Supporting Characters - WriteFoxy Nuts and Bolts Part 3
Making the most of your supporting cast
Hi lovely writers!
In this series of my WriteFoxy Foxy Notes, we’re going back to basics, covering a different aspect of story each week. This week, we’re looking at SUPPORTING CHARACTERS.
Supporting characters bring life and colour to a story. But they also offer readers a unique perspective on your main characters, both by their own observations and their influence – positively or negatively.
So, how do you create supporting characters that expand the world of your story without taking it over? And what makes a great supporting character?
Grab a pen and a piece of paper and let’s dive in…
Supporting Characters – Starting Points
Some writing advice holds that supporting characters should be kept to a minimum: I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, but each one has to have a really strong reason for being there and must build your readers’ understanding of the story, the main characters and the theme.
So we have to make them count. But how do you do that?
The first thing to consider is what your supporting characters will reveal to your readers about the story, the main characters and the dilemmas and challenges that will unfold in the course of the action. They are our eyes and ears within the story. They evoke reactions, both positive and negative, from your characters. They witness key moments of the story action. They might challenge your main characters, hold them back, trick them, enrage them, encourage them, or even embody the possible consequences of certain choices your main characters have to make.
For all of that to be possible, you have to know your supporting characters well. I think you should get to know them as well as you know your main characters – the more well-rounded and authentic your supporting characters, the more they will draw your reader into the story and the world you’ve set it in.
Try these:
Practical idea: Who, What, Where, Why, How? – Make a list with the above five questions and answer them for each of your supporting characters. Who are they? What do they do for a living and what do they want out of life? Where do they meet or connect with your main characters, and where do they appear in the story? Why are they important to your main character’s journey? How does their interaction/relationship/interference with your main character shape, alter or drive the story? Much of what you discover about your supporting cast won’t make it to the page, but it will influence the way you write them and how relevant they become to the story.
Practical idea: Knowing Me, Knowing You – In addition to giving interest and life to the world of your story, supporting characters serve a vital function: revealing important details about your main characters. Try this: write down a list of everything you want readers to know about your main character(s) – their outlook, their past, their hopes, their wants. Now assign each aspect a supporting character whose job it will be to highlight that aspect within the story. Be creative with the ways you make this happen. So, for example, if your main character is stuck in a job they hate, a supporting character could be the embodiment of everything your main character hates about their job. Or a supporting character could be the person who constantly nudges your main character to leave. Is your supporting character an old friend who knows your main character better than they’ll admit to themselves? Or someone your main character sees who has the kind of life they want? Use your supporting cast to not just support the action, but to actively support the themes you want your readers to find in your story.
Supporting Characters – More Than Background Faces
Often, supporting cast are there to add interest to the story. And that’s as it should be. But have you considered ‘handing the camera’ to one of your supporting cast – allowing their perspective to offer a new angle on your main characters?
Practical Idea: Camera 1, Camera 2 – Choose a scene from your story and write it from the point of view of one of the supporting cast. They can be supportive of your main character, a stranger looking in on your main character’s life, or someone who is critical of the choices your main character makes. How does shifting perspective change the way your reader sees what’s happening on the page? For example, in my seventh novel, A Parcel for Anna Browne, each chapter begins with a different supporting character’s perspective of my main character, Anna Browne (who thinks she’s invisible to others), revealing how other people actually see her. Give it a try!
Supporting Characters – In summary
1. Make every character count. Get to know them as well as your main characters.
2. Use them to give your reader a greater understanding of your main characters.
3. Consider using supporting characters’ POV to switch perspective and drive the action of the story.
More Resources
If you’ve found this helpful and would like further ideas for making the most of plot from first draft to final edit, I have my Supporting Characters Nuts & Bolts Ideas Bank, packed with ideas, exercises and practical advice. It’s available to my paid subscribers here on Substack, or as a downloadable PDF for just £1 on my Ko-Fi page. There will be an Ideas Bank PDF for each of the twelve aspects of this series, so you can choose the ones you need or collect the set!
NEXT TIME: SETTINGS!
That’s all for this week…
…but remember to give yourself credit for what you achieve, give yourself grace for what you don’t and give yourself permission to have fun with what you write. Have a great writing week and see you next Monday morning for more Foxy Notes!
Happy writing!
Miranda x