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A trick for fleshing out members of an ensemble cast

I recently realized that one of my writing tricks is something I've never heard recommended, or even heard of anyone else doing. I figured I might as well post about it and see what people think of it.

Whenever I'm writing an ensemble cast, and one of the characters has less personality than the others, I flesh them out by writing one or two scenes as if they're the main character. I hand the perspective over to them, give them primary problem-solving duties, show their conversations with other characters, and so on and so forth. I may or may not use these scenes in the final draft, but the effort involved in figuring out what the character would and wouldn't do helps me in writing their actions throughout the story.

Have any of you ever tried this? How did it go?
 
It's a good technique.

If one of my characters doesn't have as much of a personality, I just kill them.

Come to think of it, I just like killing characters, especially when two "fan favorites" (fans being my Creative Writing class or my friends) fight and one of them dies. A girl in my class actually became quite sad over the death of her favorite character.

Her tears gave me strength.
 

Rob P

Minstrel
It's an interesting tip and something I might very well utilise when promoting a cast member further into the limelight. Generally I write characterisation maps for my protagonists and main characters attributing only basic information to those further down the pecking order, information such as build, looks, relationships, positive and negative drivers.

I think the idea of writing a scene for them once I have decided to use them more productively will flesh out a more solid characterisation map.

However, most cast members end up being lost as collateral damage to the whims of the main characters.
 

Jaredonian

Dreamer
I think this advice could be applied to any story, not just one with a large cast. Writing from your secondary or even tertiary characters perspectives, even if its not in the final draft of the book, can't do anything but help you flesh out the character and maybe find more interesting ways to tie them into your plots.
 

Nebuchadnezzar

Troubadour
I love this method and like to try it on, often as a self-imposed challenge. It helps me find out new things about the characters, but more than that it forces me to try to establish a different voice, especially if I write it in first person POV.
 

Guru Coyote

Archmage
I like this method too, and I think I unconsciously do it from time to time.

On the other hand... when I notice that a side character doesn't have enough personality (usually they have too much), I tend to ask: Does this character actually NEED to be here? Does he/she add anything significant?

Although by 'ensemble' I assume you mean that all members of the cast need to be there... for whatever reason.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Sure this is a great exercise. I have an ensemble cast for WIP, and before I wrote word one on the story, I wrote a blurb from the POV of each of my cast, giving their thoughts on the situation they were all headed into. It gave me a foothold on my characters.
 
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