Shiny Things

bramble · Sep 24, 2008

I know that I have a tendency to chase shiny things. The latest sparkle to have caught my eye is "other characters".

Lets say your story intends to follow the MCs through a journey. Along that journey, other characters (good, bad, indifferent, unwashed) emerge from the murk.

Your MC interacts and learns something/runs in terror/makes a friend/catches fleas and then continues along. Here is where I'm getting distracted. Do/should these characters continue with their own lives and should I reveal those lives? If it helps, the story is not physically linear (i.e. journey is personal, not a long amble).

a. Yes, absolutely. Otherwise your story is a boring two-dimensional tale.
b. A few, but not more than a handful.
c. Only if their story will be instrumental to the MC later.
d. No. Unless their personal stories move the plot forward.
e. Huh? These aren't "real" people you nut!
e. You already have an 'e' in your list!
f. Only if you need more words in your finished product.

Deccydiva · Sep 24, 2008

a thru' d. All of them at once need to apply, IMO. Mine are woven in and out but they do form part of the plot/MC's journey.

TrickyFiction · Sep 24, 2008

I'd pick 'd', but with the understanding that no story should be sacrificed to a rule.
If it's right for the story, do it.

kct webber · Sep 24, 2008

a. Yes, absolutely. Otherwise your story is a boring two-dimensional tale

Not always.

b. A few, but not more than a handful.

As many or as few as the story needs.

c. Only if their story will be instrumental to the MC later.

Yup.

d. No. Unless their personal stories move the plot forward.

Yup.

e. Huh? These aren't "real" people you nut!

Your characters should be real people--otherwise you don't have good characters. Keep in mind, however, that this only really applies to MCs--at least as far as depth.

e. You already have an 'e' in your list!

True.

f. Only if you need more words in your finished product.

Never add fluff just to add to word count. Useful subplots maybe, but not fluff. Whatever subpots and characters you add should still move the story forward.

GLAZE_by_KyrstinMc · Sep 24, 2008

e+d+c+b+a

In that order.

tehuti88 · Sep 24, 2008

This is why my stories get so long, there are so many characters with so many interesting things to add! Of course, I do have to limit myself to what parts of their lives have a direct bearing on the main story itself...otherwise the reader would be scratching their head in confusion. I do know that if something has no real bearing on the plot I wonder, "What the heck is this doing here??"

I was watching some Jackie Chan movie the other day and he and the other main character (Chris Tucker, I think?) were singing and dancing to the song "War," and while it was a funny scene that made my mother laugh, all I could think was, what does this have to do with the plot?? It felt like filler to me.

Be careful not to make your characters into filler! If something shiny doesn't add to this story, you can always use it in another.

And you wouldn't want the reader blinded by too many shiny things.

*also tends to wander off after shiny things*

bramble · Sep 24, 2008

Hey thanks everyone. I was happy to have my main character meet and greet, but then I thought, hey, will it be weird if this/these characters come back later on and I haven't said anything about them in the time since the MC met them? Will a reader remember who they were?

Mr Flibble · Sep 24, 2008

Will a reader remember who they were?

Only if you made them memorable.

Ok granted this doesn't mean three pages of backstory for them all. But if they are distinct, evolved human beings, then yes, the reader will remember them.

Of course if they're just that guy on the train and he never pops up again, then no you don't need to tell his story. Even if he's more than that, you need to maybe know his story, but the reader doesn't need to know it unless he's a main sidekick or something. Even then, mystery can be good. As long as you do, and it seeps into his voice, all is cool.

For instance. I write fantasy. One of my minor characters is a bard. He is extremely nervous of men with swords / daggers / things with sharp edges. Why ? Because as he's based on someone I know, he's had a testicle stabbed off by a jealous husband. The reader doesn't need to know all that. All they need to know is the result of that experience -- he's afraid of sharp things.

bramble · Sep 24, 2008

Ahh. *The bulb lights*

I think the best thing to do is to continue the story. If some of those earlier characters pop up later and become important, I can go back and add in scenes that show how they progress in tandem to the MCs in the story.

AW writers are the best!

Phaeal · Sep 25, 2008

I can imagine an experimental structure in which the MC passes the POV baton, as it were, to the first "shinier" character he meets, who will pass it on to the next "shinier" character she meets, and so forth. But I doubt this would play well in a straight genre story.

Baton-passing could also work in a story that's not about any particular character but the milieu or theme. It could work in a story with an extremely long timeline, like some of Olaf Stapledon's, or one with intentionally scattered POVs.

I do think it's hard for many if not most readers to get into a book without at least one "through-character," and one whose journey matters on an emotional level. I'd suggest sticking pretty close to your MC unless you can make the secondary characters really matter to the overall point of the novel.

Shiny Things

bramble

Deccydiva

Back from the dead

TrickyFiction

Who?

kct webber

Squirrel, Sekrit type, 1 ea.

GLAZE_by_KyrstinMc

tehuti88

Mackinac Island Fanatic

bramble

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

bramble

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.