Don’t Forget Your Minor Characters!

Great tip from Jan 👍😃
BTW, I think the article mentioned is:
WRITER’S WORKBOOK: Secondary Characters “Stepping Up Your Sidekicks” By Elizabeth Sims
In Writer’s Digest February 2017

Writing your first novel-Things you should know

quote-respect-your-characters-even-the-minor-ones-in-art-as-in-life-everyone-is-the-hero-of-sarah-waters-43-27-03 I’m in the revision process with my novel and one of the areas I am focusing on is character development. When you hear character development, you usually think of main characters or supporting characters. Well my main characters do need some work, but for this particular blog I was talking about those ‘fly by’ characters that step into your novel, do what you want them to do, and then disappear never to be heard of again.

I received a critique a while back in regards to four minor characters in my novel. “A lot of new characters have been introduced, and they all run together in my mind. I think more time needs to be spent developing these characters as individuals rather than some generic group of friends.”

The lady that provided the critique was right. I didn’t provide any description of these characters. Except for the fact that they had names, you would have had no idea which one I was…

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2 thoughts on “Don’t Forget Your Minor Characters!”

If there’s room, and it matters, and it doesn’t disrupt the pace, then I agree with you. Side characters should be developed. The pace, however, should fall victim to a lengthy description of a character who is going to drop in and drop out after handing your main character an envelope, or to briefly discuss the fact that an alien craft from Proxima Centauri stopped by earlier looking for him.

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