![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerWriting Excuses 13.11: Writing Secondary Characters, with Charlaine Harris
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2018/03/18/13-11-writing-secondary-characters-with-charlaine-harris/
Key points: Secondary characters can be very rich. Make them interesting and vivid, and use them again, later on! Create a character when you need them, and they have a function, but make them multidimensional and interesting. Use the interaction with the main character, and what the protagonist tells us about them, to make the secondary characters come to life. Contradictions, and life outside the story, help make a character rich. Beware flanderization, turning a character into a quirky caricature. Change who they are, give them new problems and obstacles, kick them out of their rut. What are their goals, and what are their failure modes? If the secondary character starts to be more interesting than the main character, you can kill them, or you can complete their arc. Or you can change what they want, dial down their want, and dial up the main character's stakes. What does the character really want? What are they striving for? What do they need more than anything else in the world? Keep those in mind, and your secondary characters will do the work they need to do.
( No small parts, only small actors? )
[Brandon] We are out of time. This has been awesome. I'm going to give us some homework. Because I thought it would be very interesting to force you to take something you have written already, and take the protagonist and make them a secondary character, and make the secondary character the protagonist of a different story. Make your main character fade to the background, make one of your secondary characters come to the front, write a new story doing that.
[Dan] Cool.
[Brandon] I want to thank Charlaine. Thank you so much.
[Charlaine] Oh, thank you for inviting me.
[Brandon] I want to thank our audience at GenCon.
[Whoo! Applause]
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2018/03/18/13-11-writing-secondary-characters-with-charlaine-harris/
Key points: Secondary characters can be very rich. Make them interesting and vivid, and use them again, later on! Create a character when you need them, and they have a function, but make them multidimensional and interesting. Use the interaction with the main character, and what the protagonist tells us about them, to make the secondary characters come to life. Contradictions, and life outside the story, help make a character rich. Beware flanderization, turning a character into a quirky caricature. Change who they are, give them new problems and obstacles, kick them out of their rut. What are their goals, and what are their failure modes? If the secondary character starts to be more interesting than the main character, you can kill them, or you can complete their arc. Or you can change what they want, dial down their want, and dial up the main character's stakes. What does the character really want? What are they striving for? What do they need more than anything else in the world? Keep those in mind, and your secondary characters will do the work they need to do.
( No small parts, only small actors? )
[Brandon] We are out of time. This has been awesome. I'm going to give us some homework. Because I thought it would be very interesting to force you to take something you have written already, and take the protagonist and make them a secondary character, and make the secondary character the protagonist of a different story. Make your main character fade to the background, make one of your secondary characters come to the front, write a new story doing that.
[Dan] Cool.
[Brandon] I want to thank Charlaine. Thank you so much.
[Charlaine] Oh, thank you for inviting me.
[Brandon] I want to thank our audience at GenCon.
[Whoo! Applause]
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
