Love for the Little Guy

Our Main Characters get all the glory and all the love and not just in the book. When we discuss our stories, we usually talk about the MCs. When we're doing dishes or standing in line, we think mostly about what happens next to our MC. When we share writing tips and talk about character development, we tend to focus on how to make our MCs more real.

Our MCs can include the hero/heroine and, possibly, their love interest, as well as the antagonist. But what about the rest of the cast? Our MCs have friends, neighbors, parents, children, etc., that may or may not have roles in the story, and those who do need to be just as three-dimensional as our MCs.

These characters don't just give your MC someone to talk to while on the big adventure or someone to help her fight off the bad guy. A character's sole purpose in the book shouldn't just be to deliver a vital piece of information - if that's the only reason that character is there, find someone else who can do it. Just like every scene, paragraph and word, every character should serve more than one purpose. The more purposes a character has, the more memorable he becomes.

The best secondary characters have their own motivations and the best motivations somehow conflict with the MC's. Maybe they both have the same goal, but arguing about how they achieve it creates tension. Even better, maybe they agree on the same plan, but each hopes for a different outcome, possibly even an opposite outcome.

"Secondary characters can serve to amplify what is going on, of course, but they are more useful still when they disagree or produce friction with your main character or, even better, add unforeseen complications to the main problem." - Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel

In Fellowship of the Ring, the fellowship's main problem is to destroy the ring, but each member brings his own complication to achieving that goal. They each have different perspectives and motivations they bring to the quest. And they each serve multiple purposes throughout the series (even those who die early on!).

"Most interesting of all are secondary characters that have their own trajectory and outcomes, meaning subplots." - Maass He adds later about the importance of letting readers see the different sides of these characters, their complex motives and how they can surprise us.

The cast of Harry Potter is a gigantic one, but nearly every character serves multiple purposes, perhaps not in the same book but throughout the series. We also get subplots about Hermione, Ron, Luna and even Draco and Snape that add depth to these characters and the overall story. Would the story have been the same if Draco was always the one-dimensional bully? How did our thoughts and feelings about Dumbledore evolve after learning of his youthful aspirations? We probably still love - or hate - the character, but we see them in a different light and can appreciate their complexities, just like people in real-life.

Our MCs drive the story and as writers, we must project them as complex, real and relatable. But they aren't the only ones. Our secondaries might not play as large of a role, but they need just as much development as the MC. The best way to round out our secondaries? Know them nearly as well as we know the MC - at least as well as we know our best friends.

Need help getting to know your characters? I'm happy to share my character sketch worksheet that I've compiled using tips from Maass, Building Believable Characters and various tips I've garnered online. It's really detailed and you don't need to do the whole thing for every character, but it's especially helpful when you feel like you really don't understand a character or they seem to be feeling flat. Drop me an email at kristie (at) kristiecook (dot) com and I'll send it to you.

How much love do you show your little guys? What's the biggest struggle you have with creating fully rounded sidekicks and secondaries? What other examples of books with great seconds can you think of? How did the author round out all those characters?
 

The Plot Thickens...Into a Big Mess

Or you could call this when a pantser tries to plot. I used to be a pantser, or, really, a hybrid. With Promise and Purpose, I let the characters tell me the story, but I had an idea of where it was going and some of the major plot twists. I kept a notebook with scribbles so I wouldn't forget my ideas when the time came.

With the third book of the series, and probably the rest, however, I had to plot. Switching teams was a big step for me because it terrified me, but it turned out well. I finished the book, which I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do if I knew everything that was going to happen. (I've learned that the author, at least this one, never knows everything.)

I'm currently working on a novella and for a long time it had really been beating me down. I've known the story since I got a few chapters into Promise, so I wasn't worried about plotting or pantsing. I could tell you what happened in about five pages. But actually creating a story out of it has made me feel like I've done a round in the boxing ring. I tried to let the characters tell me, but with alternating POVs, I realized I needed a chapter outline. Then that wasn't even working. I still kept getting tied up. Then I did this:

I had to blur it up so you didn't see any spoilers. Also, note my reward for figuring this out. It's gone now. It tasted yummy.

This is the second half of the book. It looks like a huge mess, I know. But you know what? That's exactly what I needed. Although what's on this page is basically spread out on three pages elsewhere in nice, linear format and narration, I guess I had to see the pieces all together and how they fed each other.

This mess is kind of a mash-up of earlier note-scribbling-pantsing days and my more recent foray into outlining. I don't know. It works. And that's what we writers have to do with every single story we sit down to write. As I've learned, a successful method for one book might not be the right one for the next.

Have you ever had to turn your ways upside-down and inside-out? Or have you been able to find a single tried-and-true method that works for you? Do you ever get pages of notes that look like mine? Or worse? I do have worse. Maybe we can have a blog fest for messiest notes and outlines.

MarNo Fail?

I started March Novel Writing Month with an attainable goal: Write my novella or, at least, 40,000 words. Based on my past first-draft writing experiences, I thought it would be easy and I'd even be done ahead of time so I could go back and start rewriting Book 3. Ha! Man plans, God laughs.

Life went a little crazy. Day-job business got slammed. And then there was the horrible disaster in Japan and I couldn't just sit by and think, "I wish I could do something" when I actually could. So I poured myself into the Indie Author Relief Fund auctions. Not that I think God laughed at that - heavens, no! - but He did laugh at my original self-centered plans.

So, I didn't get the novella done. I didn't even get 40,000 words written. I DID get 33,296 words on the screen. Just a little shy of one goal, but far from the other (finishing). But with everything else I accomplished this month - things much more important than word count and release dates - I don't feel it's a fail.

The rest of the weekend, however, I'm doing a writing marathon. The house and the family are prepared. Housekeeping on blogs and Facebook is done - or at least as good as it's going to get. So I'm going offline and getting this story out of my head.

Did you do MarNo? If so, how did you do? Are you writing this weekend?