The Importance of Secondary Characters
Secondary characters are vital in films and books. They inhabit the story in order to add breadth and depth to the main characters and to give them relevance. Everything about a secondary character revolves around the main characters. Let me show you what I mean.
Here is the logline for The Seduction of Sarah Marks, due to release in June through Entangled Publishing. We’ll use this story as examples of how a secondary character revolves around the main characters:
When a proper Victorian miss awakens next to a handsome stranger, she must rely on the viscount’s benevolence as she struggles to regain her memory and hold onto her heart.
Because of the serious theme of amnesia, and because of Sarah’s prim and proper sensibilities, I felt the story would work best if I offset her dire predicament by giving the hero, Augustus Malvern, Viscount Eastleigh, a colorful and boisterous family, one completely contrary to Sarah’s staid nature. In the beginning of the story, we get to know a bit about how she and lord Eastleigh react to one another. Not only are we privy to an unwanted attraction, we learn that despite Sarah’s circumstances, she displays an underlying strength and force of will that Eastleigh finds compelling. Along the way to his estate in a rented carriage, I begin to introduce Sarah to Eastleigh’s unusual family before she or the reader meets them in the flesh. Here’s the discussion regarding his grandmother:
“I should warn you of my family before we arrive.”
“Warn me?”
Eastleigh grinned. “Everyone should have fair warning of the Malverns.”
Sarah’s back stiffened. She clasped her hands in her lap. “Pray tell.”
“Mum lives with me. Actually, she’s my grandmother. Mum is…that is—” Devil take it, he sounded like a schoolboy.
“She raised you?”
He laughed outright. “Isn’t that a rich thought, but no. Mum is a bit…well, we aren’t quite sure whether it’s her age or the gin she tipples, but suffice it to say, she says and does whatever she pleases. And her memory isn’t much better than yours.”
Sarah’s cheeks flushed.
He could have kicked himself. “Sorry, ghastly turn of words.” God’s blood, where was the woman’s sense of humor? She’d likely not any to begin with, since an amnesiac’s personality rarely changed. “She’s called Mum, by the by, because she fancies herself the Queen Mother and thinks my mother to be the Queen.”
At the thought, he swallowed a chuckle. “I sent a messenger ahead to alert my physician and Mum of your condition. Hard telling how you’ll be greeted.”
Sarah’s gaze caught his. “What an odd way of putting things.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “Isn’t it though, madam?”
In that scene, Sarah and the reader have been put on notice that something out of the ordinary will occur once the carriage reaches its destination. As the carriage rattles on toward Eastleigh’s home, he dispenses hints regarding his eight raucous siblings and one handsome rogue of a cousin referred to as Lord Crocodile because of his snap—more world building. Here’s a scene when they arrive at Eastleigh’s estate with only Mum and the physician present:
Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off Mum’s enormous red hat and the stuffed bluebird perched on the brim. Were those tiny eggs in the nest real? And oh my, were those stones the size of walnuts in Mum’s brooch actual rubies? Who in heaven’s name did this woman think she was greeting?
Mum turned and opened her arms to Eastleigh with a glow on her face that bespoke adoration.
All formality dropped and he bent to give her a hug. “Missed you, Mum.”
“Aye. You haven’t aged a day.”
He laughed. “I’ve only been gone a week.”
“Is that all? You said you’d be gone three or four years.”
“Months, Mum. Three or four months. But my plans changed, and I returned home a bit sooner than expected.”
Mum turned to Sarah. “And here is your change of plans.” Mum started at the top of Sarah’s head and scanned her to her toes. “Well, then, do come along. Time for tea.”
With mum’s quirkiness now front and center, I can add in more world-building by using Sarah’s reaction to the estate lands and the interior of the mansion. Then we move to another little scene where we are given a glimpse of how Mum is about to affect the very prim and proper Sarah.
Instead of showing Sarah to her room, Mum led her onto a sunny terrace where a table was set for full tea—sandwiches, delicate platters filled with meats and cheeses, fruits and carved vegetables. A tiered confectionery held several layers of desserts.
Surely, they didn’t expect Sarah to take tea without offering her a bit of privacy? She desperately needed a privy. “I beg your pardon, but may I see to freshening up a bit first?”
“Why?” Mum asked. “You look just fine. Doesn’t she, Eastleigh? Not a hair out of place.”
Eastleigh bent and whispered something in his grandmother’s ear.
“Oh, that.” She waved her hand about. “Well, then, why didn’t she say so?”
Eastleigh offered Sarah his arm. “I’ll show you to her chamber.”
Too embarrassed to make eye contact, Sarah pretended not to notice his offer and followed the servant.
“Nice enough gel,” Mum said in a voice loud enough for anyone within shouting distance to hear. “A couple of weeks around the Malverns ought to loosen that rod up her arse.”
“Dear Lord, sink me,” Eastleigh muttered.
Stunned, Sarah paused at the bottom of the staircase. A rod up my nether regions? At that moment, she was certain, quite, quite certain, she had never been around the likes of this grand old lady. From somewhere deep within, a bubble of laughter threatened to surface. With a flip of her head, Sarah tossed her words over her shoulder. “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”
In just a few paragraphs, and through only one of the secondary characters, we now have a good bit of insight into Eastleigh’s lifestyle, along with how Sarah’s world is about to change. By now, the reader’s interest is hopefully piqued and pages turn. What about you? What are some of your favorite secondary characters? How much importance to you place on them?
Kathleen Bittner Roth writes historical romance featuring characters faced with difficult choices, and who are forced to draw on their strength of spirit to overcome adversity to find unending love. Born in Minnesota and having lived all over the U.S. and parts of Europe, her own fairy tale wedding in a Scottish castle led her to her current residence in Budapest, Hungary, considered one of Europe’s most romantic cities. A member of Romance Writers of America®, you can find Kathleen on Facebook, Twitter, and her website: www.kathleenbittnerroth.com.
