with another if for some reason you have to take the original out because you can find what about that character you need or want to keep. For example, I learned that I use Spark as a way for readers to find out more about what Tidal Wave is like and that, if I wanted, I could remove Lilac without a hitch. I highly recommend figuring out your own version of a character hierarchy with your characters, as I find it beneficial in many ways. Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to name or have ranks in this hierarchy and these are just my terms. Regardless of how you decide to place your characters, I hope this helped!