Secondary Character Attempting Takeover – Must Be Stopped! Right?

In my WIP, my heroine has a sidekick in the person of an important, but secondary, character. Or maybe the secondary character has a sidekick who is also my heroine. I dunno. It’s getting pretty blurry.

Early on in my little 18th century world, Amelia (heroine) was a do-gooder minister’s daughter, too educated and too plain, a sort of activist firebrand who wearies everyone with her constant “meddling” in social issues. Always pestering people with subscriptions to charities or engaging in political debates which are “unseemly” for women. She’s mostly seen as an annoying crackpot. But she puts her shoulder to the plot and gets it moving.

As the story developed, however, I began to wonder if Amelia wouldn’t make a better secondary character while still advancing the plot with her actions. Enter Georgianna, a well-to-do merchant’s daughter, and grand-daughter to a Lady Someone-or-Other, as the new heroine. Sheltered, naïve, an only child suffocated by her overbearing father, she won’t say boo to a goose. Amelia is her best friend and brings Georgianna out of her small world by involving her in charity work. Georgianna meets the hero, Jack, through Amelia’s latest crusade and soon finds herself in over her head. At which point she comes into her own.

Now I’m looking at the entire story and seeing where Amelia would be the one more likely to go off on a crazy tangent with the hero. Especially as her politics are somewhat radical and she sees Jack as a romantic hero while her society sees him as a criminal. I like the idea that she’s “plain” because the exquisitely lovely heroine has been done to death. (I hate romances where the hero falls for the heroine because she’s indescribably lovely and bosomy, and she falls for him because he has nice eyes and washboard abs. Ugh.)

In short, Amelia looks to be staging a hostile takeover. I’m worried that Georgianna is too bland in comparison, and that logically, the reader would wonder why Amelia isn’t center stage. I like Georgianna as the heroine for many reasons, including how much she grows through her experiences, and how she goes from being a namby-pamby to a spirited woman. But Amelia could have an interesting track, too. Like being starry-eyed that this guy she thinks is so great could actually love a “plain” girl like her, to being humiliated at his betrayal, and learning to love herself regardless. Then bagging the prize when all seems lost!

But Georgianna’s perfect as the trusting heroine who’s bullied by her obnoxious father, threatened with an arranged marriage, and gets played by the manipulative hero, but wins out in the end. Lot of good challenges there. And not for nothing, the chick gets to wear elaborate Georgian gowns and stay in “the Chinese bedroom” at her grandmother’s manor house. You can’t beat that!

I can see Jack going for someone ballsy like Amelia, so I feel like I’m stumbling into the trap of having him falling "in love” with Georgianna just because she’s pretty. Her personality is so quiet and passive at the start, it's difficult to see what he sees in her. I’m even contemplating melding the two characters. Which would punch some biggish holes in the plot. Eeesh!

Has anyone had a subordinate character with more personality totally take over? Did it work out for the best? Or did you have to write a whole new book to accommodate him/her?

CEtchison, this is definitely food for thought! Maybe if I promise Amelia a whole book to herself, she'll let Georgianna keep this one! And I salute your for writing a series - that's got to be a great deal of hard work, but very gratifying when readers enjoy your world so much they want to come back for multiple visits.

SKStark, you and CEtchison are putting me to shame!

I'm totally intimidated with the idea of finishing one book, let alone a series. It's funny how people who don't write think that, when they feel like it, they'll churn out that novel they've been musing on for years in a couple weeks or months. They don't know what plain hard work some of it can be, and how much persistence and discipline it requires. I'm so impressed with people who can actually pull it off multiple times!

AriesWolf, thank you for your response!

It was very helpful, actually. It's odd how you hit on Georgianna being a captive listener to Jack's stories - he's a sea captain from New England. A smuggler and privateer, to be precise. My idea was that she's captivated by his adventures because she's been so sheltered and restricted. And also because he's such a straight up decent man, although for a while there she thinks he's a complete jackass. Because she's so fascinated by him, he finds himself confiding in her and discovers that, although he's leading her astray for his own purposes, he appreciates her empathy and warmth.

I had only thought he might fall more easily for Amelia because she's up for anything - she simply throws herself into anything she believes in and goes with it, damn the consequences. That's Jack's style. But there's no reason he couldn't admire Amelia (and maybe use her, knowing how she rolls) without falling desperately in love with her. Plus, there's a secondary male character that might just do for Amelia later if I gave her her own book.

Hmmmmm!

Lil, thanks for the book recommendations. I'll have to check these out!

CJSimone, sounds like you're having plenty of experience with uppity secondary characters! You certainly seem to take it in stride. I feel like a bomb has blown the entire plot to smithereens! I might work on an outline sort of thing to see how it might work to take the more interesting personality traits from one to the other to keep the plot more or less intact, and see how it works. Thanks for the suggestion!

Same as you, I'm able to write some characters better than others. Some seem to whisper everything in your ear while others can't be bothered to give you the time of day. As for gender, I seem to do better with the male's POV. Maybe because I have four brothers who included me in their battle reenactments and read stories of epic sea adventures to me!