Avoiding "Satellite Characters"

[Ireth]

A satellite character, as the name implies, is one whose sole purpose for existing revolves entirely around the MC or MCs. Bella Swan is a perfect example, despite ostensibly being the MC herself; she does nothing but revolve around Edward, and even outright admits it. (Points for self-awareness, at least?)

That said, I have a character in my latest WIP who I fear may fall into that trap. Her name is Líadan, and she's the chief healer of Caer Celynnen, serving the Unseelie Queen of Faerie. But she is also the MC's love interest, and that is the first thing we learn about her. I'm currently seven chapters into the story, and Líadan has appeared in all of three scenes, all of which involve the MC in some way or another. The first two scenes have her directly interacting with him, while the third has her joining a rescue party to save him when he's kidnapped.

I've been looking for ways to flesh her out as a character beyond being in love with the MC, but it's proving difficult since she doesn't have the opportunity to move around much. Being the healer of Caer Celynnen, she has to stay there and work most of the time, while the bulk of the plot happens elsewhere around the MC. Even her (arguably) most important decision as a character hinges on her being a love interest, when she willingly follows the MC into exile rather than let him die in the forest alone. Unfortunately, this happens close to the end of the story, and is more about the culmination of the MC's character subplot than about her.

Any advice or thoughts about how I can give Líadan more page-time, and keep her from being completely focused on the MC, is very much appreciated.

 

[ThinkerX]

Her choosing to follow the MC into exile might indicate dissatisfaction with her life/status at the castle.

Have her get into a confrontation with another character there...and loose, over something not related to the MC. Something pertaining to her profession.

 

[Ireth]

Her choosing to follow the MC into exile might indicate dissatisfaction with her life/status at the castle.

Well, kinda. She's pissed that the queen would send the MC into exile for wanting peace between peoples, but more worried about the MC, who was sent out into the wild with nothing more than the clothes on his back -- not even a small knife to defend himself or hunt with. But as I said, this happens near the end of the story, and I'm more concerned about developing Líadan further way before then.

Have her get into a confrontation with another character there...and loose, over something not related to the MC. Something pertaining to her profession.

A confrontation about healing? That could take some thinking about, especially to make it relevant to the larger plot. She's the chief healer, and she's darn good at her job; it's not like she has any rivals in that area. Why is it so important that she lose there, other than to show she isn't perfect? She fails at other things, like finding her kidnapped love interest.

 

[Asterisk]

Really, the only thing that has come to my mind is 1) add conflict and 2) build for her a secretive or perhaps shameful past. Everyone has their own stories, their own past, and their own goals. Nobody can revolve just around one person. Bring in her own problems that conflict with the goal of the MC. Ask each of your characters, no matter how major or minor, the same questions you ask your protagonists. What are they trying to hide? What scares them? What is a moment they would relive, or chose to erase if they could? What, deep inside, do they really want, even if it could never happen? Remember that no character is 100% good or evil. Whichever side they lean on, they can twist the story and keep readers on the edge of their seats. Just make them unpredictable, with stoties of their own to tell. Every character has a novel.

I hope this rambling helps!

 

[ThinkerX]

A confrontation about healing? That could take some thinking about, especially to make it relevant to the larger plot. She's the chief healer, and she's darn good at her job; it's not like she has any rivals in that area. Why is it so important that she lose there, other than to show she isn't perfect? She fails at other things, like finding her kidnapped love interest.

Hmmm...

1) Lord So-and-so is a minor celebrity - quick with a racy song, quicker with the ladies, drinking and dicing through the night with his buddies. Work him into a few appropriate 'castle life' scenes. The other MC's like him. Lord So-and-so is a frequent patient of hers. She's told Lord-So-and-so to exercise, stop drinking, ect for a long while now. He didn't listen.

2) More through his fault than hers, Lord So-and-so drops dead one fine day. Maybe she tries to heal him, but his bad habits outdid her best efforts.

3) EVERYBODY blames her for the death of Lord So-and-so, including the MC's, flat out refusing to believe his health was that bad, that she botched it, ect.

She doesn't have to be a bad healer all the time, just be bad the once.

 

[Mara Edgerton]

Is Líadan conflicted about going into exile? I would be--especially if I were dedicated to my career in healing and had damn well earned all the respect I was given. Is there any possibility that she decides not to go into exile with the MC? That she says, "I love you, I want the best for you, but here is where our paths diverge?"

Even if she does decide to go into exile with her lover, you might want a couple of scenes showing her conflict and talking it out with others. There must be people trying to convince her not to give up everything for this fellow. In fact, this could also lead to an earlier scene: I think you can justify one that shows us how good she is and how much she loves her work, so that it's no surprise to see her conflicted about an exile later.

If I remember your story correctly, I think you can also add an earlier scene that focuses on her reaction to the fact that her lover has tortured another healer who had tried but failed to save his best friend. A scene from her POV--perhaps she discusses the matter with someone she trusts, other than her lover--would show us whether she was disgusted, horrified, blasé, inured to cruelty against non-fey . . . whatever. Better still if her reaction creates serious tension between her and her lover. Maybe she breaks it off, and he has to work to win her back.

Huh. These suggestions still revolve around her relationship with the MC--but I'm not sure that's possible to avoid. Your book is about your MC, his goals, and all the characters who make an impact on his story, after all.

 

[wordwalker]

I could well agree with Mara. If you have trouble applying some of the other complications to Liadan, and the character causes you to reference Bella Swann (no secret what that means to you), it could be you created someone you never really wanted around and the best thing the story can do is leave her behind. Or cut her out completely.

(Of course, maybe that moment of standing up for herself will convince you Liadan has potential after all, and she's forced along or has her own adventures meanwhile or when Liadan returns. But only if you get a better handle on her.)

 

[Ireth]

Really, the only thing that has come to my mind is 1) add conflict and 2) build for her a secretive or perhaps shameful past. Everyone has their own stories, their own past, and their own goals. Nobody can revolve just around one person. Bring in her own problems that conflict with the goal of the MC. Ask each of your characters, no matter how major or minor, the same questions you ask your protagonists. What are they trying to hide? What scares them? What is a moment they would relive, or chose to erase if they could? What, deep inside, do they really want, even if it could never happen? Remember that no character is 100% good or evil. Whichever side they lean on, they can twist the story and keep readers on the edge of their seats. Just make them unpredictable, with stoties of their own to tell. Every character has a novel.

I hope this rambling helps!

That gives me a lot to think about. Thanks!

Hmmm...

1) Lord So-and-so is a minor celebrity - quick with a racy song, quicker with the ladies, drinking and dicing through the night with his buddies. Work him into a few appropriate 'castle life' scenes. The other MC's like him. Lord So-and-so is a frequent patient of hers. She's told Lord-So-and-so to exercise, stop drinking, ect for a long while now. He didn't listen.

2) More through his fault than hers, Lord So-and-so drops dead one fine day. Maybe she tries to heal him, but his bad habits outdid her best efforts.

3) EVERYBODY blames her for the death of Lord So-and-so, including the MC's, flat out refusing to believe his health was that bad, that she botched it, ect.

She doesn't have to be a bad healer all the time, just be bad the once.

I'm not sure how to do something like that without it feeling really extraneous, honestly. A big problem is that the Fae aren't susceptible to illness aside from iron poisoning, which they're very careful to avoid. There's nothing iron or steel in Caer Celynnen at all, ever. They're metaphysical beings, all but demigods, so drinking and lack of exercise don't affect them as it does humans, either.

Is Líadan conflicted about going into exile? I would be--especially if I were dedicated to my career in healing and had damn well earned all the respect I was given. Is there any possibility that she decides not to go into exile with the MC? That she says, "I love you, I want the best for you, but here is where our paths diverge?"

Even if she does decide to go into exile with her lover, you might want a couple of scenes showing her conflict and talking it out with others. There must be people trying to convince her not to give up everything for this fellow. In fact, this could also lead to an earlier scene: I think you can justify one that shows us how good she is and how much she loves her work, so that it's no surprise to see her conflicted about an exile later.

If I remember your story correctly, I think you can also add an earlier scene that focuses on her reaction to the fact that her lover has tortured another healer who had tried but failed to save his best friend. A scene from her POV--perhaps she discusses the matter with someone she trusts, other than her lover--would show us whether she was disgusted, horrified, blasé, inured to cruelty against non-fey . . . whatever. Better still if her reaction creates serious tension between her and her lover. Maybe she breaks it off, and he has to work to win her back.

Huh. These suggestions still revolve around her relationship with the MC--but I'm not sure that's possible to avoid. Your book is about your MC, his goals, and all the characters who make an impact on his story, after all.

Well, there is a moment where she has to steel her nerves before packing her things and running out after him, but other than that she's 100% committed, no question. And there already is a scene where she talks with the MC about the death of his best friend, in which it's made clear she doesn't approve of the actions he took, and wonders whether he would have done the same if it had been she who failed to save her lover's friend. She couldn't have stopped him from torturing the other healer because he didn't tell her just what he was going to do or where he was going to do it. Likewise, she had no idea the friend was dead until the MC carried his body back to Caer Celynnen. I'm not sure about breaking off their relationship entirely, since Cadell has a plethora of other things to think about pretty much from page one, and devoting sufficient page-time to him trying to win her back would bloat the story significantly.

By the point in the story when the MC is exiled and she decides to follow him, he's gained the trust (though perhaps not the full forgiveness) of said healer as well as his family, so there's not much room left for conflict there. The humans are all for the truce being in effect, so it's not a case of them being nasty to Liadan, either. They don't want to bring anyone's wrath down on their heads for breaking the truce.

I could well agree with Mara. If you have trouble applying some of the other complications to Liadan, and the character causes you to reference Bella Swann (no secret what that means to you), it could be you created someone you never really wanted around and the best thing the story can do is leave her behind. Or cut her out completely.

(Of course, maybe that moment of standing up for herself will convince you Liadan has potential after all, and she's forced along or has her own adventures meanwhile or when Liadan returns. But only if you get a better handle on her.)

Yes, and that "better handle on her" is exactly what I'm trying to get. I know I sound repetitive, but the exile isn't what I'm worried about, it's the few hundred pages before that. There's not a lot of room for side-adventures between that and the defeat of the villain, it's all wrapped up in plot. I could theoretically involve Liadan in some of that, but there are problems there too.

Due to events prior to his exile, Cadell has access to the human settlement that Fae are normally forbidden from entering -- there are magical wards that keep Fae out, but Cadell has an enchantment put on him so he can enter and leave at will. (Comes in handy for his task as an emissary!) Unfortunately, Liadan has no such access, and so she can't be involved in anything that happens within the walls of the settlement. Cadell has it only because he was previously enchanted by the villain to be trapped inside the settlement, and the second spell had to be cast just so he could leave. There's more to it than that, but I won't get into that here.

tl;dr -- Liadan sometimes has difficulty in going where the plot goes, so it's hard to involve her in a lot of it prior to her and Cadell's exile.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't agree entirely about Bella, but setting that aside...

Do you write from Liadan's point of view? If so, how much do we get from her POV as opposed to the others? Having her as a POV character solves some of this problem, because readers will assign greater importance to her because of it. This also allows you to get into her head and let the reader know what she is thinking about. Her internal conflicts can be just as compelling as the external conflict going on and can take her out of the 'satellite' role.

 

[Ireth]

I don't agree entirely about Bella, but setting that aside...

Do you write from Liadan's point of view? If so, how much do we get from her POV as opposed to the others? Having her as a POV character solves some of this problem, because readers will assign greater importance to her because of it. This also allows you to get into her head and let the reader know what she is thinking about. Her internal conflicts can be just as compelling as the external conflict going on and can take her out of the 'satellite' role.

I haven't done so yet, but I plan to in the future. I hope it helps.

 

[Rinzei]

Related to ThinkerX's comment about conflict with her profession - rather than the confrontation being about her skill as a healer, what about her morals? For instance, what would the stance be on healing a wounded, captured enemy? There is a split among societies (and people within them) on whether the enemy should be tended to medically after they have been defeated. How would your character feel about this? Would she believe healing is her duty, regardless of whom it's for, or would she only heal her own? Would the society she lives in conflict with this moral view?

Perhaps another way of fleshing her out more is in relation to their exile - is the MC making all the decisions and she just agrees? Or does she get a say? Does he ask what she thinks? There may be some things in their exile that, while she is committed to being with him for it, she doesn't agree on some approaches he may take in things. Giving her her own voice and opinion rather than following whatever he decides might help her stand on her own. It may be a matter of demonstrating that, yeah, for a lot of the story she's been devoted to him - but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a mind of her own.

 

[Ireth]

Related to ThinkerX's comment about conflict with her profession - rather than the confrontation being about her skill as a healer, what about her morals? For instance, what would the stance be on healing a wounded, captured enemy? There is a split among societies (and people within them) on whether the enemy should be tended to medically after they have been defeated. How would your character feel about this? Would she believe healing is her duty, regardless of whom it's for, or would she only heal her own? Would the society she lives in conflict with this moral view?

I've been pondering that very idea myself, actually. XD It could be interesting to see what happens if she ever gets the chance.

Perhaps another way of fleshing her out more is in relation to their exile - is the MC making all the decisions and she just agrees? Or does she get a say? Does he ask what she thinks? There may be some things in their exile that, while she is committed to being with him for it, she doesn't agree on some approaches he may take in things. Giving her her own voice and opinion rather than following whatever he decides might help her stand on her own. It may be a matter of demonstrating that, yeah, for a lot of the story she's been devoted to him - but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a mind of her own.

With regards to the exile, there's no decision or discussion to be had. The Queen essentially says to the MC, "You killed this guy right after betraying my trust? I don't care what you have to say. Get out before I kill you." He of course runs for his life, getting lost in the woods, and in the meantime rumors spread through Caer Celynnen about what happens. Liadan hears them, and refuses to believe her lover is a murderer (which he isn't -- the killing was in self-defense). She packs her things and leaves to find him, without telling anyone else, including the Queen. Really, the only discussion Liadan has with the MC around their exile is where they want to go now that all's said and done, and she does get equal say in that. So that's something.

 

[Steerpike]

I haven't done so yet, but I plan to in the future. I hope it helps.

I think it will make a big difference, and just writing in that POV may well turn the story in ways that make her a more central character.

 

[Rinzei]

With regards to the exile, there's no decision or discussion to be had. The Queen essentially says to the MC, "You killed this guy right after betraying my trust? I don't care what you have to say. Get out before I kill you." He of course runs for his life, getting lost in the woods, and in the meantime rumors spread through Caer Celynnen about what happens. Liadan hears them, and refuses to believe her lover is a murderer (which he isn't -- the killing was in self-defense). She packs her things and leaves to find him, without telling anyone else, including the Queen. Really, the only discussion Liadan has with the MC around their exile is where they want to go now that all's said and done, and she does get equal say in that. So that's something.

I meant more of the sense of WHILE they are in exile, rather than going into exile - surviving in exile. I would imagine there are tough decisions on how to survive during their exile - what will they do, where will they go (as you mentioned), can they trust anyone, how will they make it? I would have thought they may have different views on how to proceed after the exile has happened. However, I don't know how much of this book will show the exile, or if it will be something that is explored more in a later book.

That said, there's nothing wrong with trying to flesh her out more in the next book - a new story means new conflict and new opportunities to overcome, after all.

Referring back to what you said about Liadan picking up and leaving to find him - how does the MC feel about this? Is he happy she left everything to come with him - or does he think she should have stayed and lived her life with her people, without him? It'd be a point of contention between them, but a good opportunity to show herself as strong by defending her feelings and actions, whether he agrees or not.

 

[Ireth]

I meant more of the sense of WHILE they are in exile, rather than going into exile - surviving in exile. I would imagine there are tough decisions on how to survive during their exile - what will they do, where will they go (as you mentioned), can they trust anyone, how will they make it? I would have thought they may have different views on how to proceed after the exile has happened. However, I don't know how much of this book will show the exile, or if it will be something that is explored more in a later book.

I have no sequel planned, so no, I won't go into detail about his exile. As for what happens during it, Cadell takes refuge in the human settlement, with Liadan lingering nearby but unable to enter. They have little time to think of what to do afterward, since the villain is still at large, and her havoc worsens every day. As for when she's defeated, the story ends soon after that, and I still haven't decided just what they'll do.

Referring back to what you said about Liadan picking up and leaving to find him - how does the MC feel about this? Is he happy she left everything to come with him - or does he think she should have stayed and lived her life with her people, without him? It'd be a point of contention between them, but a good opportunity to show herself as strong by defending her feelings and actions, whether he agrees or not.

He's grateful that she followed him, so there's no contention there. The line that clinches the situation, from Liadan's perspective, can be found in my signature. She's willing to give up everything she has if it means Cadell isn't alone.

 

[Chessie]

Any advice or thoughts about how I can give Líadan more page-time, and keep her from being completely focused on the MC, is very much appreciated.

Give her something to accomplish on her own? Maybe her own subplot which deepens the reader's perspective of her? She deserves to have more face time as the MC's love interest at least, right?