Monday, June 14, 2010
Talking Second Fiddles with Christie Craig
The Ins and Outs, and Pros and Cons, of Writing Secondary Characters who aren’t so Secondary by Christie CraigI love ‘em. Those secondary characters who help make up our books. They add layers to our plots, they are the mirrors we use to reflect our heroes and heroines. They can be good, bad, and sometimes even evil. We can love ‘em, hate ‘em, manipulate ‘em, abuse ‘em, and even kill ‘em. They are props, our little minions that help us tell our stories. But to really do their jobs, they can’t ever look like props or even minions. They have to have their own stories to tell and they have to be important to your hero or heroine’s story. If not, you gotta kick their butt off the page and find a replacement.
After Divorced, Desperate and Delicious, my first book with Dorchester, hit the streets, I got a lot of reader emails. Amazingly, more people wrote and asked about Jason than they did my hero Chase. In my mind, I could hear Chase say, “Hey, what’s up with that! This was my time to shine. Damn, that Jason, he always steals my thunder. Even old women fall all over him.”
Jason, of course, would just grin his cocky smile and say, “It’s not my fault. I can’t help it if all women love me.” But down deep in Jason’s gut, the attention would feed his never-ending need to feel loved and accepted. That’s what happens to men when at nine years old they were abandoned by their moms and placed in foster home after foster home.
Did you feel that? That tug on your heart strings? A good secondary character will pull at the reader’s emotions. If the plot allows, a good secondary character can become the hero in your next book. Jason did. But the thing is, if you are really good at writing secondary characters, you may find that these people do what Chase accused Jason of doing—of stealing the thunder.
If you read Divorced, Desperate and Deceived, my third book in the Divorced & Desperate series, you probably remember Joey. Joey, a big lug of a guy, was often described as a hit man with a conscience. Truth was, Joey wasn’t a hit man, he’d signed on as a body guard. He could protect someone, but he didn’t have the stomach to kill anyone. He had enough bad in his life thanks to his drug-addict mom. But when his boss tried to force him into the role of hit man, he had to decide to either kill, or very likely be killed. At first he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. It wasn’t as if he was a good person or anything, but when he realized the killing would involve a woman who had a small son and possibly a pregnant woman . . . well, Joey made up his mind that his life wasn’t worth that much anyway. He’d die before he hurt or even let someone else hurt that little boy’s mom. Don’t you just love Joey? I did. But he was like a piece of popcorn stuck in my teeth from day one.
Joey was one of those characters who from the moment he showed up on the page, he grabbed a hold of the steering wheel and tried to take over the plot. He and I had numerous heart-to-heart talks about his snatching the thunder. To this day, Luke, my hero in D D & Deceived, is pissed because Joey got more attention in the reviews than he did. Yeah, characters are funny like that. They can get their feelings hurt. Now, I went back in and kept trying to make sure Joey didn’t overshadow Luke, but I won’t lie, Joey came in a close second for hero status.
Shut Up and Kiss Me, my seventh romance novel, has just hit the bookstores and already the reviewers are talking about the secondary characters. And yes, a lot of people are mentioning poor Jose. Now of all the secondary characters I’ve written, I was probably the hardest on Jose. But with good reason.I was hard on Jose because Maria, another secondary character in the book, told me what he did to her. That he broke her heart when he chose his career over her and left Precious, Texas to go to New York. She was so upset, she never told him she was pregnant. And when she told me she lost that baby, and maybe even her ability to ever carry another child, well, I knew I had to make Jose pay for his sins. And he did.
There was the car wreck, the fire ants, the thorns, and oh, let’s not forget about the skunk, or how Jose fell head first through the sheetrock. But even after he paid for his sin, what I had to decide was if Jose was going to win Maria back? Or if Matt, the guy Maria was now dating, was her soul mate. Oh, decisions, decisions.
Anyway, now that I’ve given you a bit of a peek into the role of secondary characters, I want to point out some things you might have noticed. Things that might help you write your own secondary characters, and things to be careful about when you do. Remember for every rule, there are exceptions, but these are how I generally go about writing secondary characters.
Things To Do:
1) Make sure your secondary characters didn’t just fall off a turnip truck yesterday.
Just like my main characters, I give my secondary people their own past. In this past, you’ll find the essence of what makes them tick. If you have a character who is not coming alive in your book, look and see if you’ve given them a past, or if you just grabbed them off the turnip truck and slapped them into your story. Then you have to make sure that their past is somehow important to the overall plot of your story. That it in someway reflects, showcases, or supports the hero or heroine’s journey. Hey, I didn’t say it wasn’t going to be hard.
2) Being a secondary character should be hard work. Don’t make it easy on them!
I don’t allow secondary characters who are slouchers into my books. If a character is in my book, he/she is gonna have to work. And by work, I mean he’s gonna have a quest. He’s gonna want something. And that something isn’t gonna be easy to attain. To say it another way, even my secondary characters have goals and conflict. And here comes the tricky part, you have to make sure that the result of them attaining or not attaining their goals will somehow affect your hero or heroine. That’s why they call it plot; it takes a while to figure all this crap out.
3) Give ‘em flaws.
Nobody is perfect. And if they are, we don’t like ‘em. They remind us of the perfect cheerleader in high school whom the whole football team drooled over. You know, the girl who stole your boyfriend. Yeah, that girl!! Instead, make sure your secondary characters have flaws. It is so often the flaws that will make someone interesting. Then, if the character isn’t a villain, make sure the flaws are so properly motivated, that we forgive the flaws because we understand the reason behind the flaws. A villain’s motivation also needs to be in place, but it generally isn’t forgivable. In my books, the flaws are almost always connected to their past. (I mean, aren’t we all messed up because of something mama and daddy did? Or is that just me?)
Things to Be Careful about:
1) Thunder thieves
If you have a secondary character, like Joey, who is threatening to take over the story, first make sure you haven’t given them too much page space. Is he/she with your reader more than your main hero or heroine? If that isn’t the case, then you need to make sure that whatever the conflict is for this character, it isn’t more dramatic, more heart rendering than that of the hero or heroine. If this is the problem, chances are it isn’t the past of the secondary character you need to work on, it’s the past of your main characters. I mean, why should you go in and make somebody less special when you can go in and make your hero or heroine more special?
2) Opening a book in the Secondary Character’s POV
Our readers are like orphaned geese. The first person they see when they open that book is generally the person the reader is gonna follow around and call mama. And if you try to switch mamas on them, they’re likely to complain loudly and put your book down. The exception to this rule is when perhaps you open a book up in the villain’s POV, and his actions are what propel the story forward.
3) Keep your secondary characters off the stage until your readers have fallen in love with your main characters.
Let the reader bond with your main character before you start introducing them to secondary characters. I don’t usually bring in secondary characters until after chapter one, after page 25 or more, and after I’ve really grounded the reader into the main story. It’s also wise not to start introducing too many characters in the same scene. Have you ever been reading and aren’t clear who John is? Is he the old boyfriend, the neighbor, or the garbage man? Dribble those characters in and when you introduce them, make sure they have something, a character trait, a weird hairstyle, or an accent that when you bring up the next time the reader immediately knows who they are.
Okay, so there you have it. My tips on writing secondary characters. I hope I’ve said something that gives you insight. And here’s what I’d like to hear from you. Who is your favorite secondary character? It can be your own character or one that you’ve read. Oh, I’ll be giving away an autographed copy of Shut Up and Kiss Me to one commenter. So make sure you post. Today I’m also blogging over at BookEnds blog on: Five Pieces of Well-meaning Writing Advice I’m Glad I Didn’t Take. Also pop over to my blog at Killer Fiction for another chance to win.
Oh, almost forgot my manners, thank you Terri and all the Shipmates for asking me to blog!
~CC
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Books by the Crew
85 comments:
i like th e charcters from lori fosters book
and erin mccarthy
congrats on teh book and great reviews
I enjoy the secondary characters in Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Esperanza and Win add lots of spice!
LOL Recall the phone conversation we had after you sent DD&Deceived to me and I'd read it? I couldn't even recall Luke's name! I still think Joey deserves his own book.
No point in entering me in the contest, but congratulations on the new book, girl!
Loved your post! So much great information. I can’t think right now of a great secondary character except (don’t laugh) Vizzini in Princess Bride. (I know, I know) But, to me, he always stole the scene….Hugs!
~C
PS~Hi Terri and all the shipmates!
Excellent advice--thank you!
First off, thanks to you, Christie, for joining us again for a guest voyage. I'm LOVING this blog. I've just started revising my first MS and this makes me realize I haven't flushed out my secondary characters near enough. I have a secondary romance and don't know hardly anything about these two people.
One more thing to add to the TO DO list! I also realize there's one secondary that I have to bring into the opening scene, because he's so crucial to the final scene. Man, we need to have you here more often.
*waves to Caroline* Hey there!
I totally forgot to check for the comment blocking bandit. Must keep an eye on that today. LOL!
Forgot to give my favorite secondary characters. All the ones I can think of eventually turned into characters with their own stories. Villiers in Eloisa James Desperate Duchesses series was amazing all the way through.
Bo'sun, I was thinking the same thing when I read this blog: it was perfect for you.
Don't get me wrong, Christie, it's perfect for me too--great tips--I'm just struggling to finish the darned draft already and am not quite as worried about if I've dotted all my i's yet.
I love the Orphaned Geese analogy. That's so true. And so funny.
My favorite secondary characters. Hmmm. In my own stuff, it'd have to be Lucy. Of course. You can't help but love Lucy, but he's pretty obnoxious--and he really deserves to be run through the wringer. Ten, fifteen times.
In other books, my favorite secondary characters are: Ron, Hermione, Snape and Sirius from Harry Potter; Jack Sparrow (who to me is technically a thunder stealing secondary character); Alice from the Twilight series; Maclean the witch from Jill Barnett's Bewitching and Dreaming.
For my own character that I love, it would have to be my heroine's 12 year old son. He has flashes of wit without losing his little boy charm. He's full of enthusiasm but often drags "Mom!" out to three or more syllables. LOL!
How could I have forgotten Garrett, the Earl of Mayne? (Sooo much better than Villiers.)
I think Elizabeth Hoyt & Rachel Gibson write really good secondary characters. They are never instrusive yet enigmatic enough that you wouldn't mind reading about them again at some point.
A secondary character I like is Somerset, Roarke's butler from Nora Roberts' In Death series.
What a great post! I love how secondary characters don't really CONSIDER themselves part of the background -- LOL -- and they do seem to try to place themselves in the front as much as possible.
I have a character in my WIP who is doing his best to do that -- as if I'm not gonna notice! Luckily you've given me some ammunition on dealing with him. LOL
Is it okay for me to tweet this? Or has it already been twitterfied? LOL
Tweet your heart out, Donna. I put it up on Facebook but I avoid Twitter like the plague. :)
Christie! Wonderful, informative blog!
Though, I must say the geese analogy nearly made me choke to death. Maybe the Assassin has taught you a too few many tricks.
I have a lot of secondary characters running around. I need to work on this.
*waving* Hi everyone on the ship! Watch out for the Undead Monkey. He likes teeth and mayhem.
Nice try, Sin. YOU are the one who likes teeth and mayhem!
Bo'sun, I have tweeted the link -- not that I have a lot of followers yet! I avoid Facebook, but I just started Twitter a couple days ago. (I needed a new item for my Hierarchy of Avoidance -- LOL -- the others were getting stale.)
Hi KH,
Thanks so much for stopping in. I love those authors, too. And thanks for the congrats on Shut Up. I had a blast writing that book.
CC
Emily,
Spice is always great. I try to remember when I write my secondary characters the reason my main characters love them. The people we choose to be in our lives says a lot about us.
Thanks for stopping in.
CC
Suzan, Suzan,
You have to let Joey go. LOL.
Thanks so much for popping in.
CC
Hi Kandy,
Thanks for stopping in.
CC
Caroline,
I love it. Thanks so much for stopping by.
CC
What a great, useful blog! And count me among the Joey fans. :)
Eloisa James's Villiers is a marvel. I am in awe of how she revealed him bit by bit through six books. He is the more intellectually interesting character, but Mayne rules in my heart. I think EJ does great secondary characters generally.
Loretta Chase's soon-to-be-released book, Last Night's Scandal, is the story of Olivia and Peregrine, the kids from Lord Perfect all grown up. Fans have been waiting four years for their book. Does anyone else remember the "Waiting for Rothgar" buttons? Jo Beverley's Malloren readers waited seven years for Rothgar's book. He continues to be a commanding presence in the books that followed his, including The Secret Duke (2010).
Bo'sun,
Thanks so much for having me here. I love writing secondary characters who will later have their own story. In my next romance series, Don't Mess With Texas, there are three ex-cops, now PIs, who each get their own hero status and girl.
However, I also enjoy writing secondary characters who their stories unfold in the first plot. The problem with this is that you have readers who still want them to have their own story. (Take Suzan for example!)
And when polishing my work I often realize that a secondary character needs to pop into a scene. They can add conflict, motivation, or help the story move forward. Then sometimes I just use them for comedic relief.
Hi Hellion,
I love it when a secondary character deserves to be run through the ringer a bit. It makes torturing them so much more fun. No guilt. Hmm, does that me terrible.
CC
Hi Scorpio,
I love Rachel's characters and her books.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
CC
Of course it doesn't make you terrible, CC. Because if it did, I'd have to admit *I* was terrible...and I can't be having that.
Donna,
I say tweet away.
Thanks,
CC
Hi Donna,
You go whip those secondary characters into shape. You are the boss, you are God. Only in your fiction of course, but hey it's better than nothing. LOL.
Thanks for posting.
CC
Christie - I rarely think to write in series and I have no idea why. But then my heroine's sister declared she wants her own story, so I'm guess I'm headed in that direction.
Yes, bring them in to spice things up. I'm finding that is the answer much of the time. Feels good to finally be figuring some of this stuff out.
Still haven't read past your first couple chapters. LOL! It's too good and my ego is fragile right now. :)
Christie, I did tweet -- not long after that I got a message that Twitter was "over capacity". LOL I made it too full apparently!
Sin,
Undead monkey? Oh crappers.
Thanks for stopping in. And yeah my characters have taught me a thing or two about knocking people off. As my dear sweet hubby says, "Don't make her unhappy! She kills people for a living. Well, when she'd not letting them get lucky."
Great advice! I love creating my secondary characters..I have to be careful not to let them run the show!
Donna,
If you need other ways to avoid writing, I need some housework done. Do you live in Texas? LOL.
CC
[...] is Romance Writer’s Revenge. Christie’s hanging with the pirates over there, talking about secondary characters who aren.... Go read it to see what I mean. And leave a comment, too ’cause Christie’s going to [...]
Janga,
I'll give Joey the message. I'm sure Suzan is happy, too. LOL. Isn't it great how a secondary character can just steal your heart. The really great ones always give the writer hell, but they are worth it.
Thanks.
CC
Hey, babe! I'm dropping in to let you know I posted about this over at Win a Book. Thanks for the e-mail!
Donna,
So you're the one who broke tweeter, huh? LOL.
CC
Hellion,
Of course, you can't admit you're a bad person. We leave that to our mother-in-laws. If you don't have one yet, just wait. LOL.
CC
Bo'sun,
Give up the ego, girl. We all think our work stink. It's like our hair, we mostly all wish we had some other color, texture and length. And don't even get me started on our bodies. Or boobs. I'd trad these big ol' honkers for a tiny pair any day of the week!!!
Now about Series. Because my Divorced & Desperate Series was so popular, my hubby says I can't write stand alones anymore. Yeah, he likes to think he's my manager. He's so confused. LOL.
CC
Peg,
Just take heart in knowing if that try to steal the show, you are probably doing some right. Just be careful not to give them to much power.
Thanks for stopping in.
CC
Hi Susan!!
You are so my hero.
Thanks,
CC
BTW, a broken tweeter sounds really painful.
Thanks for pimping us along with Christie, Susan!
Christie - Once I have a few of these under my belt, maybe I'll be less fragile. LOL! But I see so much potential now in my secondary characters for this one that I didn't even think of before. I don't know where my heroine's BFF grew up or what her past was like. And it's her secondary romance floating through the book. Must sit down and have a conversation with Lucille (the character) and get some answers!
Some of my favorite secondary characters are from The Stephanie Plum series! Ranger, Lulu and grandma to name a few! tWarner419@aol.com
Hey, Teresa, you're going to find lots of friends over here then. Though these girls can get pretty violent fighting over Ranger. LOL!
*swoons* Ranger.
Donna,
If you need other ways to avoid writing, I need some housework done. Do you live in Texas? LOL.
CC
LOL -- I did in 3rd and 4th grade. (I'm too late now, aren't I? Dang.)
And sorry for breaking Twitter. I have talents and super powers I haven't even discovered yet! LOL Bo'sun, a broken tweeter isn't too bad. Really. A tankard of rum and a couple of Advil, and I'll be back good as new. LOL
Wow, Christie, awesome (and very useful) blog!!
I've read all the books you referenced and loved each and every one. I know when a secondary character grabs my heartstrings when halfway through the book I'm searching websites to see if they're gonna get their own book! I do that more often than not. I saw Jason's potential very early on and was very happy with his book. Count me as a Joey lover too, but was okay that his story wrapped up quickly - those types of secondary characters are cool cause it is like getting 2 love stories in one, IMO.
There are so many secondary characters I fall in love with it would take too long to name them all. I agree that Eloisa James excels, as does Lisa Kleypas. Some of my favorites are in Lisa's books and almost all have gotten their own book. All except Gideon Shaw from Again the Magic, that is. I really loved him and wanted to read hundreds and hundreds more pages about him. LOL
Congrats on the new release. I'm so excited I have a new Christie Craig to dive into! And super excited you are doing a new series.
Though these girls can get pretty violent fighting over Ranger. LOL!
Hey, that's how we break up OTHER fights. LOL "Wait, is that Ranger over there?"
Every time I go back to Twitter and it says "Over Capacity", I feel like it's telling me I weigh too much. LOL
Now I need a cookie.
*starts throwing excess stuff overboard*
Oops, sorry guys. I thought I was in my own quarters.
Morning Chrisite! Glad to see you made it aboard. After seeing you at RT in Columbus, I wasn't sure you were ever going to climb off that cloud!
Let me mix up a pitcher of Hoohas and scatter them around fer all the fine guests yer drawing to the ship!
Secondary characters...I love the second mate of the pirate ship I created. What's not to love 'bout a pirate named Mercy? And her unrequited love, named after me favorite booze, Mr. Bailey. I'm never giving them their own books, sorry...but their story is told over the course of the series...
I do like the secondary characters Gail Carriger has created in her Parasol Protectorate series, the beta werewolf and the BFF who loves outrageous hats...
Bo'sun,
Long chats with the secondary characters are good. Bribe them with chocolate and if that doesn't work threaten to break their tweeters. LOL. Why does that sound ugly now?
CC
Teresa,
Janet Evanovich is the master of so many things. I wanna grow up and be her.
CC
Donna,
How many hours away do you live from Texas? Hey . . . my house will wait on you. LOL.
CC
Hi Irisheyes,
So where do I need to send that check? Thank you so much. I hope you love Shut Up, too. There are so many neat, very neat characters in that book.
Donna,
I hope you are writing comedy!!! You are too funny.
CC
Hey, pass me the cookies.
Hi Second Chance,
Oh, I was for sure on cloud nine at RT. The news of my YA selling going to auction in Germany and my new series selling to Grand Central, well, I kept pinching myself. It just goes to show that the 25 years of sweat, blood, and collecting rejections does pays off.
And I love the secondary characters who shares some of my books. I think their stories add a richness to a book.
I really loved Jose as the secondary character in your book Shut Up and Kiss Me, He added so much comedy to your book and after reading your book I was dying learn more about him. Hopefully in another another book. :)
Hi Laurie,
Yeah, poor Jose. Have you read the Shut Up and Kiss Me's epilogue on website yet? I'm sure hoping to write more Precious book late.
CC
*eats last cookie and tosses empty package overboard*
Cookies? Mmm. Doesn't look like we have around. I'm off to run some errands though. . .
And thanks for the comedy compliments. *blushes* My agent has a romantic comedy out on sub right now.
*checks watch* Oh yeah, hang on a sec. *falls to knees for hourly prayer to the gods of publishing*
Donna,
I've got my fingers crossed big time, I'll even send up one of those prayers to the Senior Editor in the sky, that you have publishers fighting over the rights to buy your book.
Good luck!
CC
Christie,
What I like most about secondary characters is they can say, do and be things our hero and heroine can't. The hero has to be the center of the story and must, whether he wants to or not, be heroic. While secondary characters and bitch, whine, do naughty or cruel things. They can be the like satirists--saying the things the rest of us only thing. :-)
That's why i love them, and I think that's why readers so often connect with them.
Great blog.
Great giveaway! This looks like a fun read. Please enter me to win. :)
Hi Keena,
Thanks. And when you're in bad mood you can actually kill off a secondary character, not so with the heroine and hero.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
CC
Oh, you can kill them. I didn't even think of that. I guess when you're trying to catch a killer, it's helpful if you actually have characters he can kill. LOL!
Bo'sun,
Which is why I don't apply the job as secondary character. LOL.
CC
Well, Sin always says when in doubt, kill someone off. I always say, when in doubt, feed that doubt to the Kraken.
I sorta like secondary villains as fodder for the cannon...
"Well, Sin always says when in doubt, kill someone off. I always say, when in doubt, feed that doubt to the Kraken.
I'm about to show Donna how to kill someone off. I saw her put her little paws on my Ranger.
*fanning self* Ranger is so hot.
I honestly have a good theory about killing characters off. If I can kill them off, obviously I didn't need them anymore. And if I did, well have no fear that I can't make another one just like him/her. At least, that's what I always tell my DH.
Well, that is true, Sin...
Great blog, Christie~
Very thought provoking~now I'm considering killing off a secondary character. One that, before today, I hadn't even considered.
Hmm, off to ponder the effects of what his death would mean.
Di
Hi Christie,
Since I love your real guy-heroes, the wacky heroines and the unforgettable sides and have read and enjoyed each and every novel you've published (except the latest) --I have to say your method works.
Keep writing!
2nd Chance,
Too funny girl. To be completely honest, I hate killing people. I'm just not really good at it. I'm gonna try to practice. LOL. Seriously, even when I kill off a bad guy, I have to make sure I've written him to be so bad that he deserves it. It would be so hard for me to write a scene where some decent person dies.
Sin,
You know one trick I use to make it a little easier is to picture the villian looking like just my ex. It works every time.
CC
Dr. R.
I hope he dies real nicely. Seriously, in darker suspense novels, killing off good people is almost a must sometimes. Colleen Thompson kills people off left and right. I love her work, and I'm her friend, but she scares me sometimes. LOL.
CC
Rashda,
Thank you girl. I love writing with a passion. And nothing makes me smile bigger than hearing I'm doing something right.
Thanks for stopping by.
CC
Your advice about secondary characters was great. I often have secondaries who try to take over, so that's a constant struggle. I love how you said not to tone them down, but rather to rev up the main characters. Great advice I'll be sure to remember.
Christie, thanks for the prayers and incantations to the publishing gods. (I brought you a whole pallet of cookies.)
And Sin, WHERE did you get the idea I was going put my paws on Ranger? I may be a blonde, but I'm not dumb! LOL (Next time I'm gonna shop around a little longer before I get an evil twin. You're scary! LOL)
I loved Jason and I cheered him on all the way because he was deep-down a good guy, and I loved the way he ended up.
Mostly, I was happy for Kathy and her plumber. lol
It was a hilarious story with great characters.
I love secondary characters. Too many to pick just one. It is always interesting to "meet" them in one book and then later they get their own book.
Oh, and THANK YOU, CHRISTIE! This was such a great topic, well done and perfectly explained. Can't wait to see you in Orlando!
Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by today. We love have so many new, shining faces aboard. :)
We'll post the winner of Christie's book tomorrow afternoon so be sure to stop by and see if you've won!
Donna,
Let me know when you get the good news.
CC
Sandy,
Thank you so much. Jason got into the hearts of alot of readers, even in when it wasn't his book.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
CC
Bo'Sun,
Thank you for hosting me, girl. I had a blast with all your crazy people. Yeah, I can call you crazy, because right there with you. And I so look forward to Orlando. We'll have a blast.
CC
I think Janet Evanovich is a master at developing secondary characters who appear in her Stephanie Plum series. They do not interfere with the reader's focus on or love of the main characters, but they are a wild, raucous, interesting and frequently hilarious bunch that inspire me to read the next book nearly as much as the main characters do.
JHS
Colloquium
Post a Comment