Drop the Beard: 5 Ways to Create Original Mentor Characters

From Obi-Wan Kenobi to Tony Stark, mentor characters are one of the most common archetypes in fiction. And since the days of Gandalf and Dumbledore, authors have begun to believe that mentors have to all have the same features.

• The mentor must be old
• The mentor must be an infinite vessel of wisdom
• Usually a man
• Long white beard

So many authors write their mentor characters trying to be the next Dumbledore or Gandalf that to some, mentors have become complacent, or even boring. Who wants to read another fantasy story with a Gandalf-wannabe? Or a sci-fi with an Obi-Wan rip-off?

If you’re writing a story, you might be wondering what to do about your mentor characters. Old men have always worked, so why change it? I mean, what impact do mentor characters really have on your protagonist in the long run?

If you’re struggling to not make your mentor characters Dumbledore clones, then you’ve come to the right place. This week’s article is going to explore five tips to help make your mentor characters not only original, but resonant. I’ll also include some links to some excellent articles on mentors for further reading.

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#1. Don’t Be Afraid to Color Outside the Lines

Mentors don’t just have to be old men. Not to say that old is bad– the Bible is full of teachings that say young people should learn from the old, and that “gray hair is a crown of glory”. But you shouldn’t be afraid to go beyond the Gandalf prototype, if you think that’s what your story needs.

In my dystopian fantasy, my mentor characters are a married couple in their late twenties. In my gaslamp fantasy, it’s technically the love interest who is the mentor. There’s a difference between a mentor character and the mentor archetype. The mentor archetype is technically a state of a character’s arc– they have progressed through the other archetypes to that point. I can’t discuss archetypes in full in this article, but if you want to check it out, there’s a link at the bottom of this page that directs you to K.M. Weiland’s Archetype podcast series. I don’t agree with everything the archetypes can insinuate, but it’s still an excellent series to check out.

Mentor characters do not have to be old to share the Truth that your character is trying to learn… which is what the next section is about.

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#2. What Truth is Your Character Trying to Learn?

In every novel, there is some sort of thematic question that is being explored. Generally, the mentor will represent the answer to this question that your hero needs to learn.

In my dystopian fantasy, each POV character is exploring a different question within the thematic question, “What does it truly mean to be a hero?”. As the series discusses this general question over the span of four books, I have each POV character ask a different version of the question in their arcs. For my female protagonist, her question is, “What does it mean to be a hero when your life is ruled by a fear you can’t control?” and her subsequent mentor character, Bay, answers this question through sharing her own journey of facing fear. From her POV, all of the characters, including the other POV character, have different answers to this question, but only Bay has the answer that the protagonist needs to learn (AKA, a Hero doesn’t have to not be afraid to do what’s right. There are powers stronger than fear).

Bay isn’t old, and she’s nowhere close to perfect. But she knows the thematic truth that the protagonist needs to learn, and that is what makes her a mentor character. So consider what truth your character must learn, and how you use that as a small aspect of who the mentor character will be.

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#3. Don’t Make the Mentor Perfect

Let’s face it: none of us are perfect. We live in a dirty, sinful world where things are broken, people die, and we voluntarily choose to hurt others. Even if your mentor is older and has “seen it all”, they shouldn’t be perfect.

(This of course does not count for Aslan, as he was a representation of God, and God is holy and perfect in all things)

Give your mentor faults. We spend our entire lives growing and changing. Podo in The Wingfeather Saga held interesting grudges and lacked in the patience department. Helmer in The Green Ember was burnt and mangled by life, to the point where he didn’t want anything to do with anyone. Even the noble Mr. Whittaker of Adventures in Odyssey fame made mistakes sometimes. We all have faults and we all struggle with sin. Making your mentors perfect will disillusion your readers, and they will fail to see the truth that we all need mentors in real life.

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4#. Don’t Kill Them Off

No trope irritates me more than the “kill the mentor” trope. While it does have its place at times, there are certain instances where it can be irrelevant. Your protagonists, especially if they are young, need older characters to guide them through the adventures. In my mind, Obi-Wan’s death was weak, because he wasn’t truly dead, but he ignored Luke enough that he made lots of dumb choices and then just disappeared after the end of the trilogy. Who knows? Maybe if Obi-Wan had stuck around, the Kylo Ren incident wouldn’t have happened.

Okay, maybe that was harsh. And I don’t think that mentors should just fix all of the character’s problems either. But your characters don’t stop needing mentors if you kill them off. And there are times that it can feel cheap, especially if later on it’s like, “Guess what I’M NOT DEAD!” Technically, Luke didn’t know Obi-Wan long enough to truly feel grieved by his death. And having him be a Force-Ghost cheapens the affect, because hey, Obi-Wan is still around but not enough to really be of any help.

There is one instance where this works. However, it’s a spoiler thing for The Green Ember Series. Proceed with caution

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BEGINNING OF SPOILER. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SCROLL PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE SPOILER

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The only instance where the dead mentor trope works is if you stage it correctly. An excellent example of this is Helmer. Throughout the series, Helmer and his student, Picket, form an intense bond through both the continuous war and the hours spent training together. When Helmer sacrifices himself at the end of Ember’s End, it is truly a meaningful death, because we as the readers have spent hours seeing him be changed by Picket and watching their bond form. And Picket is crushed because he loses the person who helped him become the person he is. Obi-Wan’s death didn’t have the same hit, because technically, he and Luke had only really known each other for a few days, and we as the viewers didn’t get very much time to know him either. You don’t really love Obi-Wan as a character unless you watch the prequels and see his own development. We don’t get that aspect from the original trilogy.

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END OF SPOILER

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If you’re going to kill the mentor character, stage it so it hurts. Because death is a very real part of our world, and nothing good comes from making it cheap.

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#5 Spend Time Developing Their Personality

I think the reason that the majority of mentor characters fall flat is because the writers don’t spend enough time developing them. They just slap an old man with a beard into the mix and call it good. But spend time with your mentors in development! Figure out their backstory. What did they do when they were younger? What dreams do they still hold onto? What is their personality like?

One of my favorite mentor characters is my sister’s unpublished character, Plenty the Lesser. He’s a wise old man, but he’s got a funny way with looking at life, and sometimes between the jokes it’s hard to find the root of what he’s saying, although eventually he’ll say it straight. His personality resonates with you because eventually, you start seeing the world through his eyes. A man who has faced darkness but still chuckles with the quiet pleasures of life is an interesting man indeed.

Or with Bay and Dylan. Bay is full of spunk, and she prefers to walk on rooftops than walk on the ground. She likes standing out and she doesn’t care that others see it– although sometimes she’s her own hypocrite when it comes to hiding from the ghosts of her past. Dylan was a former assassin, forced into the job by the government, but he loves Bay and finds her to be his guiding light even when his old habits are dying hard.

A personality of a mentor character can set them apart from all the others, even if they are bearded men.

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Mentor characters are sometimes underestimated, which I find to be quite tragic. We all need mentors in our lives to help us grow and point us back to God. I hope that this article has helped you gain some ideas to make your mentor characters truly spectacular.

Who is your favorite mentor character? In what ways do they resonate with you?

For more reading on the subject:

Mentor Archetypes: Archetypal Character Arcs, Pt. 21: The Flat Archetype of the Mentor – Helping Writers Become Authors

Archetypal Characters: How to Write Archetypal Character Arcs – Helping Writers Become Authors

4 Ways to Write a Thought-Provoking Mentor Character: 4 Ways to Write a Thought-Provoking Mentor Character – Helping Writers Become Authors