Minor characters that unintentionally become central?

SarahHobson · Jan 9, 2012

Have you ever had a character meant for only one line or scene that, without your intended design, become much, much more? For example, I had a character meant only to be the lead singer of the band the MC went to see, and he suddenly became this huge important character (no, not in love with the MC ;P) and I love writing him. This happened with two others in the same book.
Am I the only one?

TamaraLynne · Jan 9, 2012

yes

but for me they are kinda cameo but made interesting enough to fit into another book. I've got stories already brewing in my head on my very interesting cameo characters.Guess I can't really call them cameo anymore..

CAMueller · Jan 9, 2012

I've had a supporting character who I love writing. As the plot progressed he organically became more integral. I hadn't intended for him to factor in the key plot points, but the guy has a will of his own.

lordzapharos · Jan 9, 2012

Yes! There was a character whose sole purpose in my story was to be nasty, so I could highlight the main villain's better traits, and then I realized how much more he could really be. Though he's not important in that story, his complexity inspired me to write a sequel in which he was the main character. In fact, his influence allowed me to break out of writer's block, during which I changed 90% of the original manuscript.

Just like you described, two of my "minor" characters became central to the plot. So central, in fact, that I had to expand my single novel into a trilogy to accommodate them. Don't you just love it when your story seems to evolve on its own?

Rise2theTop · Jan 9, 2012

Yep! Happened on my last work, worked it to the end, and he's my MC in my current WIP. I love this guy! He's a bad boy, but oh, so good!

JMEM · Jan 9, 2012

You bet! In my current WIP series, my MC used to have a best friend and a "long-lost" half-sister. The half-sister didn't really come into play until the end of book 3, and played a pretty minor role in book 4.

Then, I wrote a scenario where both the best friend and the half-sister were about to be reunited with my MC after nearly 20 years apart. At this point in my drafts, the half-sister had never met my MC, and I found her perspective really interesting. I had to write more of her.

The more I wrote, the more I also discovered that the best friend of my MC was very similar to the LI. So I decided to combine the best friend and the half-sister, into one whole sister of my MC.

Now she's a super-major part of the series. She adds an interesting aspect to my MC (I think so, at least), and I enjoy writing their relationship.

Rhubix · Jan 10, 2012

yepper, me too

In draft 1-2 of a fantasy journey type story I went from what I thought was the main character's point of view. By the end of draft 2 I realized it wasn't his story at all, and if I shifted to the pov of the best friend the story was 1000 times better.
Draft 3 became draft 1 of an entirely different-- and much better-- story.

Now, if only I could figure out where my current wip starts....

Buffysquirrel · Jan 10, 2012

I think this happens a lot. I had a sprinkling of minor characters who kept interfering with my MC at different times, and suddenly it occurred to me I could make them into one character. So far he's stopped my MC beating up the Emperor's son, kept him from killing a henchman of one of the antags because he might be useful later, tried to seduce him, and caused him to kill someone on his own side to protect him. Busy guy.

Storyteller5 · Jan 10, 2012

I love when my characters move on their own and I get surprised by things like minor characters stepping up more than I expected.

Bufty · Jan 10, 2012

Absolutely - it's wonderful when a character forces himself to the front and demands a greater role.

And even better when such a character gatecrashes his way into the scene.

Lseeber · Jan 10, 2012

Actually yeah, that has happened to me before. Actually one of my supporting cast ended up being the murder in the mystery. It just fit so well. Then the fun came when I had to go back and insert clues for the reader to find leading to the character. Sometimes a story can really surprise you.

Laura

elindsen · Jan 10, 2012

It seems a lot of my charcters do this. Like in every book lol.

Let's start a club

Buffysquirrel · Jan 10, 2012

elindsen said:
Let's start a club

Okay, but you realise it'll end up being run by someone who wasn't even in this thread.

Taytortots · Jan 10, 2012

This happened to me recently, and I'm still not sure quite how.
A man was supposed to be my MCs guide for not even a page and suddenly he was someone important from her past (she doesn't remember him, too young).

Nephytis · Jan 10, 2012

this has happened to me as well. the first book i ever finished in fact. the princess of the kingdom where the MC comes from was not supposed to have her own story line, and it erupted as such once i started writing her character. it was pure accident, but i love her more than her idiot brother, the MC of the first book, and the MC of the entire series who gets a small part in the first book. She just took off and grew in her own way, and because of that that series went from being not just one book but the outlines of about 4 books that i still need to sit down and write. (this is what comes of my vivid imagination).

i've found when reading other people's works that their supporting characters are better than their MC sometimes. It's easy to feel for the MC but the enigma's and the side characters are worth the adventure, and they make the story so much more interesting than what it probably intended to be before they were written.

Coco82 · Jan 11, 2012

This has happened to me multiple times as I write my WIP. What'll happen w/mne is a character will come to me, maybe a name or a position they have and then as I develop them, what may have been meant to be a small character end up being bigger. I may think oh he can do this or be involved w/so and so as it turns out. My WIP will in the end have big cast and probably be the start of a series so it gives me a lot of room to work in. I do like though when that happens. I have one character, a small character I was going to kill and he's developing as kind of a protege of one of the largr characters.

Broadswordbabe · Jan 11, 2012

Buffysquirrel said:
Okay, but you realise it'll end up being run by someone who wasn't even in this thread.

LOL.
Oh, yeah. Someone who was just supposed to be a source of information for one scene, who appears to have turned in to a major series character.

We're in good company. Apparently Tolkien didn't know who that dodgy Strider fella in the Prancing Pony was going to be when he turned up...

Diana W. · Jan 11, 2012

Yep I've got my own story on that one. I created this female character who was supposed to bring my MC, Toby, into conflict with his antagonist. She wasn't supposed to be bad, just be in one scene. She ended up befriending Toby, and then moved in on his best friend. Talk about overachieving!

SarahHobson · Jan 11, 2012

Buffysquirrel said:
Okay, but you realise it'll end up being run by someone who wasn't even in this thread.

I LOL'd ^_^

Broadswordbabe said:
We're in good company. Apparently Tolkien didn't know who that dodgy Strider fella in the Prancing Pony was going to be when he turned up...

Cool! I love knowing things like this!

I'm so happy to know I'm not the only one. When I try to describe this phenomena to friends who don't write, they often look at me like I have two heads. "Yeah, Ty was only supposed to have one line, and he became this huge important character! He practically wrote himself into the book. I'm now outlining a whole book starring him!"
Though, perhaps it's the "he wrote himself" comment. Yes, I can almost hear my characters sometimes, but not in the "I hear voices way", in the "Oh, so-and-so would react this way way", like the way you know how a good friend would react to something.

SBibb · Jan 11, 2012

Buffysquirrel said:
Okay, but you realise it'll end up being run by someone who wasn't even in this thread.

LOL

Yep.

But yeah, that's happened to me, too. I have to watch out that they don't steal the show, though. Luckily, for this story it wasn't so bad, since my fiance technically did the plot and I wrote from that, as well as it being in first person. However, before this story, I wrote a NaNoWriMo story in which a charater introduced halfway through the story became integral.

Though I shelved that novel, the same character has made a personality reappearance in the novel I'm working on now, with many similar traits. Granted, right now he's been cameo, but he becomes a lot more important in book 2. (And if I ever write that book about him, he'll be the main character).

zegota · Jan 11, 2012

A minor foul-mouthed soldier I introduced mainly to entertain myself is now the Red Queen, ruler of the entire kingdom.

swvaughn · Jan 11, 2012

All the freakin' time...

Dang upstart characters. Always stealing the show.

Coco82 · Jan 11, 2012

SarahHobson said:
I LOL'd ^_^

Cool! I love knowing things like this!

I'm so happy to know I'm not the only one. When I try to describe this phenomena to friends who don't write, they often look at me like I have two heads. "Yeah, Ty was only supposed to have one line, and he became this huge important character! He practically wrote himself into the book. I'm now outlining a whole book starring him!"
Though, perhaps it's the "he wrote himself" comment. Yes, I can almost hear my characters sometimes, but not in the "I hear voices way", in the "Oh, so-and-so would react this way way", like the way you know how a good friend would react to something.

ICAM. I have a friend who writes who I discuss these things with, non-writers don't get it though how a character can take over and become bigger. It's funny how characters and their connections come to us this way. Just the other night these 2 characters I've been developing has turned out they have a long history and they'll be bigger in the story.

Marzipan · Jan 11, 2012

Ughh. This happened to my story a few days ago. My main character wasn't working out and was unfathomably passive. Through the plot he was set up to talk about his brother who had run away to Las Vegas to become a renowned tiger tamer. The more I wrote from the younger brothers perspective, the more I wanted to run away to Las Vegas too.

To fix the problem, I switched to the older brother and made him the MC (only a younger), and cut the younger brother's age in half. It helped the story become much stronger.

CAMueller · Jan 11, 2012

SarahHobson said:
When I try to describe this phenomena to friends who don't write, they often look at me like I have two heads.

I've been informed I talk about my characters like they're real people. I think that's a good thing.

Minor characters that unintentionally become central?

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