Creating Memorable Secondary Characters

Who says main characters get all the attention?

Think of Dorie in Finding Nemo.

As a secondary character, she steals the show with her humor.

Rhino, the loveable hamster in Bolt, adds panache as he cheers for Bolt and becomes endearing to us in his own right.

How about Abu from Aladdin, the kids in Incredibles?

Who can forget the old lady with a shotgun in Ratatouille?

Or housekeeper, Minnie, from The Help?

Now, how can you create a secondary character that's loveable, despicable, memorable, hilarious, endearing, or infuriating?

Give your secondary characters a fascinating backstory.

Alley Cat Pepper suggested journaling from the perspective of my antagonist over a year ago. Since then, I've done so with a variety of other characters. Getting into their heads has definitely helped me write stronger secondary characters.

Make him/her sequel worthy.

You know you've created an in-depth secondary character when readers beg for a sequel from that character's perspective. One example would be Surrender the Dawn by Mary Lu Tyndall. I so desperately wanted to read Luke's story because he was an excellent secondary character with a lot of depth.

Give them a quirky trait, particularly as they are relating to your hero or heroine.

Any character who shows up more than once should have at least a few identifying traits.

Maybe the car repairman has a nervous tic and always shakes when he's signing the receipts.

Perhaps the doctor who has diagnosed your heroine's cancer always smiles when giving bad news. Its a nervous habit.

blackactors.net

If they are a more major secondary character, go even more in-depth with their personality.

Think of your secondary character who has the most major role in the story. Consider taking a few minutes to take an MBTI assessment on your most important secondary character. Interview your secondary character as if your his or her therapist.

The Book Buddy is a resource that has helped me increase the depth of my minor characters.

Think about motivations of this secondary character. Why do they do what they do? What are their needs? Do they have a "lie" they believe that affects the main character?

For instance, although we are each responsible for our own journeys perhaps mom believed a lie that she then "taught" to the main character during childhood. Main character has to unlearn this lie throughout her journey.

You don't have to include all these details in the story (in fact you probably shouldn't) but it can help you to understand their journey and to write more compelling scenes.

Don't forget the most compelling secondary characters don't need to be human.

Think of Dorie. Abu. The dog in The Accidental Tourist.

Pets can be believable and loveable companions to your character and have their own quirky traits.

Remember opposites attract isn't just true in romantic scenarios.

Sidekicks are often compelling and interesting because they have opposite personality traits to the main character. Think of movies with a "funny" sidekick. Danny DeVito has often played this role in the movies. These characters make us laugh. Even in the most serious books (I enjoy writing what my hubby likes to call women with issues fiction...though who among us doesn't have issues) we need a break for laughter.

A good secondary character is an emotion trigger.

Our main character typically isn't neutral toward a well-drawn secondary character. She helps draw out emotion from the main character.

For a great example of this, check out this post by Susan May Warren.

Do you have a favorite secondary character from the movies or books? Why is he or she your favorite? Or who is the most compelling secondary character in your story and why?

Julia enjoys writing women's fiction whenever she can find a chair free of smushed peanut butter sandwiches and lego blocks. She is a wife and homeschooling mama of two littles. She also enjoys reading and reviewing books for Library Journal, The Title Trakk, and Christian Library Journal.

The Four Types of Dramatic Tension – Part Two

In my last post I discussed the necessity of creating tension on every page of your manuscript. We learned that in the world of drama, there are four types of tension used to engage the audience:

1. The tension of relationships
2. The tension of the task
3. The tension of surprise
4. The tension of mystery

We then explored the first type of tension in-depth, using the bestselling novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett as our example. If you missed it, click here to catch up.

Today we’ll move on to the remaining three types of tension. Once again we’ll use Stockett’s novel for illustrative purposes. This is for two reasons. Firstly, because I want to demonstrate how even a “quiet” genre like women’s fiction can be made to crackle with tension on every page. And secondly, because it’s easy enough to pull examples of the different types of tension from any novel you could name – but it’s far more helpful to see how one author has incorporated the various tools into one book.

Because that’s the whole idea, isn’t it? – to vary the techniques we use to create tension, and then layer them one on top of the other in order to produce the most wildly compelling read possible.

1.             The tension of the task

Give your hero or heroine something to accomplish, then set obstacles in their way. A ticking clock adds urgency – so create a deadline for the protagonist to accomplish their goal.

In The Help, Skeeter’s central task is to compile a book of stories about the lives of black maids in the South. The author skilfully ratchets up the tension surrounding this task in incremental steps:

   -  An editor tells Skeeter she needs at least a dozen more women to participate in the project or she won’t be interested, but Skeeter has trouble persuading more than two maids to help.

   -  The editor wants the book finished as soon as possible in order to coincide with external political events. This puts Skeeter on a tight deadline.

   -  The women who eventually agree to share their stories are putting their lives at risk, a fact illustrated by a series of explosive racial events.

   -  Just as it’s looking possible for Skeeter to complete the task in time, the editor informs her that she will need the book a whole month ahead of schedule.

           2.             The tension of surprise

This tool is an invaluable fix for those sagging moments in your manuscript. A manuscript sags when it becomes predictable – when the reader feels they already know what’s coming, only it’s taking far too long to get there.

These are the moments you want to shake things up a bit and turn the reader’s expectations on their head. Often a surprise is used as a cliff-hanger at the end of a chapter.

Examples are:

- A plot twist we didn’t see coming.

- A new reveal of information.

- A shot of humor in the middle of a bleak situation.

- The appearance of an unexpected character.

- A crisis or major event that catches us by surprise.

- A character who does something unpredictable, even shocking.

Kathryn Stockett keeps us guessing throughout the The Help by springing several unexpected surprises. Here’s one example:

All the way through the book, Skeeter’s friend Hilly is on her case to include a racist “Home Sanitation initiative” in the newsletter Skeeter edits. Skeeter won’t do it. Then at the end of Chapter 21, after an explosive confrontation with Hilly, we see Skeeter finally typing the initiative:

“I place it on the second page, opposite the photo ops. This is where everyone will be sure to see it… All I can think while I’m typing is, What would Constantine think of me?”

End of chapter.

The reader is taken by surprise. This is the last thing we would expect Skeeter to do. It goes against everything we’ve come to know about her character. What is going on? Has she finally caved to the pressure? Will the antagonist, Hilly Holbrook, win out after all? This can’t be happening!

You can bet most readers will be flipping forward to find out what on earth has come over our beloved Skeeter. Of course, in the next chapter, the author has another surprise waiting for us as we learn what Skeeter is really up to.

4. The tension of mystery

A mystery is any unanswered question you place in your reader’s mind. These questions are what keep your readers turning pages. Often there is a central question or mystery that runs throughout a whole book, with the final reveal left for the climax.

The underlying mystery in The Help is the single question – what happened to Skeeter’s beloved maid Constantine? At the beginning of the story, Constantine disappears and Skeeter is told she quit. But Skeeter can’t believe that the woman who raised her from childhood would vanish without a word of farewell or a letter of explanation. It’s not until the end of the novel that we find out what really happened to Constantine.

Other, more secondary mysteries, are used to tease and draw us further into the story. What was the “Terrible Awful” that Minny did to her ex-employer? What is in the bottles Celia Foote hides in her closet? And why is there a bloodstain on the carpet of her bedroom, concealed beneath a rug?

The trick here is to tantalise the reader by raising questions and then not answering them straight away. It’s a delicate line to walk – you want to keep the thread alive by referring to it here and there so the reader doesn’t forget about it and lose interest; but you also don’t want to hold all your cards too tightly until the end, or the device can become irritating and you’ll frustrate the reader.

Some mysteries should be revealed along the way. With the central mystery, it’s enough to drop hints or clues so the reader feels some sense of progression and an increasing hunger to learn the truth.

So there you have it – the four types of dramatic tension.

Most of you will find you already use these four types of tension instinctively. But being aware of what you’re doing – and why – is the first step toward strengthening your writing. Perhaps you favor one type of tension at the expense of the others. Perhaps there are one or two tension-producing tools listed here that you know are lacking in your novel. Why not try to weave them in and create some extra layers of conflict in your story?

Let’s talk: What types of tension do you naturally favor, and which do you think you could use more effectively?

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after two small boys, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website, on Twitter or getting creative over at her mummy blog.

The Four Types of Dramatic Tension - Part One

 What is the number one rule of writing? Simply this:

Don’t bore the reader.

We all dream of writing novels that readers can’t put down. Stories so engrossing they cause people to run into stationary objects while flipping pages; plots so compelling that perfectly sensible adults will sacrifice sleep in order to read “just one more chapter”, even if it means falling asleep on their desk at work.

But how? Donald Maass, author of “Writing the Breakout Novel”, advises writers to inject tension on every page.

Easy if you write action thrillers, right?

Before all you romance-writers out there start to panic, hear this: “tension” doesn’t necessarily mean car chases, shoot-outs or even scenes where characters yell at each other. EVERY genre needs to be imbued with tension, even if it’s a quiet tension that crackles off the page.

In a former life, I used to teach drama to high-school students. In this role I learned there are four main types of tension used to engage an audience:

1. The tension of relationships

2. The tension of the task

3. The tension of surprise

4. The tension of mystery

I found this exciting because it applies so beautifully to writing, and it made me aware of a whole arsenal of tension-producing tools that I never consciously knew existed.

The secret is to vary your use of the different types of tension, because too much of any one thing becomes predictable and the tension is lost. (Anyone else ever fallen asleep in an action movie after the sixth car chase…?)

The other trick is to layer the types of tension one on top of the other to create the most compelling story possible.

To illustrate how one successful author has layered the four types of tension throughout her story, we’ll look at the bestselling novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Today we’ll begin with the first type of dramatic tension:

1.              The tension of relationships

This is a staple of romance and women’s fiction. Interpersonal conflict comes in so many shapes and forms that the possibilities really are endless. A good, meaty novel will contain layers of relationship conflicts – the heroine with the hero, with her mother, with the antagonist, with her children...

Of course, as mentioned earlier, this doesn’t mean you need to pen a string of shouting matches or have your protagonist argue with everyone she encounters. Once more, VARIETY is key, and often quiet tension is the most powerful and effective.

Let’s have a look at how Kathryn Stockett does this in The Help. There are a multitude of interpersonal conflicts in this book.

 -       Mother/daughter: Protagonist Skeeter wants to be a writer, but her mother is only interested in “fixing” her appearance and marrying her off. Added to this, her mother has cancer, so every negative emotion Skeeter feels is tinged with guilt.

-       Girl/guy: A reluctant dater, Skeeter eventually falls for a young man only to discover that his ideological views run totally contrary to hers.

-       Between friends: Skeeter disagrees with her friends’ treatment of their black maids, a stance which causes escalating conflict throughout the book.

-       Between an individual and a social group: Celia Foote struggles to gain acceptance into the local women’s clique, but is ostracised by all.

-       Between maids and their employers: Minny, a black maid, is fired by her white employer for using the indoor bathroom. Another maid, Aibileen, struggles with the harsh way her employer treats her daughter, Mae Mobly.

The tension of relationships is often shown through dialogue between characters, but also through subtext (the unspoken undercurrents beneath the dialogue – the things the characters DON’T say) and through snippets of internal monologue.

For my next blog post, I’ll be discussing the remaining three types of tension. Don’t forget to tune in to learn about the tension of the task, the tension of surprise and the tension of mystery!

Let’s talk: Does your WIP have tension on every page? How conscious are you of delineating between different types of conflict in your writing? Do share!


Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after two small boys, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website, on Twitter or getting creative over at her mummy blog.