Ask An Author: "Do supporting characters need to be developed?"

Each week, a new author will serve as your Camp Counselor, answering your writing questions. Liz Coley, our second counselor, has been a member of the NaNoWriMo community since 2006. In 2013, her 2009 NaNo-novel, Pretty Girl-13, was published by HarperCollins.

As opposed to the main character, do supporting characters need to be developed even when they don’t necessarily do as much? — Anonymous

One of my first writing conference teachers told a roomful of aspirants the “terrifying” tale of being informed by his editor, full and polished manuscript in hand, that two of his supporting characters were indistinguishable and played such similar roles that they must be combined into one. Tolkien could have had this problem with Pippin and Merry but didn’t. The hobbit cousins had personalities and story arcs that separated them.

On the page, your main character will have the deepest back story, the greatest stakes, the most prominent plot points. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of your fellowship should be mere “spear-holders,” as they say in opera. If you can figure out who they are off the page, minor characters will speak with distinct voices, act purposefully (as opposed to conveniently or randomly), and take on specific roles in scenes, which means to some extent they need to have their own back story, goals, and even challenges.

Especially in the NaNoWriMo process, minor characters can blossom under your fingertips to provide major subplots. Cameo appearance characters may live as few as a couple sentences, but if they aren’t more than window dressing, why bother with them? You may not know their eye and hair color, name, age, or mother’s maiden name, but they can serve as foils, provide parallels, add comedy, or create local color.

It’s not necessary to apply a character inventory questionnaire. I’ve got two tricks for drawing out minor characters.

1. Totally trippy sounding—interview them with a pad and paper in hand. Ask them specific questions out loud and all sorts of interesting stuff comes bubbling out of the back of your mind. Write down their answers.

2. Write a short “autobiography” of the six most important things that ever happened to them from first person perspective. That’s fodder for great vignettes as well as giving you more insight into their motivations, skills and talents, strengths and weaknesses, fears and hopes.

You may have heard it said that every person is the hero of his or her own story, even the villain. With minor characters, try to offer the reader a glimpse of this perspective.

Next week’s Camp Counselor is Heather Mackey, author of the upcoming middle-grade fantasy Dreamwood . Ask her your questions here!