Writing Secondary Characters

Secondary characters exist in relation to the main character. If they had nothing to do with the main character, then they would have no place in the story. It’s up to you as a writer to judge who is important and how much they need to be developed for the sake of your narrative. Here’s how.

Even though the secondary characters’ stories aren’t THE story, they still matter…

In the same way that you have a mom who drives you crazy, a best friend who can finish your sentences, a teacher that rises above all the others, a crush who you hold up on a pedestal so high that you are blind to their flaws, and an enemy who makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, so does your protagonist. Even though narratives tend to focus on the life of one character – sometimes a few in multiple POV – the people in that character’s life are equally important. Who those secondary characters are and how they relate to the protagonist influence who the protagonist is and what they do. Giving them personalities, sometimes backstories and arcs of their own, are what make the narrative as a whole more realistic.

Think of it this way: your mom had a life before you, and who she was before you came along – her experiences, her likes and dislikes, her fears even – influenced who you’ve become. Maybe you have trust issues because you watched your dad cheat on your mom. In a story about your first serious romantic relationship, your mom and that little bit of backstory about her – that relates to you as the main character here – becomes significant. If your character’s mom just floated around the house cooking and giving the best hugs, and we never knew this backstory of her past failed relationship, we’d lose a layer of understanding about the main character. Thus, we see why secondary characters are important and why they also need to be developed.

You Need Secondary Characters, Period.

Even if you write a book about a character who is completely alone, at some point you will have to answer the question of how they ended up that way. Most of the time, the answer to that question will involve other people – AKA: secondary characters.

If you’re writing something a little more mainstream, then you need secondary characters simply because your narrative won’t feel realistic or relatable without it. Humans are social beings, interaction is important to us and how we move through our lives. Humans are also the ones who will be reading these stories, so even if you write a book about an animal known for being a “lone wolf” type, humans will relate more to your animal character if they have friends and family.

Also, as a consumer of books, I personally find few things less compelling than a character talking to themselves and going through life alone. To be blunt, it’s boring. Don’t get me wrong, in the same way that I don’t spend every second of my life with another person, your characters deserve some time to themselves. They need time to reflect, think, and recharge. But, they also need to be engaging with the world around them. They need to experience conflict, stakes, consequences, and victories – the more compelling of which involve some level of interaction with others. An example: you throw a ball and it lands in a lake – boohoo, you lost your ball. You throw your ball and it hits someone in the face, and now this person is mad and running after you, and you’re scared about getting your butt kicked when you were supposed to be having a fun softball date with the girl you like. One – I won’t say which, but trust me – is more exciting than the other.

They’re People Too, So They Need Personalities

Okay, so you’ve figured out the important people in your protagonist’s life that influence the narrative. Now, you need to give those characters dimension. Even though their individual stories aren’t the focus of the novel, their backstories hold some significance. I’m not saying to develop your supporting characters to the same extent as your main character. You just need to know them well enough to understand why they do what they do, and then when a piece of their backstory is relevant to the focus of the narrative, you include it.

You also want to develop your secondary characters enough that they have individual personalities that show up on the page, that way they don’t melt together. Imagine you’re hanging out with five of your closest friends. How do you tell them apart? If you closed your eyes and listened to them talk, how would you know who is who? What does their voice sound like? Do they have inflections, or roll their r’s or pronounce their r’s like w’s? If you opened your eyes and they all had on masks, how would you tell them apart? Do they use hand gestures when talking? How do they dress? How do they do their hair? Does anyone have tattoos or significant piercings?

These are the same characteristics that you give your protagonist to make them come alive and feel like a real person. This is the same level of character development you should do for your secondary characters so that they feel equally alive, individualistic, and like a natural element of the world of your story. They shouldn’t exist to prompt the protagonist to say specific things in scenes with dialogue. They should have their own voice and opinions, all driven by their individual backstory that is sometimes relevant and sometimes not.

Character Relationships: The Point of Secondary Characters

Isolated characters can be compelling sometimes – when done right – but most of the time your story will feel off or unrealistic if the secondary characters simply aren’t there. If you’re struggling to develop a cast of characters you can start by assessing your protagonist and what’s happening to them. Did someone do something to them, and now they are on a quest? Did the main character tell a lie to someone, and now they are doing everything they can to keep them from finding out the truth? Is there something that they want that they have to go through people and places to get? Even though these questions are focused on the main character, they involve a complex conflict-driven relationship with a secondary character!

You can also look at your own life as a framework for creating character relationships. If you want to write a character who has that weirdly close but totally okay relationship with their math teacher, and it resonates with you because you had a similar meaningful student teacher relationship, then draw from your experience. Something about the teacher made you feel comfortable enough to develop a rapport with them, so ask yourself what it was. Did you like their tie? Did they stand up for you when you got bullied in class? Details like that will help the character relationship feel more genuine.

Secondary characters are entire people, just like the protagonist is an entire being with a past, present, and future. They are special, individual, and influential for a reason – so make sure that shows up on the page the same way it shows up in your actual life.