Honestly The Most Chillest Dude X Unhinged Insane Person Is My Most All Time Favorite, I Live For The

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.

Good Brain: Actually, I have really fun ideas that people seem to really like, and I definitely have enough talent to show them off in the way I want! :D

Bad Brain: Yeah but consider, instead of doing that--You just scroll and watch stuff for hours to drown out the background noise of Worse Brain

Worse Brain: O̶̼̿n̸̮͌ĝ̷̳ọ̶̅ḯ̶̤n̵̛͙g̵̗̐ ̸̩̒Ạ̸̀n̵̤̑ẍ̶͇́i̶͖̎e̶̺̅t̴͖̽ÿ̶͓́ ̵̱̈́O̷̗͆ṿ̶̃ẻ̵̺r̴̛͍ ̵̻̽F̴̣̒a̶̅͜m̸͖̆i̶̼͛l̴̰̾ẙ̵̧ ̶̦͑T̶̹̆ẖ̶̔ë̷̡́ ̸̻̐Ṡ̷͎t̷̙̿a̶̩̚t̴̞̍e̸̺͛ ̴̯͂O̷̲͝f̵̘̔ ̶̮̀T̵̳͆h̷͇̃e̶̲͊ ̵͓̿W̸̳͠o̵̰̍r̵̢̿l̴͕̑d̷̳̏ ̸̤̏A̷̝͛n̶͎͠d̶̘̄ ̴̟͐T̶͖̊ḧ̸̪́e̸̩̋ ̶͖̑I̸̗̒n̷͔̿e̸͇̍ś̸͖c̶͎̽a̵̦͌p̸̦̿ä̸͇b̶̝͠l̷̫̈e̷̥͛ ̶̲̇G̶̯͠r̶̰̊ï̶̗p̷̙̅ ̶̨͌O̸̾͜f̶̲̃ ̵͎̌M̵͍̿ȍ̷̟r̷̨̓t̸̡͋a̴̤͠l̷̞̿i̸͖͑t̸̜͂y̸̳͌ ̶̣̄

Annoyingly Responsible Brain: Also, you need to focus on getting a job

Prompt Idea: Instead of adult villain having a beef with a child hero, I want child villain having a beef with an adult hero.

Like imagine being full-grown adult trying to save a world, only to find out it, the villain is a literal child. 😂😂😂😂

Look, if you're having a bad day, here's a 6,000 year old pig-shaped pottery pot.

After that I became really depressed afterward, it like damn you can do

This to me

Naruto: Team 7 are totally friends guys! You can tell because Kishimoto said they were. Sure, two of these relationships are crush-based and the other one is a dysfunctional rival relationship, but that's friendship right?

Meanwhile in One Piece:

“I’m not a violent dog, I don’t know why I bite” fits Ares a lot in my opinion.

I got “rebel”….who wanna take down the government!

Same, I literally waste all of my money on him

Joey Wheeler: AYY im walkin ere

Me: I would die for you.