How do you view minor characters?

[bevgray]

I had an interesting comment from one of my readers in an email the other day. It caught my eye so I wrote about it on my writing blog. In essense, this reader was complimentary on the way I handled minor characters (think extras or one-liners in a movie).

I would be very interested from my fellow readers and writers of historical fiction as to how you view minor characters. Do you like them to have detail or do you like them to stay well in the background so that you don't have to keep track of them with the major characters?

[Justin Swanton]

[quote=""bevgray""]I had an interesting comment from one of my readers in an email the other day. It caught my eye so I wrote about it on my writing blog. In essense, this reader was complimentary on the way I handled minor characters (think extras or one-liners in a movie).

I would be very interested from my fellow readers and writers of historical fiction as to how you view minor characters. Do you like them to have detail or do you like them to stay well in the background so that you don't have to keep track of them with the major characters?[/quote]

I consider minor characters to be of the utmost importance. Historical fiction is about recreating a society with norms, customs, prejudices and priorities that no longer exist (as opposed to putting contemporaries into togas and long dresses). To succeed in this, everything depends on the minor characters. They don't have to do or say much to convey the mood of the time, but I feel one has to already know quite a bit about their backgrounds before letting them speak.

Tolkien was the master of this - his characters were so developed, with so much history behind them, that I don't know if one can really talk about 'minor' characters in LOTR. A lot of thought has gone into everything they say and do - right down to the talkative servant woman in the House of Healing at Minas Tirith.

Another thing about minor characters - they do a lot towards shaping the personalities of the main protagonists. Try to imagine Heathcliff without old Joseph. If personality can be defined as the way one reacts to others, then minor characters are very important in defining the personalities of the major characters. At least, that's how it worked out for me.

The reader, too, will want to be able to sum up a character who does more than make a momentary appearance as a piece of furniture (guards, etc.). That means giving him enough information to assess the minor character's overall personality, which means not making him wooden or one-dimensional. Readers, I find, are intelligent and fussy (I am - well fussy, at least!).

Hope this is of use.

[bevgray]

Thanks, Justin. That's the sort of analysis I was interested in receiving. For me, I prefer more color too so that may be why I try to add a bit more when I write. I agree about Tolkien. Dickens also had a flare for it.

[fljustice]

I agree with Bev, Dickens has a lot to teach us about "minor" characters. I try to give all my spear carriers some physical and/or verbally unique characteristics that help build the society and shape my primary characters. Not always easy!