A few weeks ago, I got some feedback from a contest I'd entered. And, while it wasn't the glowing "congratulations, first place!" I'd hoped for, it was incredibly valuable because (aside from being a really good Shit Sandwich of constructive criticism) it pointed out something I hadn't even considered.
You see, it was for a TV pilot of mine, and I'd done all the work - outlined, revised, did character sheets for the Main Three, made a TV bible, a pitch package... you name it, I did it.
So while the feedback reflected that, it also showed what I'd put by the wayside completely by accident.
The secondary characters.
I had some, of course, and they had different voices and behaved differently, and I knew their motivations inside and out - including who was going to betray who later on down the series road - but the reader noticed something. In the pilot, all of the secondary characters seemed to be essentially the same person because they were hitting all of the same beats. They all spoke to the main character the same way, told the same stories, reaffirmed the protagonist's beliefs that "hey maybe this town is a little nuts".
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, all the characters having the same information, especially in the setting the pilot is in. However, they all went about telling my protagonist the same way, and that made it feel to the reader like I hadn't put thought into these characters, or that I was using them as props to the story.
They said it much nicer than that, and while part of me was going "wait, wait, you don't know how they're going to act down the line!", the rest of me realized that it didn't really matter. Having future plans for the characters is important, but it doesn't matter if you can't get it across in the pilot.
So, how do writers combat using a secondary character as a prop instead of creating a fully-rounded character?
Now, I'm not saying that every single person you see on screen in feature or tv needs a backstory and a family tree. However, if they're going to be on screen repeatedly, and for more than a few lines?
Treat them like the main character.
My plan of attack before the next rewrite is to go through the story beats with each of those side characters as the main character. They didn't exist as soon as the protagonist arrived, they all have lives and will continue to have lives as the protagonist goes about their business. The scenes don't freeze as soon as the main character leaves the room, and while I hadn't forgotten that, I hadn't made it clear in my writing.
And sometimes, it's easy to forget that. When we're writing, there's so much to keep track of that side characters often fall in to "prop" status without us realizing it. We're so busy trying to make the scenes organic, to have them move the story forward, to affect the reader, that the people in the scene who aren't going to bring the audience along to the next stage are often forgotten.
So, regarding the title, secondary characters hold an interesting position (at least, to me) where they have to be both prop and person. If they only hit one beat each and every time, things are going to get really boring for the viewer (not to mention the poor actor) really fast. That's not to say that they can't be found in one particular spot - think Cisco or Caitlyn Snow in The Flash's first season, they were at Star Labs most of the time - but they had their own stories, they were dynamic. Their characters developed as time went on, of course, but in the beginning, that's where they would be found.
Character interviews are always fun, for me. The trick is in finding a list of questions that eventually stray away from the usual questions, and sometimes I diverge from the list and create a scenario instead. Writing prompts are great for this, and if you have a chance I also highly recommend Pixar's Storytelling In A Box through Khan Academy.
I'm going to do my best, but the upcoming weeks are a bit hectic - commitments are taking me out of the province for a bit. So, while I do my best to embrace my time management tips and tricks, let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like me to give my opinions on.
Happy re-writes!