Advice Article #06: Major and Minor
I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!
This is so late, scribblers.
I'm sorry.
Character Development
Week 02: Creating Major and Minor Characters
I try to teach every one of my characters the same, be it small or main. Sometimes the smallest character is the one that has the most impact. I go through the same process with them that I would with my main characters - bella_dayenu
My readers are supposed to feel anyway they want about them. I won't dictate to them. My characters are open - xxemocupcakexx
The biggest part of creating a character in a story or novel is to make people care about that character.
The thing is, if your readers don't have any strong feelings about your character or doesn't feel like they know them, they won't care if they jump off the roof of that building. But, if your readers care about your character (be the feelings positive or negative, as long as they're there) they won't be able to stop reading.
But how do we do this? Isn't it hard enough just to create a whole new person without worrying what other people feel about them too? There are a few things you can do to make people care about your protagonist in this order:
Secret One:
Let there just be "something about them". In other words, make them charismatic. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to be pretty or handsome (though, shallowly, it helps the reader to like them if they are), just interesting. You don't want them to be able to walk into a room unnoticed.
Secret Two:
Let your character be likeable! If your readers are going to want to go through this journey with you, you want the readers to like your character enough to stick with them (or see Secret Four for dislikeable characters).
Secret Three:
Don't confuse likeable with perfect. Perfect is boring because then they accomplish everything entirely too easily. Your characters should have small flaws, even big flaws.
Secret Four:
As an antagonist, you naturally want people to dislike your character, at least some of the time. You'd think that making a character dislikable, readers wouldn't care about them but that's not the case. Having someone dislike your character makes them care just as much about their motivations and their success and failure as a character who your readers love.
Secret Five:
Don't make your villains too bad. As with not having a perfect character, a villain who's too bad and doesn't have any redeemable qualities can come off as cliché. So give them a flaw that could possibly be seen as endearing.
And the next thing to consider is how to treat and develop minor characters:
Your protagonist in the story is your main character. This is the one with the goal and the one the main plot centres around. Your reader is looking to connect with this character more than any of the others. Give them something to connect with - normal flaws and traits that people find admirable.
A major character is defined as a character who will get a large amount of "screen time". If you write in multiple points of view, chances are he or she will have one or two. You want this character to either be liked or disliked. It will be difficult for your reader to establish a connection with them if they don't have any feelings on them at all. These characters also usually have their own subplots that may or may not tie in with the original goal of your protagonist, kind of weaving in and out.
A minor character is a character that may help further the plot but isn't necessarily important themselves. They are often clichés, such as an angry shopkeeper who yells at teenagers or a preppy teenaged girl who's hand is practically glued to her cellphone. It's a good thing that the minor characters stay a cliché.
And that's our next topic! Round Characters and Flat Characters! We'll show you how to determine which to use, when, why, and how!
And writing2death (me) would like to apologise for how late this is. It won't happen again, I hope! Thank you to everyone who gave their advice last week, which can now be found unscreened here. And thank you to those who filled the prompt! Your characters went on some really interesting adventures! The prompt should be up very soon, I know that flutttterby was just waiting for me to get my act together...
And for anyone who's yet to see it, there is a poll here and it would be lovely if you could fill it out for us! Flutttterby will close the poll on Friday July 23rd.
Anyway! Thanks for reading and we hope to see you all this week!
This is so late, scribblers.
I'm sorry.
Character Development
Week 02: Creating Major and Minor Characters
I try to teach every one of my characters the same, be it small or main. Sometimes the smallest character is the one that has the most impact. I go through the same process with them that I would with my main characters - bella_dayenu
My readers are supposed to feel anyway they want about them. I won't dictate to them. My characters are open - xxemocupcakexx
The biggest part of creating a character in a story or novel is to make people care about that character.
The thing is, if your readers don't have any strong feelings about your character or doesn't feel like they know them, they won't care if they jump off the roof of that building. But, if your readers care about your character (be the feelings positive or negative, as long as they're there) they won't be able to stop reading.
But how do we do this? Isn't it hard enough just to create a whole new person without worrying what other people feel about them too? There are a few things you can do to make people care about your protagonist in this order:
Secret One:
Let there just be "something about them". In other words, make them charismatic. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to be pretty or handsome (though, shallowly, it helps the reader to like them if they are), just interesting. You don't want them to be able to walk into a room unnoticed.
Secret Two:
Let your character be likeable! If your readers are going to want to go through this journey with you, you want the readers to like your character enough to stick with them (or see Secret Four for dislikeable characters).
Secret Three:
Don't confuse likeable with perfect. Perfect is boring because then they accomplish everything entirely too easily. Your characters should have small flaws, even big flaws.
Secret Four:
As an antagonist, you naturally want people to dislike your character, at least some of the time. You'd think that making a character dislikable, readers wouldn't care about them but that's not the case. Having someone dislike your character makes them care just as much about their motivations and their success and failure as a character who your readers love.
Secret Five:
Don't make your villains too bad. As with not having a perfect character, a villain who's too bad and doesn't have any redeemable qualities can come off as cliché. So give them a flaw that could possibly be seen as endearing.
And the next thing to consider is how to treat and develop minor characters:
Your protagonist in the story is your main character. This is the one with the goal and the one the main plot centres around. Your reader is looking to connect with this character more than any of the others. Give them something to connect with - normal flaws and traits that people find admirable.
A major character is defined as a character who will get a large amount of "screen time". If you write in multiple points of view, chances are he or she will have one or two. You want this character to either be liked or disliked. It will be difficult for your reader to establish a connection with them if they don't have any feelings on them at all. These characters also usually have their own subplots that may or may not tie in with the original goal of your protagonist, kind of weaving in and out.
A minor character is a character that may help further the plot but isn't necessarily important themselves. They are often clichés, such as an angry shopkeeper who yells at teenagers or a preppy teenaged girl who's hand is practically glued to her cellphone. It's a good thing that the minor characters stay a cliché.
And that's our next topic! Round Characters and Flat Characters! We'll show you how to determine which to use, when, why, and how!
And writing2death (me) would like to apologise for how late this is. It won't happen again, I hope! Thank you to everyone who gave their advice last week, which can now be found unscreened here. And thank you to those who filled the prompt! Your characters went on some really interesting adventures! The prompt should be up very soon, I know that flutttterby was just waiting for me to get my act together...
And for anyone who's yet to see it, there is a poll here and it would be lovely if you could fill it out for us! Flutttterby will close the poll on Friday July 23rd.
Anyway! Thanks for reading and we hope to see you all this week!