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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Lately I have been finding it easier to develop secondary characters than my MCs--they are so much more vivid. I have NO idea why, but I can "see" them more clearly. Kind of frustrating! 
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Joined: 1/23/2012
Posts: 36
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I love secondary characters, too! They just seem to be the color on the canvas for me to play with. I think they're super vital. How they interact with my MC helps me understand him better! And how the contrast him is also nice.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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Sometimes it's the secondary characters that make the movie. Take the movie Notting Hill. It's your typical boy meets girl until they add the secondary characters. They're classic and show that your secondary characters can be the heroes of their own stories within your book.
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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Hehe, Danielle, I love that movie!
Rachel--who would you say is your favorite of your secondary characters in DARKNESS BRUTAL?
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Joined: 12/16/2013
Posts: 2
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Rachel, I like how you referred to the secondary characters as "color on a canvas." That image made me think of another metaphor for it. It is like cooking. Your genre is like a type of food, your particular story like a particular dish, and the characters are the ingredients. The spices you choose over someone else is what makes your dish unique, which is why secondary characters are so vital. Looking at movies, there are so many action movies around revenge stories or rescue stories, so if one is going to create that kind of story, they are going to want to get creative with their "spices."
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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The concept of developing characters, I don't get it. My characters push their way in. I write a bit part to fill a need, a small function, my orders, say your damn lines and get the hell off the stage, thank you very much. But they refuse to go quietly. They keep bounding around my brain until I find something else for them to do.
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If anyone wonders why I have so many screwballs, that's why.
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Joined: 8/20/2015
Posts: 19
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Sometimes characters take over and it's almost as if they are fighting against being a secondary character.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Frankly, I enjoy it. I see it as a positive, not a negative. I do not assume that I know better than my characters what needs to happen. I happily accept that often they have better ideas than I do. But, I am the ultimate pantser.
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They always turn out to be so interesting that I surrender to the idea that more of their story needs to be told.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 8/20/2015, 12:00 PM--
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Joined: 6/25/2013
Posts: 55
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Maybe it has something to do with how we feel about the characters. How real they are to us. Maybe even how in-your-face they are: tell my story...Come on, you know you wanna...I understand what everyone's going through with characters developing on their own terms. Answers? Man, I wish I had some. Is it crazy to say that if we're worried about the relative vitality of an MC...we should court him or her? By that, I mean, immerse yourself in the character's life, circumstances, research. Maybe it's easier with historical fiction. I can take myself to places that recreate life as it was and I can stand there and imagine how the character moved about in and experienced that world.
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Joined: 1/19/2016
Posts: 12
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I love support characters! They give the story tension and make it more interesting!
https://www.chatebooks.com/blog-Writing-a-Book-The-Importance-of-Support-Characters-in-a-Story
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