Writing Interesting Secondary Characters who Move Your Story Forward

Do your secondary characters fall flat? Or are they threatening to steal the story from your protagonist? Both are common problems that can be addressed by asking yourself this question:

How do my secondary characters relate to my protagonist?

No matter how interesting they may be on their own, you are writing your secondary characters to serve the person around whom the story spins. How do they contribute to that person’s growth? What does their presence reveal about them? What would be missing from the protagonist’s arc if they were not there?

It’s fairly common when revising a novel to find that multiple secondary characters can be combined into one, because they simply aren’t both doing enough heavy lifting in the plot to justify their presence. This also happens with novelizations of true events; combining multiple real people into one simply makes for a better narrative. When a story feels too crowded with characters who aren’t earning their keep, start by identifying the roles they need to be playing, then pare down and combine if necessary. After that you can worry about their personalities, backstories, and liveliness on the page.

Here are six major roles that secondary characters can fill in relation to the protagonist:

Foil

A foil is a character whose personality and values contrast with the protagonist’s in a way that reveals the protagonist more clearly to us, particularly when both characters begin with similar life experiences and perspectives. In Fouth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, Dain Aetos acts as a foil to protagonist Violet Sorrengail. Both grew up in military bases together as the children of top-ranked officials, but when their worldviews are challenged, Dain’s defense of the status quo highlights how daring and seditious Violet’s own response is.

A foil can also reveal to us when a protagonist is making reckless or ill-considered decisions, which adds depth and tension to the reading experience. If we live only within the perspective of the main character, we might never think to examine their decision-making too closely. In Disney’s Frozen, the audience is liable to be swept up in Anna’s budding romance with Hans, since its sudden nature is suited to the princess-movie genre. It’s not until Elsa, Anna’s foil, tells her she can’t marry a man she just met that the viewer recognizes that this is a flaw in Anna’s worldview that will be important to the plot.

Antagonist

The antagonist in a story exists to oppose the protagonist’s goals. They may do so for purely malicious reasons in a good-vs-evil story like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, a complex antagonist may simply have reasonable goals of their own that happen to conflict with the protagonist’s. Inspector Javert in Les Misérables fills this role, as his opposition to Jean Valjean comes from an unyielding moral code instead of a desire for conflict or power.

Not every story needs a character to fill the role of antagonist, since nature, circumstances, and social forces may also provide the necessary opposition.

Love Interest

This character is the object of the protagonist’s desires. They may be together during the story, or their romance may be a destination the story is moving toward. The effect this relationship has on the plot varies from genre to genre. In a romance, all or most important plot decisions will revolve around the relationship. In an action story or thriller, on the other hand, the reader is likely to feel dissatisfied if the protagonist abandons their genre-appropriate plans to pursue their love interest instead.

Examples of love interests are everywhere, from the Arthurian legends’ Guinevere to Lady Sybil in Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!. In a story with a love triangle, like The Hunger Games trilogy or the Twilight saga, the two potential lovers serve as foils to each other.

Sidekick

This character is Sam Gamgee to Frodo Baggins, or Sam Tarly to John Snow. You could say that every heroic character needs his Sam.

The sidekick is the protagonist’s supportive friend. They care for them, root for them, and stand up for them at need. Ideally, this is a relationship that the reader quickly comes to value deeply, which means that any threatened falling out or danger to the sidekick is an effective source of tension in the plot. The reader also forms opinions about the protagonist’s morality and likeability based on how they treat their sidekick.

Mentor

The mentor character is particularly recognizable in fantasy. The earliest manifestation we have a record of is Merlin from the Arthurian legends: old, white-bearded, knowledgeable, and sometimes cryptic and enigmatic. The same traits appear again and again in other hero’s-journey stories, as with Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars movies, Zedd in The Sword of Truth series, Brom in Eragon, and on and on. In narratives that stick less closely to the hero’s-journey tropes, of course, the mentor does not need to be a white-bearded man. Ole Golly from Harriet the Spy is one female example.

The mentor’s role is to impart information to both the protagonist and the reader. Sometimes the mentor’s death (or removal from the story in some other way) serves as the catalyst for the protagonist to accept the responsibility of stepping into their destined role.

Jester

The jester is a character who is a source of both comic relief and unexpected wisdom. The definitive example is the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear, who speaks in japes throughout the play but also provides wisdom that would have saved Lear if only he’d ever listened to it.

Historically, jesters and fools were individuals in a king’s court who a) were charged with providing entertainment and b) had the unique privilege of being allowed to speak the truth to the king without fear of repercussions. In literature and drama, the role has evolved to include various quirky, misunderstood characters who nonetheless have wisdom the protagonist needs to learn or who provide a path to a significant truth. Think of how Luna Lovegood’s connection with the disreputable Quibbler magazine in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turns out to be Harry’s only chance to expose the truth about his meeting with Voldemort, or how Pinkie Pie’s bizarre escapades in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic animated series regularly turn out to have meaning her friends could not have predicted.

Archetypes vs. Roles

If you research archetypical characters in literature, you’ll find many more than the six categories I have described. However, many of those archetypes can be classed within these six roles. A nurturer/caregiver can be a sidekick or a mentor. Innocents and misfits can both be jesters or foils. A magician might be an antagonist or a mentor. Just about anyone can be a love interest. So if your story isn’t working, don’t be distracted by tropes that tell you who your characters are. Start by identifying what they’re here to do for your protagonist and move forward from there.

Now that you have your characters sorted out, they’re going to end up talking to one another. Click here to read an editor’s tips for writing dynamic dialogue.