When Supporting Characters Demand Revenge

gothicangel · Dec 20, 2009

I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream about my characters. Don't ask me why, but I awoke knowing that a supporting character needed to take a stronger role in the action.

It all makes sense now. He's always been more developed and stronger than other supporting characters, as though he's been demanding a more proactive role, but I've been ignoring him.

The problem is that I'm 50,000 words into the novel. My instinct is to finish the draft, then rewrite it with the character in his new role. Or should I rewrite now?

Anybody else experienced a character strong arm their way into the spotlight like this?

Sevvy · Dec 20, 2009

Finish the draft, but make notes to yourself what you will need to change in the revision when they come to you, that way you won't have to worry about forgetting them.

eqb · Dec 20, 2009

gothicangel said:
Anybody else experienced a character strong arm their way into the spotlight like this?

All the time.

One secondary character took over the series and rewrote the books to spotlight himself. I couldn't really argue, because he solved *all* my plot problems. Also, his version of the books sold.

This is not to say that all secondary characters should take over the current novel. Sometimes, you just need to promise them a book of their own.

gothicangel · Dec 20, 2009

You know, I've been struggle to write for a while, things have been very slow. This afternoon I was on fire!

Talk about the subconcious working overtime!

Kitty Pryde · Dec 20, 2009

I had that issue. Finished the first book, trunked it, and started writing a new novel for the minor character to have all to himself. He started off not even a secondary character, just a throwaway character, a bit of living scenery. But he wasn't having any of it.

Maxinquaye · Dec 20, 2009

My Sarah is like that. She's a supporting character, so she goes off an pouts and won't play until she gets a bigger scene. She's also 10, and there's no one that can pout like her.

Kalyke · Dec 20, 2009

Keep trucking through till the end. The re-writes will change things anyway. After you have given things time, the story will have ripened some.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Dec 20, 2009

Absolutely. My throw-away, just-passing-by character not only refused to be thrown away OR pass by, he demanded the starring villain role.

And took it.

Caitlin Black · Dec 20, 2009

A supporting character took over the second half of my book. And I've enjoyed writing her maybe more than the first character.

A supporting character in my saga had book 2 about her, and now I'm thinking I should rewrite the first book and make the entire saga about her.

I guess I'm just a sucker for cool chicks.

Maxinquaye · Dec 20, 2009

Yeah, Edward started out that way too, but after Michael it was just fun to write someone that wasn't so bloody uptight and controlled all the time. So, he sort of took over from another character I had in mind. Well, they're melded now, really. But my original MC was probably too weak anyway.

But Edward lets me write stuff like this, which is my first draft of the first paras in Love is the Devil.

Edward Jones sat perfectly still next to the social services woman who was writing something in a dossier, possibly some observed trivia about her charge's uncooperative silence on this journey.

He stared straight ahead; didn’t look out the window at the countryside that thundered past to the beat of wheel against railway joint, didn’t look out through the door into the passageway. He kept his eyes focused on a little screw on the fake panel wall of the cabin.

There was a wasp there, it walked around the screw, and the social services woman didn’t notice it. The insect took a few steps toward the woman, then returned to the screw, then moved back toward the woman.

For fucks sake, Edward thought, will you make your bloody mind up and sting the cunt so I can get some fucking entertainment?

kaitie · Dec 20, 2009

This happens to me all the time, too.

I also vote to just finish the draft but make note of what you want to change so you don't forget. Good luck!

Maxinquaye · Dec 20, 2009

Yeah, and the social services woman in the quote above... I wrote the first draft of the chapter tonight, and she didn't get back on the train as she was supposed to, and she's been suffering Edward's needling for hours now, instead of Edward getting to know the neighbours in preparation for the zombies... I think it's because I had Edward think the c-word up there.

She decided she was going to give that misogynist author some well-deserved pay-back.

Maxinquaye · Dec 20, 2009

kaitie said:
__________________
"I just open my mouth and words come out. They don't make very much sense."

And just because it's still awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

You've finally seen The Waters of Mars?

kaitie · Dec 21, 2009

Ellefire · Dec 21, 2009

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:
Absolutely. My throw-away, just-passing-by character not only refused to be thrown away OR pass by, he demanded the starring villain role.

And took it.

One of my characters did that, she started out as a sister of a secondary character, only brought in to relay the news of his death. But then she popped up later to stall the main characters because I needed them out of the way.

And then she turned psycho-bitch and torched the woman she held responsible for her brother's death. Which climaxed the book quite neatly.

kaitie · Dec 21, 2009

I haven't got much written on my newest work, but just in the planning stages it's turned out that the "main" characters I had intended are for the most part in the background, and the main four are going to be people I had considered not important at all before lol. Kind of amusing.

bearilou · Dec 21, 2009

Yeah, this has happened to me. I started my story as a fantasy romance and one of the mc's older brothers said 'yes, but wouldn't the story be much more interesting if you told it from my perspective?'

The youngest still gets his romance but it's now a side plot, having moved over for a larger plot arc involving the older brother. The novel, over all, working better now for it, too.

Lady Ice · Dec 21, 2009

gothicangel said:
I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream about my characters. Don't ask me why, but I awoke knowing that a supporting character needed to take a stronger role in the action.

It all makes sense now. He's always been more developed and stronger than other supporting characters, as though he's been demanding a more proactive role, but I've been ignoring him.

The problem is that I'm 50,000 words into the novel. My instinct is to finish the draft, then rewrite it with the character in his new role. Or should I rewrite now?

Anybody else experienced a character strong arm their way into the spotlight like this?

Yep- but this was in a play so it was easier to circumvent.

Pick out a few scenes which would be important to the supporting character's new role in the plot; and then test how he fares. Is he interesting enough to sustain the momentum of the scene? Does he have enoguh scope to build?
One of my supporting characters got a bigger role but I decided that he couldn't be the protagonist because he didn't have enough scope to develop.

Finish the first draft with the character in his original place. If you feel the story's really changed its entire direction with the character's new role, you ought to rewrite the whole thing with a new focus.

Sage · Dec 21, 2009

Not sure this is exactly the same thing, but in my NaNo novel, I had one non-main character whose POV I just adored. I stole her from that book (which is temporarily trunked) and gave her her own novel.

Jess Haines · Dec 21, 2009

I just wrote some short stories to feature the people I couldn't get enough of in the novels.

When Supporting Characters Demand Revenge

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Sevvy

Spec Fic Writer

eqb

I write novels

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

Kalyke

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

Caitlin Black

Wild one

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

kaitie

With great power comes

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

kaitie

With great power comes

Ellefire

Citizen Of Planet Random

kaitie

With great power comes

bearilou

DenturePunk writer

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.