I've got my main characters. I'm pretty happy with them. I have sketched out their appearance, traits, backstories, and so on. However, no man is an island, as the saying goes (he's a peninsula), and all MCs need buddies. Secondary characters.
I have these as well, but I'm still in my phase of trying to get a handle--for myself, at least--on When to Start Writing. That is, when I've done enough character development to feel confident about diving into the writing of the novel itself.
I fully understand that for many, they dive when they're ready to dive and don't need any objective measure. I'm not sure I do either, nor am I sure any objective guideline isn't merely illusion. I do know that on all my previous novels I came to a point where I wished I had done more planning. So I'm doing more planning.
Which brings me back to these secondary characters. How much character development do I do here? The easy answer is, less than for MCs, but that's not really much help. Moreover, there's an aspect to secondary characters not found in MCs; namely, the relationship to the MC. Why did this secondary join up with the MC? Also, secondary characters are a way to add shading or contrast to the MC. Depth. Someone to argue with or agree with or sacrifice for.
As I work on the SCs for each of my MCs, I am finding the process keeps me looking back at plot but also at theme. I don't think it's necessary, or even wise, to try to map out every place where an SC steps onto the stage, what he does while there, and so on. But likewise not to look at it at all risks having an SC who is a cardboard cutout who merely serves a plot point but is otherwise flat. The story deserves better than that.
Finally, there's one other aspect unique to SCs: how secondary are they? How iimportant are they and are they really secondary or maybe just tertiary? I might picture a character being a good friend to the MC, yet as the story plays out, he doesn't really have much to do. Much of that's going to be organic, but it's another reason to pay some attention to the SCs up front, to see if there's room in the story for them.
Anyway, that's where I'm at now, finally able to talk about it at least somewhat coherently, and wondering what thoughts others might have about secondary characters in the pre-writing stage.
I have these as well, but I'm still in my phase of trying to get a handle--for myself, at least--on When to Start Writing. That is, when I've done enough character development to feel confident about diving into the writing of the novel itself.
I fully understand that for many, they dive when they're ready to dive and don't need any objective measure. I'm not sure I do either, nor am I sure any objective guideline isn't merely illusion. I do know that on all my previous novels I came to a point where I wished I had done more planning. So I'm doing more planning.
Which brings me back to these secondary characters. How much character development do I do here? The easy answer is, less than for MCs, but that's not really much help. Moreover, there's an aspect to secondary characters not found in MCs; namely, the relationship to the MC. Why did this secondary join up with the MC? Also, secondary characters are a way to add shading or contrast to the MC. Depth. Someone to argue with or agree with or sacrifice for.
As I work on the SCs for each of my MCs, I am finding the process keeps me looking back at plot but also at theme. I don't think it's necessary, or even wise, to try to map out every place where an SC steps onto the stage, what he does while there, and so on. But likewise not to look at it at all risks having an SC who is a cardboard cutout who merely serves a plot point but is otherwise flat. The story deserves better than that.
Finally, there's one other aspect unique to SCs: how secondary are they? How iimportant are they and are they really secondary or maybe just tertiary? I might picture a character being a good friend to the MC, yet as the story plays out, he doesn't really have much to do. Much of that's going to be organic, but it's another reason to pay some attention to the SCs up front, to see if there's room in the story for them.
Anyway, that's where I'm at now, finally able to talk about it at least somewhat coherently, and wondering what thoughts others might have about secondary characters in the pre-writing stage.