making minor characters more real

To me it's all about identification and sympathy. Readers want to connect with your characters--all the important ones. Sounds like your minor characters are important, just as much as the main character.

Give them traits that people identify with, flaws--that creates sympathy as well. When people can read the character and see a bit of themselves in her, they'll be more willing to continue reading, and care about what happens.

Chances are, since the MC is the focus of the story, they'll care about her the most. But it never hurts to make the minor characters sympathetic. You can do that SO MANY WAYS: giving them likable, admirable traits; giving them understandable flaws (which we all have); putting them into a difficult situation; making them physically attractive or horribly ugly...lots of things. Orson Scott Card talks about them in his book Characters and Viewpoint. Very good book.

They can still be interesting and only float in when needed. Don't try to tone them down... let them jump off the page. The only time they will overshadow your MC is when you let them have more page time than your MC.

I often have a hard time differentiating minor chars from MCs. Everyone is there for a reason, and none of the characters should be flat. Then you have to deal with the natural progression of things, during which minor chars sometimes become MCs. It can get pretty crazy. Hell, I have six povs in the first novel of my series, and by the end of four books, I will have used ten. People tend to like the more eccentric side chars the most anyway. I loathed Frodo in LotR. The other chars made it for me.

You have to be able to visualize your side characters, which may require using a template. In other words, picture someone who has played that "role" in another book, movie, or someone you've known.

Real people have dimension, quirks. And when you're in a room, you might size them up - doesn't have a life, and tries to live vicariously through others- socially awkward, says the stupidest things at all the wrong times.

So, if you can picture your characters, you might have them say and do something unexpected, or even terribly predictable, if that's who they are.

And so, you are rolling your eyes in grief while writing their lines. And the readers are rolling their eyes, because they "know" them.

When I write new characters, however minor, I see them from two points of view: what they add to the main story (obvious for minor chars), and what they own story is. Imho any character, to feel real, has to have his own personality and goals. For example, your MC's boyfriend shouldn't be there only as her boyfriend - he surely has his own personality, wants different things, and the way his wants meet those of your MC can create a subplot or interesting conflict or simply make their interaction more real.

I can't quite remember who said that no secondary character thinks of himself as secondary - in his mind he's the MC living his own story. And if you think about it, that works in real life too.

I understand what you're saying about your MC ending up overshadowed - but if she's your POV character that shouldn't be a problem, it's a matter of screentime after all. She could actually be enriched by the other characters' complexity - because everything is related in a story.

Try giving those characters something that isn't entirely in the MC's sphere - either a quest of their own or a personal issue they must overcome, a troubled past, a reason for being there at all. Maybe you already did this, I dunno, but however simple it may sound - making them interesting is just that, making them interesting people beyond their story-fulfilling roles. And I don't mean superficial quirks that only seemingly define them - I mean complex personalities and stories of their own. They shouldn't overshadow the main stuff if you keep it simple (no need to throw in all the backstory you have - simply knowing your characters will subtly change the way you write them).

Sorry if this is useless - just my 2 cents. I love minor characters myself, mine are always weird (even weirder than my MC, who is more 'subtle' - in fact it's the weirdness that makes writing them easier for me). But I never let their story unravel completely from past to future - the emphasis is on how my MC changes them, and viceversa, how he influences (and sometimes brings to a closure) their destiny. And they almost never get their own POV scenes (unless they threaten me with death). Hope that helps a little, and good luck.

Even minor characters must have dimension. If your main characters are strong the minor characters won't overshadow them. If you think of the people around you, there are people that figure prominently in your life and those who don't. Your immediate family are like fully fleshed out main characters. Maybe some of the people you work with are like minor characters. Like the pain-in-the-butt 'I'm always right so don't argue with me' types, or the bore who has to tell you all about their problems at home or lets their bratty kids run all over the office. They don't figure very much in your life but you can make them come alive when you describe them to your friends.
Linnea

Azraelsbane said:

People tend to like the more eccentric side chars the most anyway. I loathed Frodo in LotR. The other chars made it for me.

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Alright...seriously, it's getting kind of freaky. Are you sure we aren't related?

WittyandorIronic said:

Alright...seriously, it's getting kind of freaky. Are you sure we aren't related?

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You and Voyager are both scarily similar to me. Maybe the three of us were triplets separated at birth?

My minor characters tend to be more quirky than my MC, because they get limited "screen" time. If they're not there to add humour or fear or something important to the story, then I have no excuse for letting them stay. So they do tend to be somewhat colourful for the pages they make an appearance.

All your characters, major or minor, should be real.

Wraith said everything I was going to say.

How much do you know these secondary characters? Even when they just float in, there should be a sense of their personalities with an occasional hint about their desires, interests, habits, quirks, baggage, what-have-you.

And their goals and perceptions certainly can and sometimes do conflict with the MC's. Makes for great conversations.

qdsb said:

How much do you know these secondary characters? Even when they just float in, there should be a sense of their personalities with an occasional hint about their desires, interests, habits, quirks, baggage, what-have-you.

And their goals and perceptions certainly can and sometimes do conflict with the MC's. Makes for great conversations.

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Rule

#1: Every character in your story thinks he or she is the main character.

#2: They all have a life before the story starts and a life (if they're not dead) after the story ends

Try rewriting a scene or two from your minor character's perspective. You don't have to include it in the final version of your novel, but you'll get a better picture of your character as you continue to write that will translate onto the pages without much effort.

Nicole

I have a minor character who is so lively he's taken over a chapter, and I'm scrambling to make the MC stand out. For some reason this person started chatting away and wouldn't shut up, whereas my MC is a quiet sort, not given to much talking. I'm not sure what to do about that, as this is the first chapter in the story.

I had that happen to me. I actually 'fixed' it by having my MC engage in a very smart-alec internal dialogue that ended up revealing more about her than the chatty SC who ended up getting killed two hundred pages later.

It also made for an extremely funny chapter. Don't know if that helps, but there you have it.

I think the problem in part is in the term "minor" character. It sounds like you aren't talking about "minor characters". There are main characters, secondary characters and tertiary characters in a novel. Your secondary characters should have a fairly good amount of development because they shouldn't just be there to be "quirky" but should in fact carry a good deal of the plot and make a contribution to the story. If they don't you should get rid of them.

However, if they overshadow your main character, maybe your main character needs work or you should change main characters.

Some of the personalities in your minor characters can actually tell you something about your main character. For instance, the MC's boyfriend. There could be something about him that the MC really likes. What does this "like" say about her? That's something that can be unsaid in the story or just shown through action. What we like about people in the real world says a lot about ourselves so why not in stories. After all, we are trying to make these fictionalized characters seem more like real people in a real world aren't we?

Go with that. Showing more personality, likes and dislikes won't overshadow the MC at all. The MC has the POV spot light so giving the other characters more realism will only help the story seem like it really happened or could happen.

Amber

mscelina said:

I had that happen to me. I actually 'fixed' it by having my MC engage in a very smart-alec internal dialogue that ended up revealing more about her than the chatty SC who ended up getting killed two hundred pages later.

It also made for an extremely funny chapter. Don't know if that helps, but there you have it.

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Smart-alec won't work for the MC, or for me. I can't write funny without sounding forced. At least I can't when I'm trying to be funny.And I haven't pegged the main characer yet. I know what his main conflict is, and it's enough to drive him through the story, but he just ain't talking to me so far.

The reason the minor character is so talkative is that I need him to lay down a lot of the background, and he does that very well.

The only reason I've ever seen secondary characters steal the stage from the MC is becasue the MC is underwritten. Usually this is a problem when writers try to make their MC too likeable rather than riveting.

When I see this sort of problem, the usual diagnosis is that the MC is too flat. A good MC can hold the stage no matter how overinflated everyone else gets.

I sort of disagree

Characters are just characters. Each moves in and out of focus before dying. The MC carries the storyline along as she or he collides with other characters who, in this instance, are mc (minor character) but is a MC in their own story. The MC just happens to become a mc in the mc's story where she is the MC. The point of collision of two characters becomes a scene. WHo you follow becomes the MC. The other is relegated to being a mc to you, but is a MC to the authors following him.

The function of being a Main or a minor is a function of focus. Characters are both, depending on the story being told and the focus of the manuscript.

Confusing? Good, my job is done.

What a fabulous thread! I had just gotten this critique of my minor characters - that they were too flat - and am currently going through my book to liven them up a bit. Thanks, everyone, for the input and suggestions! And kudos for starting this thread, mirrorkisses! Serendipitous timing!

maestrowork said:

Rule

#1: Every character in your story thinks he or she is the main character.

#2: They all have a life before the story starts and a life (if they're not dead) after the story ends

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Uh, maestro--Forgive my overanalysis...Did you quote me as a correction of what I said or as elaboration? Just wondering...ok, obsessing.

Maass

Donald Maass, in Writing the Breakout Novel, has some great advice about minor characters. Some of it has been echoed in this thread, but still -- excellent book. Along with On Writing, it's the best I've read on the craft because Maass gives a lot of great examples to go with his advice.

I try to give each character something unique to bring to the table, minor or otherwise.
Typically in my stories my readers find a minor character they really love.
In the first novel it was the great aunt of my MC. almost everyone who read it loved her. she was an eccentric old lady with a great back story, quirky habits and something significant to say.
In the second, it's the tag along best friend who is an incredible smart ass, but becomes so much more as the story evolves.
they are flawed and odd, but they are genuine.
If you are wondering how to make them more interesting, you have to give them qualities that characterize what you need them to be for your story.
characterization: one of my minor characters rehearses everything. If she has to confront someone, she rehearses it first. my MC (from his POV) hates this about her.
also from his POV, another minor character, his mother, is a drunk june cleaver. She calls him "dear" (which drives him crazy) all the while she is drunk and depressed and on a wicked downward spiral. Even in desperate times she has an "ideal" she feels she must uphold.
Those things not only bring across what they are in reference to the story, but give insight into their personalities, and move the story forward. they are interesting characters because they contribute to the plot, they have habits and personalities that create or help resolve conflict, and they have traits of people we all know.
How the MC or POV character sees them is really the place your minor characters become real, at least to me.