WHY SECONDARY CHARACTERS ARE SO MUCH FUN…
In my new Angel’s Bay series, SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, I not only had the opportunity to create the fictional town of Angel’s Bay but also to develop an entire community filled with interesting characters. While I loved creating the central hero and heroine, Jenna and Reid, who have all kinds of interesting secrets and an emotionally compelling story line, I must admit that I had a lot of fun developing the secondary characters.
Minor players in a story can be quirkier. Their personalities can be more extreme. They can be flawed without any redeeming qualities. They can be saints or sinners or somewhere in between. There’s a certain freedom to writing a secondary character, because there aren’t any expectations. They don’t even have to be particularly likeable; they just have to be interesting.
In SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, I introduce several characters who will have continuing story lines through the series. One is the chief of police, Joe Silveira, who is half-Hispanic, half-Irish, and you know with that combination, he’s going to be trouble. Joe has come to Angel’s Bay after years of working vice for LAPD. While he’s thrilled with this new change in his life, his wife, Rachel, a realtor to the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, is nowhere near as happy. Rachel is brittle, ambitious sophistication, and finds fitting into this idyllic seaside community a definite challenge. But she loves her husband, or at least she thinks she does. They’ve been together a long time…fell in love as kids…but now find themselves wondering if their love can stand the test of time.
Joe also finds himself reluctantly attracted to the charming, beautiful OB/GYN in town, Charlotte Adams. Charlotte has her own problems. After coming back to Angel’s Bay after her father’s funeral, she is dealing with her mother and a strained mother-daughter relationship that continually tests her patience. She’s also shocked when her old boyfriend, Andrew, turns up in town as the new minister. Charlotte has secrets in her past that she doesn’t want Andrew or anyone else to find out.
The challenge of writing books with multiple characters is to make sure the secondary characters stay in their place and are used to enhance the feature couple and at times echo themes in the plot. Sometimes the secondary characters demand their day in the sun and become a feature couple in another book. One of the secondary characters in my book, SILENT RUN, was an eccentric painter who had a beautiful ethereal personality but painted monstrous grotesques pictures of murders, usually after awakening from a nightmare. Catherine eventually got her own story in SILENT FALL, but she originally started out as a throwaway character who could provide a clue to a crime. Who knew those horrific paintings would make me want to write her story? I certainly didn’t. But then I’m a writer who loves to plot out only the basic story line and find additional inspiration along the way.
So who are some of your favorite secondary characters? Anyone stand out?
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Please leave a comment to enter to win a copy of SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER. To read the back cover copy and Barbara’s bio, visit yesterday’s post. To learn more about Barbara and her books, please visit her website.
Barbara, I love series books like yours, where the fun secondary characters can be the h/h in future books. I recently read Nancy Haddock’s Last Vampire Standing, and she has Jo-Jo, a vampire jester, who was a lot of fun. On TV, Anny in NCIS is Abby is a secondary character, and she’s a favorite of mine and my husband.
Barbara:
I love your books. You have secondary characters that are interesting but don’t take over the story. I have read some books where the secondary character became more interesting than the main character. I think a secondary character that stayed with me over the years was Boo Radley in Too Kill A Mockingbird.
I love series books, too, especially if they are done well. I loved Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, which always had some interesting secondary characters – Lady Whistledown, anyone?
Margay
My favorite secondary character is Melanie Hamilton or “Miss Melly.” She gets more prominent throughout GONE WITH THE WIND, but never to the point of stealing the show (like anyone could outshadow Scarlett O’Hara)!
Barbara, I’ve read several of your books and loved them. Congrats on this latest release, and know I’ll be picking it up.
Hi Barbara,
I enjoyed your blog. I hear you on the secondary characters. 🙂 At times they’re hard to control. My all time favorite series is the Quinn brothers in the Chesapeake Bay series by Nora Roberts. I was thrilled when the secondary character, Phillip Quinn from Sea swept was given his own book, “Inner Harbor,” as the third book. The opening scene is to me the absolutely optime of a spot on characterization. My all time favorite book character intro. Take care and I wish you continued success!
Diana
Romance Edged With Danger
Hi everyone – thanks for the warm welcome. Sorry I’m a little behind, I’m on the west coast!
Ruby – I’m with you on the secondary characters that are sometimes more interesting than the main couple. I’ve felt that way reading a few books, and I try not to let that happen in my own, rather just give enough to keep them interesting but not let them take over!
Diana – I loved the Quinn brothers, and I think I’ve read just about all of Nora’s books over the years.
In my series, some of the secondary character story lines are going to play out across the books, and they won’t become the central couple necessarily. In some series books, I feel like you know too much about a secondary couple and then when they get their own story, it’s a little boring. So I’m going to be choosy about who eventually gets to star in their own book
The Angel’s Bay series has lots of back story and legends and twists and turns that tie people together in surprising ways, because I love to complicate my stories! One of my brainstorming friends gets a dazed look on her face every time I start talking about my plots, but I just can’t help myself. I like to add tiwists where you least expect them, although I wish they were easier to come up with. I often stump myself!
Hi Barbara, great blog! 🙂 Love your books, btw. I agree, secondary characters definitely can evolve into their own stories. Yesterday I picked up SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER and began reading it last night. As soon as you introduced Joe Silveira I knew he would be a major player. Will his story be next in the series? One of my favorite secondary characters was Natalie in Barbara Delinsky’s “The Vineyard.” I loved the heartbreak of her story.
Congrats on the first release of your new series!
Mary JF.
Janet Evanovich writes amazing secondary characters-Grandma Mazur, Lula, Connie, Vinnie… I could go on. What Diana said about Nora’s Chesapeake Bay series is spot on. I loved that series.
I love series books! When I finish a really good book I’m never ready to let the characters go. They stay in my mind and I wonder what will happen next with them. Sometimes it seems like the secondary characters just have more to their story, more to tell. One of my favorite authors is Debbie Macomber. I have just recently discovered her older series that are coming back around again. I have to admit that I haven’t read one of your books yet (hanging head in shame), but ‘Suddenly One Summer’ looks wonderful and I can’t wait to pick it up. :o)
Hi Mary – thanks for picking up my book – I hope you like it! Joe is going to be a major player in my series, but he won’t get his own story for awhile.
Hi Beth – I love Janet E’s “Grandma” — she was priceless.
Ooh, fun idea for a guest post! And, yeah, secondary characters are often some of my favorites, especially when they get a love story of their own.
Hi Barbara,
I’ve been a huge fan ever since “Daniel’s Gift” which has a place of prominence on my keeper shelf! Can’t wait to read “Suddenly One Summer.”
I love secondary characters too, both in series books and in stand-alones. The one that quickly comes to mind is Chaz, a secondary character in the latest Susan Elizabeth Phillips release – “What I Did For Love.” She was quirky and fun and I wouldn’t be surprised if SEP gives her a starring role in an upcoming book.
Hi Caryn – thanks for stopping by!
Hey Laura – Daniel’s Gift will forever be one of my favorite stories. I wrote that book after my 13-year-old niece died unexpectedly and the family had started talking about “near death” experiences in children. I did some reading on it, and it triggered the idea to write Daniel’s Gift. I am hoping that my current publisher may pick it up and re-release it as it’s currently out of print, but we’ll see.
Hi everyone, and welcome to Barbara!
Barbara, your new series sounds great. When I write a book, I usually come up with ideas for 2 or 3 sequels. Whether I ever write those sequels is another matter. But when I introduce a secondary character, I start thinking, what would their story be? Even if I never write it, it’s like I need to know for the book I’m currently writing. Or maybe it’s just my writer’s mind playing What If?
I love how SEP introduces secondary characters and then gives them their own stories. I’m reading a Stephanie Bond mystery series right now, and the heroine of the series was a secondary from an earlier SB novel. I’m really enjoying her, much more than I did when she was a secondary. I couldn’t quite pinpoint her character in the book that she was a secondary in, but now that I “know” her through the mystery series, I really like her.
Good luck with your new series!
Oh, and I’m so sorry to hear about your niece.
I love good secondary characters. It’s great to be able to follow them through a series whether they eventually get their own book or not. I read more series than stand alone books because you get to know the characters better and want to see what happens to them next.
Your books sound like a lot of fun! I can’t wait to find them in stores.
I love your perspective on secondary characters. Without the usual limitations and expectations of genre, I do find secondary characters much more fun to write. Usually promising a secondary character his or her own future space works. But, I will admit that one secondary character in my first story was so strong that I had to kill him off:) Some readers of early drafts kept mistaking him for the hero, rather than just a friend with strong influence in the heroine’s life.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Barbara!! I was just in my other room yesterday and was going through your books I kept, one beat up copy of DANIEL’S GIFT, ASK MARIAH (that one is worse beat up from the reads! Its so hard for me to pick a favorite. I feel a re-read coming on! And then today saw you had a chat here (from Twitter) and thought so neat! Gosh, this book sounds so emotional. Thats what I love about your books, I get so into them and feel the emotions along with your characters. With your books in small towns, I love knowing they all have their HEA story. So I often want to know their story. Its like I begin to feel part of the town there too. I just read THE WEDDING by Julie Garwood. This is one of the secondary characters from the first book, THE BRIDE. They were equally beautiful reads! I’m not sure which are the secondary characters (the hero or heroine or both) because its been a while since I read THE BRIDE, but knew this was the spin off of the book. Its always what I’m reading now that’s a favorite. I think each book I read is unique in itself and tells its own story so they all are up there, you know. Yes there’s a special book here and there, especially SILENT MELODY by Mary Balogh that’s a spin off of HEARTLESS. It’s the sister who is deaf, Lady Emily Marlowe story. That one because its close to my heart in meaning (I’m deaf too) that I could even more connect with the character. All this chat of these characters has me wanting to re-read all these favorites!
Congrats on the new series Barbara! It brings me back beautiful memories of your earlier books!
Hi Barbara,
Congrats on the new release. i think my favorite secondary character is Anne Mallory’s St. John. I hope he gets his own book soon. One of my favorite secondary characters from tv is Sam in “Burn Notice.” He’s such a lovable and likable character.
Hi Barbara!
Your new series sounds wonderful! Congrats on your new release.
Like Jane, one of my favorite secondary characters these days is on television. Bruce Campbell plays Sam on “Burn Notice” and he’s such a hoot.
Looking forward to reading your latest!
–Chiron O’Keefe
The Write Soul: http://www.chironokeefe.blogspot.com
Looking forward to reading the latest book. Some secondary characters were once stars of their own books and I’m always pleased to see what is happening in their lives. It can get confusing for the first time reader who has no clue but I like to see them. The first JD Robb I read was a story in a collection and she had so many secondary characters that the story didn’t pull me into reading the previous books until someone gave me Naked in Death. Read that, read more and the story made sense and I cared about the outcome.
Have you ever had a minor quirky character that didn’t seem suitable to be a main character that needed a story of his or her own and then you had to clean the character up or come up with a lengthy explanation as to why he or she was that way and how he or she changed to become heroic?
Carolyn Williamson
Hi Elaine – If you like Debbie Macomber books, you’ll be happy to hear that she gave ma great endorsement on my new series — “This book has it all: heart, community, and characters who will remain with you long after the book has ended. A wonderful story.” Debbie Macomber
Cindy – It does help to know more about the secondary characters than you ever actually write — it gives you more latitude and gives the characters dimension. This is probably true of a lot of aspects of writing. I always research far more than I ever use.
Angela T – Thanks for dropping by!
Kathryn – LOL on killing off your secondary character because he got to be too important. Sometimes they do take over.
Hi Caffey – So glad you enjoyed my earlier books. SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER is an emotional story. I feel like I’m returning to my roots. I like suspense, too, but I really enjoy digging into the emotions of characters and I’m thrilled that I get to do that again. The idea for ASK MARIAH btw came from a game that my kids had at the time called ASK ZANDAR (I think that was the name) anyway, it was fun to use something like that in the story.
Hi Jane – I love Anne Mallory’s St. John — Anne and I occasionally brainstorm together at Starbucks and I so enjoy her books!
Hi Chiron – Thanks for stopping by and chatting – I’ve only seen one episode of Burn Notice, but it sounds like I should try to catch a few more.
Ann – You’re so right about later books getting overwhelmed by secondary characters – I’m working really hard not to let that happen. I do want each book to stand on its own because we all know that sometimes it’s hard to find earlier books once the series gets going. I have a few key characters that will be popping up a lot but not every secondary character will appear in every book, only the ones where their role is important to the new central story. Or because I left them hanging in the previous book LOL
Hi Barbara,
Congratulations on your successful writing career!
I enjoy reading books with secondary characters I believe will become main characters in the next book or so. To me, it’s always fun to watch the redemption at last of the very “bad boy” who was a secondary character in a previous story.
I’ve enjoyed your posts. Great to see you here!
Jeanmarie
Hi Jeanmarie – I love the redeemed “bad boy”, too. One of my favorite characters to read and write!
I just submitted my first novella yesterday- I had toyed with including the best friend of the hero but decided his story will make another book. The brother-in-law of the heroine is only introduced briefly but is a jerk- trying to rob her of her farm- but he’ll fall for a slave girl on the auction block and redeem himself in the third book…
At the same time, I found this a lot of work and while the stories beg to be told, think I need a bit of mental rest before starting in again.
MariElle – Congrats on getting your novella done. I always feel mentally spent after finishing a book, but a couple of days off and usually those other stories start clamoring to be told!
Thanks Cindy for letting me guest on your blog and appreciate all those who came to visit and commented. I think Cindy will pick a winner, and I’ll send them a copy of my new book, SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER.
Thanks again for having me. It was a blast!
I love Lynn Kurland’s secondary characters in her time travels. They’re recurring from book to book as much as possible and most even end up with their own books. She’s created a great series of characters that are all interwoven from the past to present.
Great post. Thanks, Barbara!
Yes, I’ll pick a winner by random draw tomorrow morning, announce it here, and let Barbara know.
Entries accepted until midnight, so it’s not too late.
Barbara, I’ll let you know tomorrow morning if there are more comments.
Great day, everyone!
:::Drum Roll!::: The winner of SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, choen by random draw out of an empty Nestle “Real Dairy” Maple Walnut ice cream container…(never try this ice cream, you’ll be addicted)…is……..
Edie Ramer!
Congratulations, Edie. Look for a private email from moi in your inbox.
Barbara, thank you again for a great blogging day. Wishing you many happy sales!