Creating a quality supporting cast

When we are planning our novels, we naturally give more time to creating our protagonist(s) than we do to any other characters. This makes sense, but we also shouldn’t forget that our supporting cast are important too.

Some characters might appear in your novel only briefly, but if they are important enough to be included in it at all, they should be important enough to give some proper thought to. They are unlikely to need as much depth or time spent on them as your main characters, but a poorly-written supporting character can still have a significantly detrimental effect on your book.

It can be tempting to see some supporting characters purely in terms of how they help the plot. This is definitely something to think about, but if you are just using them as a plot device, it will probably be obvious that that’s what they are. Of course, they might well be there with the aim of making something happen to progress the plot, but they still need to feel natural and believable rather than forced.

How much depth your supporting characters require will depend on the role that they play in the story; the ones who have a larger role to play will obviously require more time spent on them making them believable, well-rounded characters. For the smaller parts, you might only need a couple of characteristics or aspects of them to make them work for your story.

It’s also worth remembering your supporting characters – they might not have much to do now, but they could become important in the future. Sometimes they can change the entire book you were planning to write as they become more interesting than what you were originally planning to do. Also, particularly if you are writing a series of novels, a character with a minor supporting role in one book could be good material for a major role in a future book.

What are your tips for creating quality supporting characters?