So I've got my main character, and then some other main characters, and then a few characters that make brief appearances in the present narrative but remain important to the story, then there are the extras. What do you think about extras? Those waitresses who get the order wrong or the nurse who is late with the morphine or the clerk out the counter. They've got roles, but they're pretty small. Still, you need them. How often do you use extras? Do you bring them back into the story to try and give them bigger roles or next time your main characters are in the diner, do they get another waitress. These extras can come in and out quick, but they should have some substance to them. How much do you develop the character of your extras? Just been thinking about this. I've got one that I'm thinking of bringing back in my story. Just wondering how all you handle your extras?
It's a mixed bag. I'd think that's how it is usually, and should be, done. There are some extra characters I have created in my WIP that I have pop up again. For instance, early in the story, one of my MCs visits a bar and has a very brief altercation with the bouncer, in which the MC simply brushes past him. Later on, he shows up again to deal with their 'unfinished business', and the MC doesn't remember him at first, or care. I like the idea of doing that sort of thing- it brings out the world a little more, that these people might show up again, with their own priorities and interests, even if the main characters don't give one jolt about any of it.
It depends. I have a few characters that I just allow to fall by the wayside once their "job" is done, but I did have one extra who left in such a way as to leave my family became suspicious of him when he "suddenly went quiet". I just didn't have any part for him to play. If that novel was a movie he'd have been a real extra - literally in the background, doing his own thing, but I didn't have any way of bringing him back into limelight. In the end, I had the protagonist tell one of the MCs that that "extra" was a minor player in the attempt to kill him (protag) and his wife. But he didn't show up "in person" again.
It's fun to think about whether or not your minor spear carriers can fulfill a larger function. Maybe the waitress sees the main character often (he hangs out there a lot), as the story progresses, and can offer a sympathetic ear AND/or maybe picks up some information that proves important to the story later on. After all, she will wait on quite a few people during the day, and will be aware of lots of other people's activities, companions, favourite foods, etc. Maybe the clerk out at the counter sees something important and figures out your main character needs to know it. (I don't know if you saw the film Pretty Woman or not, but remember that nice desk clerk and the chauffeur? Without their combined input, the two main characters would not have been able to 'get together' at the end.) I would say that if your minor characters only perform one function, one time, it's probably not a good idea to give them names. They are just 'the forgetful waitress' or the 'pleasant nurse.' But if you can draw them into the story and maybe name them, so much the better.
This is interesting and maybe another topic altogether, but what do people think of characters that play a tole that is not entirely or at all in the present narrative? I too have an important character to my plot, but she's in and out of the actual storyline pretty quick. Sure, some of these might be extras, but sometimes the role in the story outweighs their appearance in the present narrative. Does anyone have experience with this, and how have you handled it in your story?
I have this store where the cashier was quite the talker the first time my MC went there. My MC has to go back to the store for something else. I wondered if I should have the same cashier behind the counter or if that would seem to convenient. I was thinking that my MC might have a few more trips back to this store. It could make the cashier a minor character rather than an extra, but I'm still wondering which is a better approach for the story.
Does it make sense to draw them into the story more? I mean since these are books and not movies, do we really have that much room for extras?
Yes it does, if they can do double-duty! And books do have leeway, in terms of 'room.' The waitress brings the coffee, listens with a sympathetic ear to the protagonist as he discusses a problem he's having (which gives us insight into his take on the problem), and then she maybe hears something from somebody else, later on, that helps him.
@deadrats, I introduced a lot of characters in my book, who seemed for a long time to be just tag-along characters. One was introduced almost as a whim on my part, a Cherokee on a Roman ship in the Red Sea as a deckhand, 2000 years ago. I gave him a name (Galosga (He-who-fell-down)) and dropped a few hints here and there. And he just sort of tagged along, wound up as part of the "Deck Protection Force" on a "repel borders" situation in the Straits of Malacca, then somehow tagged along into the heart of China. I kept saying he had to go, but he never did. Then suddenly near the end of the book, he rose to play a major role for several chapters, shaping the woman who would in turn shape my heroine. And Galosga is a major player ten years on in "The Long Road Back to Rome," the sequel to my first. Turns out he's getting to see an awful lot more of the world than he once knew even existed. And he still calls his Xiongnu wife huldaji, Cherokee for "Mountain lion". Neolithic farmer's eye on the First Century world. So don't be afraid to introduce them and just let them go. If when you are finished, you find they wound up as just background, you can cut them back or out.
Whenever possible, I reuse the same extras - because what's the point of creating a new extra, when the old one works and the reader will already know them and have some connection to them? I tend to try and give my extras a lot of character - maybe to my own detriment because I've often had readers tell me they really wanna know what happens to the extras lol. I think because they're not important to the story, I feel much freer about who they could be and where they came from etc, and suddenly they're a lot more colourful, less purpose-built. It's just a theory, but good extras could liven up your world, add that touch of colour or realism - or both - to your story. It may even be the edge that gives your story character I guess think of them as the sprinkles on top - they're not important, but they certainly do add a little something that makes it a real treat I wouldn't forego the sprinkles personally.
If your story is of "the butler did it!" type then you'd most probably want to keep the butler low profile until the big reveal in the end. Apart from that, I think it's quite fun to see a minor character return. That mostly happens in crime fiction, I think. Or could be that I've read a lot of crime fiction lately and that's what I most vividly remember.
