Writing Tips from Descendants

If you were to ask me what my favorite Disney Channel movies were, up at the top would be the High School Musical and Descendants movies (followed by Teen Beach Movie). Coincidentally, they're both directed by Kenny Ortaga. They released earlier this year that there would be a third Descendants, so it made me want to write a post about what writers can learn from it. Spoilers ahead.

Make your characters choose

Descendants is about the children of four major Disney villains- Jafar, Cruella de Vil, Evil Queen, and Maleficent. They get sent off the island they live on to go to school, but with an ulterior motive to steal a magic wand. As you might guess, they actually start to like it there and have to decide, in the end, if they will chose to be like their parents or not. It's quite a powerful moment, watching them work through that.

What sort of hard choice can you give your characters? A choice between being good and hated by their parents or being bad and hated by everyone else? A choice to let some people die so you can save countless others? The hard the choice, the better the tension and the character development.

Give your story relevance

The great thing about these two movies is the relevance they have with modern situations. On the island the kids live on, it's like the bad part of town and not a lot of good stuff happens. And then when they leave, they face discrimination because of where they're from and who their parents are. The situation the kids are in with trying to break free of their parents and what they've done is faced by plenty of kids in our world too.

How can you add something relevant to your non-contemporary novel? You could talk about all sorts of things. Drugs, divorce, deciding what school to go to, and more. It doesn't even have to be a big things. Simply adding something that readers deal with in their own life will help them relate to the story.

Show us character friendship

While the above lesson is great, I think one of my favorite parts is the friendship between the four kids. Whether they're evil or good, they can get by because they're together. They're like siblings, even though they grew up in a place where being nice is discouraged. Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos are the heart of the story and they rock.

When you write characters, make sure we see their friendship. It doesn't have to be in big ways either. Small ways are more powerful when it comes to showing how good of friends people are. Like hanging out in each other's rooms, cheering for each other at games, and helping each other with clothes. I love when a friendship is potent on the page, don't you?

Have both sides be a bit right

Ben, the prince, later king of the land in these movies, makes some hard decisions. Whether or not to let bad kids come to school with good kids. What to do about the island they live on. But it gets very interesting in number two, when he and the daughter of Ursula, Uma, face off. She wants to be let off the island because she thinks it isn't fair that only some of the kids got to leave, and she's right. And Ben is a good enough person to realize that.

There's nothing better than having two characters fight, but making them both a little right. That's the way of the world, really. Everyone has points where they're right and wrong, and those overlap with other's opinions. How can you make your characters, even the villains, be a little right? Are they right they shouldn't have had something taken from them? Are they right that something is corrupt? Show us how someone is right and it adds to the tension of what the hero will decide.

Push your characters to the breaking point

In the second movie, Mal is trying to be the girl she thinks Ben (who is her boyfriend) wants. She acts like a princess, magics her hair blonde, and tries to fit in. But that's not who she is and as normal, when people are pushed too hard, she breaks. Mal goes right back to the island because it's what she knows.

How can you push your character to the breaking point and what happens when you do? Do they become angry? Villainous? Shut down? Run away? The potential for conflict is amazing. It's also a great character exercise, discovering what is your character's breaking point and what drives them to it.

Let's talk! Have you watched Descendants? Are any of these lessons used in your current WIP? What do you think of "bad guy" main characters? Tell me in the comments.

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