Writers also double as casting directors. We ransack our imaginations and experiences for characters, hoping to match them to the perfect plot. We spend a huge amount of time shaping the main and major characters, creating backstories and constructing arcs for them (not arks, unless you’re writing Biblical stories). But minor characters are important too. I’ve found that’s true especially in cozy mysteries. One of the hallmarks of a cozy mystery is the enclosed community in which it takes place. It can be a small town, small business, or some kind of club, any group that consists of a limited amount of people. Adding colorful and fun minor characters spices the mystery and ensures that my setting feels real and isn’t just populated with a detective and suspects. To manage minor characters, I divide them into two categories: supporting and walk-on.
Supporting Characters
I classify characters as supporting ones if their function is to further the plot. In my YA mystery short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”, I needed to establish some backstory. I had my main character Rae discuss a mysterious fire and the disappearance of a woman with Barb, the director of the library in which Rae works. When I wanted to introduce a new character and didn’t have the word count or time to create a new scene, I made him Barb’s boyfriend. That gave him an excuse to come to the library and run into Rae. In both cases, Barb helped propel the plot.
Walk-On Characters
Walk-on characters don’t have to do more than help the reader feel like the story is operating in a real place. If I only write about Rae and Barb when I have a scene at the library, it gives the impression that they are the only employees, which would be atypical. I mention a few other employees by name as Rae works her shift to make the main branch of the Marlin County Library seem real. Since the library is located in a small town within a rural county, Rae knows most of the people who come into the library by name. I can write something as simple as, “I had to cut short my conversation with my cousin as Mrs. Zollars staggered up to the desk with her usual load of romance novels”, to give my novel the small-town atmosphere it needs.
Click here for a post on how to flesh out minor characters.
Readers, what stories have you read that had great minor characters? Writers, how do you manage minor characters?
Jen Turano and Carolyn Miller always do a great job with minor characters, but then, they often use those characters as the mc in their next books. When I think about minor characters on the small screen, I think of Gilmore Girls and Call the Midwife and the new adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small.
I watched the original TV series of “All Creatures Great and Small” when I was a kid. I don’t know where they found the actors to portray the Yorkshire farmers, but almost everyone one of them looked like they’d worked a farm their entire life.
Kelley Armstrong is always good at characters, even minor ones. I think her best work with minor characters is in her Rockton series. Those supporting folks are full of surprises!
I like your explanation of supporting and walk-on characters. They do give a depth to stories and novels, to make them more realistic.