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You are here: Home / 30 DAYS OF WRITING ADVICE / Day 27 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Two Tips for Creating Secondary Characters

Day 27 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Two Tips for Creating Secondary Characters

April 27, 2019 3 Comments

DAY 27

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Amy xo

TWO TIPS FOR SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Your secondary characters need love too, and they need to be as carefully created as your main character — just don’t tell her.

My two biggest tips for creating engaging secondary characters are:

Each secondary character must have her own arc.

To me, this means, a little story of their own going on — a subplot if you will, a storyline. Each must have her own beginning, middle, end. That character doesn’t know she’s in someone else’s story!! But…

Each secondary character must to serve the main character’s story.

EVERYTHING in your novel helps to drive the main story forward, even a secondary character’s personal storyline. Ask yourself HOW it does this to make sure, but more importantly ask yourself WHY.

This is something hard to do but easy to check. Go back through your manuscript or outline and focus on your main secondary characters (not the townspeople, as I call them). Note what she’s doing in a scene — why is she there? How is her own story being furthered? How is it impacting the protagonist and the main storyline?

Hope that’s helpful.

We’re getting down to the wire here (cliche).

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Amy xo

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Filed Under: 30 DAYS OF WRITING ADVICE

Previous Post: « Day 26 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – To Prologue or Not to Prologue
Next Post: Day 28 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Understanding Voice in Fiction »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tina Newcomb says

    April 27, 2019 at 7:05 am

    I have really enjoyed reading your tips every day. Some are familiar and some are new. Thanks for doing this, It’s been fun.

    Reply
  2. Debra Lynn Ross says

    April 30, 2019 at 2:45 pm

    I am currently on my second pass of my WIP and your daily writing tips have been incredibly helpful to me as I continue to write, rewrite, edit, and more edits!! This post in particular came at the perfect time as I was working on improving my approach to the secondary characters in my novel. Thanks much for the guidance!!!

    Reply
  3. Robin Shelley says

    April 30, 2019 at 9:27 pm

    After writing my first novel only to discover it was too short, I learned about the importance of secondary characters and subplots the hard way.
    Thanks for all your tips. I’ve enjoyed reading them.

    Reply

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