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mbarker.livejournal.comWriting Excuses 8.36: Transitioning Characters in Prominence
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2013/09/08/writing-excuses-8-36-transitioning-characters-in-prominence/
Key points: Main characters may fade into the background, while side characters grow in prominence. Your fans may be annoyed. How do you decide who to promote? Plot or character? You may do it to flesh out the character. You may want to do Anne McCaffrey style series, with several books in the same world, but with different main characters. Characters who have come to a natural conclusion don't need another arc artificially imposed on them. Also, there is a limit to how much you can do with one person's life and be believable. So look at your side characters, consider filling them out and making them interesting, and tell another story.
( Special Bonus: Hugo Thanks! )
[Brandon] Okay. That's right. What is our writing prompt? Well, it seems pretty obvious to me that your job is to take a minor character from a story you've already completed, somebody that seems shallow and not filled out, and tell their story. Make them as interesting as you can, perhaps even more interesting than the characters in the original story. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2013/09/08/writing-excuses-8-36-transitioning-characters-in-prominence/
Key points: Main characters may fade into the background, while side characters grow in prominence. Your fans may be annoyed. How do you decide who to promote? Plot or character? You may do it to flesh out the character. You may want to do Anne McCaffrey style series, with several books in the same world, but with different main characters. Characters who have come to a natural conclusion don't need another arc artificially imposed on them. Also, there is a limit to how much you can do with one person's life and be believable. So look at your side characters, consider filling them out and making them interesting, and tell another story.
( Special Bonus: Hugo Thanks! )
[Brandon] Okay. That's right. What is our writing prompt? Well, it seems pretty obvious to me that your job is to take a minor character from a story you've already completed, somebody that seems shallow and not filled out, and tell their story. Make them as interesting as you can, perhaps even more interesting than the characters in the original story. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
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