31-03-17, 20:56 | #1 |
Member
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,191
|
Crafting secondary characters
Its been a long while since I posted in this thread. As (hopefully) some of you know/remember, I have been writing a TR story that I began now over a year ago. I once called it a direct sequel to Rise, not fanfiction, but no longer. Its more of an add on, spin-off fanfict story taking place just after Rise. Basically I am struggling to figure out how I want to develop Samantha as a secondary character. I have her in a large chunk of it, or so I think, but her perspective isn't the primary one through the story I have in mind; that belongs to Lara.I have ideas, but I don't want Samantha's role in the story to be so developed she might become a second main character.
How might I go about deciding how much development to infuse in Sam? What do you want to see in her that makes her have enough relevance for readers to care about her? These same things can be said for my villian, but I have more on him than Sam. Last edited by HD Simplicityy; 31-03-17 at 21:03. |
31-03-17, 22:03 | #2 |
Member
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,777
|
Flesh out your characters on a separate document. Identify their likes, dislikes, beliefs, motivations, strengths, weaknesses, etc. just as you would for a main character. Use less of those for secondary characters than you would use for the main character when it comes to writing the story.
For example: Bob (Main Character) Likes cheese pizza. Dislikes pineapple pizza. Believes in the Hindu reincarnation cycle. His motivation is to get his younger brother through college. His strength is his determination to help people. His weakness is tied to that, he focuses so much on helping that he often tends to forget to help himself. Johnny (secondary character, Bob's brother) Likes German chocolate Dislikes canned beans. Nihilist. He doesn't have motivation, which causes tension with Bob. His strength is through nihilism he doesn't worry so much about things. His weakness is tied to that, he doesn't worry about anything because of his nihilism. All this causes tension between the characters, but because you're focused on the main character you bring out more of those facets for the main character rather than the secondary. Imply rather than simply stating the various character traits of the secondary character, either through action, dialogue, or how the main character thinks of the secondary character. Both characters are fleshed out, but the final product focuses more on the main than the secondary, implying the secondary, but the writer still has everything in mind for them and just subtly slip things in and let the reader figure it out. |
01-04-17, 03:42 | #3 |
Member
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,191
|
Thanks, Zreen!
|
01-04-17, 11:58 | #4 | |
Unverified
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 5,140
|
Quote:
|
|
Thread Tools | |
|
|