How to Write First Class Secondary Characters

Writing Tips, ,

How to Write First Class Secondary Characters. The Hero of Your Story Lives in a Larger World Beyond Herself. She lives in a fictional world you have created. A world populated by other people usually referred to as secondary characters. I suggest you also think of them as supporting characters because they support  your main character and her story.

Your Hero Drives Your Story. But, no matter how substantial and fully realized she may be, if her supporting cast is weak, your story will be weakened too. Your story structure will be in danger of toppling —  off your reader’s bedside table into oblivion. As Mike Nichols said of all characters. You must give your secondaries their own beating heart humanity.

Create a Full Cast of Individuals who Come to Life on the Page. Functionaries won’t do, characters who walk on stage, perform a task or two, then disappear forever. If someone makes an appearance for any reason, however mundane, they must appear again in some meaningful way. They add to the emotional truth of your story. They are not just furniture.

Some Supporters Appear Often and Prominently, Others Less So. But they all perform actions that drive the story forward or amplify your hero’s role. They may not be as fleshed out as your hero, but you, the author, still must know and imagine them to be flesh and blood individuals, complete with compelling and memorable details. Click here to learn about this detail.

Your Hero’s Support Character may be a Lover, Enemy, Friend, Whomever. He or she may lessen story tension by making us laugh now and then or enhance that tension by introducing an obstacle to your hero’s goal. Whatever the secondary character’s purpose,  they must be carefully written to have an impact and engage your reader.

The Most Readily Effective Cast is Headed by a Trio. The hero, her mate or sidekick, and the villain. The hero leads the story; the other two support the story. They are the foundation upon which the story is built. They keep your story moving. You must explore two critical questions for each. What must they do in this story situation? Where do they belong – on which side of the story conflict?

These Questions Relate Especially to the Motivation of a Mate or Sidekick. How this character responds. Why they respond. These are the essentials of their story role. Dig deep to find the best motivation ideas for this character. Determine what their resulting actions will be, and you have discovered how they will enlighten your story situation.

The Arc of the Sidekick’s Development Illuminates the Path they will Take. Make detailed notes on how they do or do not resolve the two crucial questions mentioned above. Whatever their path, these must be strong secondary characters. Their actions create dramatic events. Their interactions with the hero add emotional depth to her character, and to the story.

You are the Creator of your Story World and of Every Character’s Purpose. These characters serve your hero’s goals or impede them. You, as Creator, determine the specifics. The scenes, the action, the dialogue. Choose each of these for each character by weighing its potential to intensify story conflict. Because powerful conflict and struggle are the most essential support every successful story requires, and they are absolutely never secondary.

This is How to Write First Class Secondary Characters.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir, many articles and several blogs so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story

Storytelling, , ,

How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story. You want to write the best story you have in you. A story that has you on the edge of your seat while you write it and the reader on the edge of her seat when she reads it.

Character Motivation is Key. Motivation links your main character to your plot. What your character must do, and how intensely she is compelled to do that thing, will determine how gripping your story turns out to be. The character is driven by her motivation. Her actions create your story line. They are the fuse for the fireworks of your plot.

Your Character’s Drive to Act must be Powerful and Dramatic. Otherwise, your story will not be powerful and dramatic. Here’s how to find your way to storytelling power and drama. Take these five steps and you will be dancing the path to a page-turner story.

Step One. I have prepared a list of powerful character motivations. Motivations that can catapult your character and her story into the intensity stratosphere. Choose the motivation that will produce the most drama in your story’s situation by causing the most conflict for your character. Find that motivation list below.

Step Two. For a longer, more complex book, you might want your main character to have a secondary motivation as well. A slightly less driving force than her primary motivation, but compelling enough to create story lightning all the same. Which is How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story 

Step Three. Drape your author shoulders in your most grand and glorious imagination cape and brainstorm three possible examples of how exactly this primary motivation might  enter your character’s life with sufficient force to drive her passionately forward page after page. Choose the one that  conjures up maximum conflict and struggle for your character.

Step Four. Brainstorm three specific examples of how this motivation might come to life and be dramatized, as in acted out, in scenes starring your character. Scenes that will capture and command your reader’s attention with sharp dialogue and riveting action. Scenes potent enough to become  pivotal turning points in your story.

Step Five. Brainstorm the specific nature of the struggle, or more pointedly, the trouble that could befall your character in each of these pivotal scenes. Keep in mind that your goal as storyteller is to plunge your character into hot water, then turn the temperature up higher, higher, and higher still. That heat is what sets  pages turning rapidly for your reader.

The Mighty Seven Most Powerful Character Motivations.

#1 – Love – A powerful motivator that can drive a character to her best and worst behavior.

#2 – Self-Preservation – The threat of danger or death is another powerful motivator. Include the preservation others here. The impulse to save another person or persons from peril.

#3 – Self-Knowledge – Be careful about making this a primary motivation in commercial fiction. It can be a bit too subtle and inward for the popular marketplace to embrace with enthusiasm. Still, it may occur as a result of your character’s experiences in your story.

#4 – Pursuit of Adventure and Life Experience – Do not let this particular motivator make your protagonist behave recklessly unless we, as readers, can identify with and support that choice.

#5 – Honor or Duty – These motives can be difficult to make believable in many contemporary, realistic stories. But, if you are writing action-adventure or fantasy, feel free to go for it.

#6 – Greed – All motivations are not honorable or noble. This is one of those. For that reason, you might not want to choose it as fuel for your preferably admirable main character’s behavior.

#7 – Revenge – Another tricky choice. Powerful and believable for sure, but unattractive. Even a character intent upon avenging a wrongful death may be contemplating a heinous act of her own, and that is a touchy storytelling choice. Greed or Revenge work better as motivations for your villain, who must also be strongly driven.

Give your Hero Character Admirable Reasons for What she Does. A smart storytelling decision because, the nobler the motive, the more significant her struggle becomes. And, the more significant we believe your character’s struggle to be, the more we care about her and about your story. Which is How Your Main Character Builds a Powerful Story.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers

Writing Life Lessons, ,

Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers. Whatever happens, we must make certain we survive and thrive, as writers and as humans. A learning curve to be sure, and we struggle to surmount it. Some fall by the wayside. You may worry you could someday be among them, but you can prevent that. These are my Survive and Thrive Secrets.

Secret #1 – Be the Best You Can Be In the Present. Which does not mean to bury yourself in work and anxiety-inducing responsibilities. The first step is to identify your writing career goals. Not the goals someone else makes you feel you should attain. Your own true goals, the ones that won’t stress you out and burn you down.

Brainstorm these Good Goals. Sit with a piece of paper and/or a recording device and let your imagination fly. Do not edit yourself. Do not say, “That’s a ridiculous idea.” Or, “I can’t possibly do that.” Just write everything down, and say this to your inner critic. “Get lost!” Silencing discouraging voices is crucial among Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers.How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks,com

Review your Goal Possibilities List. Do so quickly. Read – or listen – through all of the ideas you have come up with and do so in a kind of rush. Check mark each goal idea that strikes you at heart level in a positive way as something you would really love to do. Winnow those heart-struck choices down to three at most. These are the goals tailormade for you to pursue.

Secret #2 – Stay Future-Focused. Study the publishing industry to scope out trends, not so you can chase after them, but so you are savvy about what is happening in the book-buying and book-reading marketplace. Always remember that many trends are just fads. They will fade and be gone before you can scramble onto the fad train to follow them.

On the Other Hand, you may Find Something with Legs. A trend that has taken a deep hold on the book world and looks like it will last. One that suits the way you want to move forward toward your own tailormade goals. Never sacrifice those goals for any market trend.

Secret #3 – Remain Past-Perfect. Hearken back to the basics. Do this again and again throughout your career. The basics of writing art and craft are the firm foundation upon which you must always stand. The tried and true remains tried and true. Storytelling basics do not succumb to trends.

Secret #4 – Cultivate the Art of Self Re-Invention. Exercise career flexibility. This is not a contradiction of what I have said before here. Any change of career direction you may contemplate must always take into primary account your personal tailormade goals. We are talking about an alternate route to those goals, not about abandoning their highway altogether.

Before you Contemplate any Change – Re-imagine the skills you already have. Brainstorm yet again, employing the same rules I have described above. What have you done in your writing career? What have you learned? Also, what have you most enjoyed? These are your skills.

Do Not Abandon your Skills – Adapt them. If you reach a legitimately insurmountable roadblock obstructing your path toward your goals, consider altering that path. Use the skills you have already acquired to accomplish that. This way you make your fresh start already ahead.

The Ultimate Secret – Persist Till You Prevail. Practice this proverb. “Fall down seven times. Get up eight.” Or as many times as are necessary to survive, necessary to thrive. Never give up. When you are tempted to do so, brainstorm this. Goethe said, “Be bold and great forces will come to your aid.” Yet another of Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets for Writers and for life.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Or add a comment question to this post. I will be honored to respond.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community. Her latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/