10 Secrets to Creating Unforgettable Supporting Characters

A good article in io9 about creating “unforgettable supporting characters.” Yes, it has a sci-fi slant, but it’s still valuable. Here’s the list of 10 suggestions:

1. Give them at least one defining characteristic.

2. Give them an origin story.

3. Make sure they talk in a distinctive fashion.

4. Avoid making them paragons of virtue, or authorial stand-ins.

5. Anchor them to a particular place.

6. Introduce them twice — the first time in the background, the second in the foreground.

7. Focus on what they mean to your protagonists.

8. Give them an arc — or the illusion of one.

9. The more minor the character, the more caricature-like they may have to be.

10. Decide which supporting characters you’ll allow to be forgettable after all.

Why are supporting characters important? They provide entertainment. They add color. But perhaps most importantly they can create subplots which you can exploit, not only as cutaways from the Plotline, but — zeroing in on one point made in the list — provide connections to your Protagonist’s journey:

You’re so in love with your world, and with all of the characters and how they interact, that you can rathole. But your main characters are your readers’ way into the world — and what matters to your protagonists matters to your readers. (If you’ve done your protagonist-crafting right, anyway.) We don’t care what Blind Simeon thinks of Randolph the Grifter, nearly as much as what your viewpoint character thinks of both of them. (Of course, sometimes having one minor character talk about another can tell you something interesting about both of them.) What does this minor character mean to your hero? What role does he fulfill? What does your hero want or need from Randolph the Grifter? If you know what your hero finds memorable about Randolph, then you’re a long ways towards finding what your readers will remember, too.

This is remarkably close to ideas arising from one of the eight essential screenwriting principles I use and teach: Character = Function. And that function in most movies is tied directly to the metamorphosis journey of the Protagonist, each supporting character connected to that story of transformation.

By the way, how a writer handles supporting characters is a quick way to determine their degree of professionalism because a working screenwriter knows how important secondary characters are.

For more of the article, go here.

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