In
an earlier blog (here) I
touched upon supporting characters, prompted by a guest post from Nancy Jardine
(here) I
promised to return to the subject.
A few minor characters – essential to keep
the story moving – sometimes push themselves into more than one book.
Naturally, if you’re writing a series, it’s a good idea to feature regular
minor characters; besides offering some familiarity for the reader, they can
grow with the main character too. That can be regarded as a given, also, for
series characters: they need to develop and change as their story unfolds from
book to book, rather than be untouched by preceding often traumatic events.
In
my book Write a Western in 30 Days, I
stated ‘While minor characters don’t need as much description, it’s useful to
give each of them some identifying feature, whether the hair colour or nose
shape. Or a humorous trait. If a barkeep simply serves the drink, don’t dwell
on him too much; if however he has information to divulge to our taciturn
stranger in town, then imbue the barkeep with a little more life.’ (p91).
This
is true for any genre novel. Minor characters are there to add flavour, colour,
texture, realism, even humour, and most importantly to move the story forward.
They are not there simply for padding and inconsequential chat.
When
building up your back-story (which may never see print), there are several
instances where character motivation should be embedded. People generally don’t
do something without a reason. They’re motivated by pride, greed, altruism,
love, anger, jealousy, hate and a lot more besides, much of which is created in
their past.
In
my book The $300 Man, Lydia hates
Mexicans, because her husband found love and solace in a Mexican woman’s arms.
The child of that union was Corbin, the hero – so she doesn’t like him, either
– his mixed race is a constant affront to her. So her past shapes how she feels
towards the Mexican workers at the silver mine in the story. Her past provides
her with powerful motivation for her current actions and intent.
Certainly,
incidents or people in their past might return to haunt them. By building a
past for your characters, they cease to be made of cardboard. Within a short
while, they’ll seem alive. And to a certain extent this applies to minor
characters as well.
Somerset
Maugham has said that every action of a character must be the result of a
definite cause – significantly related to the entire fiction, of course.
Each
motive must be in keeping with the character’s behaviour pattern that you’ve
established. Otherwise, you lose credibility; again, consider applying this to
minor characters.
In
Last Chance Saloon (2008), which
takes place in 1866, Jonas the deputy sheriff is featured; he’s in love with an
older woman, Ruth, a widow; the relationship is not resolved at the end. A year
later, 1867, there’s a passing mention of Jonas and Ruth in Blind Justice at Wedlock (2011), ‘Ruth Monroe
who’d scandalised the town with her new beau, Deputy Johnson, a man some
thirteen years younger than her.’ However, in Old Guns (2012), which mainly takes place in 1892, we see that they
are now happily married and Jonas is the town’s sheriff. Of course, their
descriptions have aged in the intervening quarter-century!
My
main protagonists in Blood of the Dragon
Trees, a modern-day thriller set in Tenerife, are Laura Reid and Andrew
Kirby, aged 25 and 34 respectively; they are fighting the trade in endangered
species, among other things. In Catalyst,
the first in a new crime series, the hero Rick and heroine Cat meet up with a
private eye in Barcelona who is instrumental in helping them obtain incriminating
evidence; the private eye is half-English, half-Spanish, Leon Cazador, whose
cases are told ‘in his own words’ in Spanish
Eye. At the end of Catacomb, the
second in the ‘Avenging Cat’ series, the plot necessitates that the hero Rick
fled with a minor character to Tenerife, leaving behind the heroine Cat in
Morocco. The sequel Cataclysm then
logically begins with a villain from Blood
of the Dragon Trees escaping police custody in Tenerife and doing harm…
which involves Rick and, ultimately, Cat, Laura and Andrew!
These
inter-relationships move the story forward, create additional threat, and
hopefully keep the reader turning the pages wanting to know what will happen to
people they’ve come to know vicariously; I hope too that regular readers will enjoy
meeting some of these characters again. However, it is not essential to
following the novel to have read all of the linked books.
To
a certain extent, these characters elbowed their way into the books I write.
Life is stranger than fiction, so it’s not too outlandish to postulate that
some characters will know each other in different works! Well, that’s my
excuse, anyway.
I’m
not alone in this, of course; plenty of authors return to minor characters in
their books. Perhaps you can think of a few?
***
Blood of the
Dragon Trees - paperback and e-book
Amazon
UK here (it has clocked up 8 good reviews, but for some reason no more than
that, sadly)
Spanish Eye - paperback and e-book
Catalyst - paperback and e-book
