Secondary but Not Second-rate

By Sandra Parshall

I hate to haul out a cliché in my first sentence, but it’s true: it takes a village to make a novel. I’m not talking about the business of writing and publishing. I’m referring to all the other fictional people who populate the protagonist’s world.

Sidekicks, secondary characters, walk-ons who appear in one scene or chapter and never show up again — they’re all necessary to create a fully-realized fictional world, and each one deserves thoughtful attention from the author. A...