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  1. Partridge

    Partridge Senior Member

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    Help with very minor characters

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Partridge, Apr 30, 2020.

    How do you all deal with "bit part" characters?

    For example, in my current WIP, my MC right now is running round a lot of shops, having to interact with the staff (yes, the dialogue he has with them is relevant to the plot and needed to advance it, I can't just cut it out).

    It's written in the first person, so these people are often just described at "the guy who I thought was the manager because he had a tie on" and things like that.

    I seems naff to me, but I don't want go into detail with a character who I'll need for two or three sentences and will never use again.

    Inspiration, help or abuse welcome.
     
  2. Lazaares

    Lazaares Contributor Contributor

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    The best writing I see tends to "characterize" even the tiniest characters, and also tends to re-use them; transform them into episodic characters instead of "bit parts". Here I refer to Les Miserables, War and Peace, ASOIAF in part and also to some of the greatest video game writing like VTM Bloodlines.

    Some highlights from the interview; Brian Mitsoda's words:
    "I don’t like my NPCs to be standing around as if their lives begin when the character starts talking to them and end when the player leaves. Characters are the protagonists of their own game, from their perspective."

    "One-off characters that you talk to once, need to have hooks or personality traits that make them immediately fascinating, or they feel like just another quest item depository. It’s nothing but putting a little extra effort into it – thinking about who the character is, what they want, what they think of the player, why they’re standing around, and how they’re sizing up or trying to take advantage of the player"

    Even though this he says about video game writing, I definitely think it applies to all writing. With this in mind, you benefit greatly from "re-casting" characters. In Les Mis, you have Fauchelevent who could have been a random dude saved by Valjean, though ends up returning a favour a few chapters later in his newfound gardener job. War and Peace regularly replaces "filler characters" with main characters in situations where they fit, even though the chance of them being there is ridiculously low. And in VTM Bloodlines, the same happens: a random guard character you meet in the initial chapter turns up as the receptionist to one of the main characters who lets you in & comments on your exploits.

    So the questions: would your MC know the shopkeepers? Perhaps the cashier's an old friend of his. Could the MC meet the shopkeeps anywhere else? They shouldn't just be static behind-the-desk characters; they too visit pubs in the evening, have families, attend celebrations and flee from catastrophes.
     
    Hammer likes this.
  3. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I think the walk-ons are massively important!

    Use them for world building, atmosphere, humour, hints at plot points...

    Terry Pratchett is a master of the walk-on, some of his early bit parts develop into major characters in later works
     
  4. Steve Rivers

    Steve Rivers Contributor Contributor

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    As Hammer says, if your world has a lot to it, it can feel forced if your main characters keep being the insight into it, especially if they wouldn't naturally know something that you want to get across.

    Bit part extras can be tailor-made to perform the function you need as well as give insight or knowledge to the reader, and flesh out the world. If you're not taking full advantage of them, then it can be an opportunity lost.
    A 'for example,' in my own book, my main characters are all in privileged positions, a CEO of a corporation, a Major in the army. Even the one main character I have that comes closest to seeing the world through an every-day person's perspective is working for the richest people. I needed a throwaway character for a couple of scenes for a specific purpose so I made sure they conveyed at least a part of what it felt to be "normal" in this world, so the reader can see through their eyes and understand how utterly awful it is.

    Readers see your world and its people through the eyes of your characters, even throwaway ones. Dont waste a chance to make full use of it.
     
    Not the Territory likes this.
  5. Damage718

    Damage718 Senior Member

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    Have you ever gone into a store and the person(s) working there said or did something funny? Or inadvertently reminded you of something you needed to buy or do? Perhaps you could do something similar here. Maybe use the minor characters for a small injection of humor, or maybe something they say to the MC gives him an 'aha!' moment, or a reminder or something, that drives the plot/subplot.
     

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