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A former TV executive says why She Hulk appears bland and Ally McBeal seemed vibrant is
the latter's side characters "popped" with life while She Hulk's seem one dimensional and fade away in the background.
Is that true?
Present scenes that give them access to speak from their hearts and share their
life’s journeys, dreams, and goals.
WHAT MAKES THEM SMILE?
Nothing reveals the personalities of your side characters more than what makes them smile or laugh.
WHAT EVENT INFLUENCED THEM THE MOST?
Was it political, health-related, or romantic? How did she/he rebound from it? Or did she/he never recover?
WHAT ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTS THEM?
It will only take a small scene of outrage in their actions or sobs in their throats that will etch their nature in your readers' mind and delineate them from one another.
WHAT IS THE DISTINCTIVE PATTERN TO THEIR LIVES?
It is fascinating to see how subtly good authors weave the actions of their side characters in the lives of the others. Many of the crises in great books derive from the clashing patterns of the side characters.
Oh, when I was homeless for 7 months after hurricanes Laura and Delta, this is how I listened to books.
Yeah, side characters need to have a full life/full development to be memorable.
ReplyDeleteExactly. We must feel as if the story is really happening, right?
DeleteCardboard side characters are boring. Which means the story will be boring.
ReplyDeleteBoring kills a novel!
DeleteGood points. We always need to craft side characters that have distinct personalities rather than just being there to move the story along.
ReplyDeleteEven in telling a joke all the characters must seem alive
DeleteThat's why doing character sheets on secondary characters is just as important.
ReplyDeleteI hear you. :-)
DeleteSide characters really do help fill out the world.
ReplyDeleteThey lend depth to our tales, right?
DeleteI haven't watched either of those shows and hope my side characters (supporting cast) are as annoying and provocative as possible.
ReplyDeleteWhere someone said, "Send in the ninjas." I say, "Send in a mother." If nothing else, her child life land up in upheaval until they can get ride of her.
Anna from elements of emaginette
I've thought about side characters and their roles in other books, but I haven't quite thought about my own. I do take time to flesh them out as well, but do they actually fade away from my readers' minds? That's an intriguing perspective and now I'm curious :D
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that readers get attached to some of my side characters and am taking great pains to make them full and vibrant. Then I'll kill them off one by one over the series. Muhahaha
ReplyDelete