Inconspicuous Characters
I've always noticed that in good books, there are characters that do not play a huge rule for the plot. They are just there. Part of the background. Just chilling out there eating a pomegranate and singing some old Irish songs. As much as these characters really don't have anything to do with the plot, they are essential for the whole story to feel real.
Hmm...how shall I put this?
Well, how about this.
If you were just walking down the street, totally focused on you, yourself, your problems, etc., there really isn't anything interesting about that. You need to have your characters thinking their subconscious thoughts or have your narrating voice pick up on those characters lurking in the shadows, without making them into a full-blown main/secondary character. If you just have Billy walking down the street and doing absolutely nothing, not making observations or anything else, there's not much you can do. But if Billy is accidentally bumped into by a passerby, that adds just a squick more to the story. It breaks up the monotony and makes your story more realistic.
Even if you're going for the fantasy or sci-fi writing styles and your character is in an abandoned city, your character can still feel uneasy or confused as to why the usual mob isn't around, jostling for fruits. If you just have your character going about their day like normal in this city, give them an old memory that was rooted up by a certain object to remind them of those days when people would do this and that on their little jaunts through town.
Whatever way you choose to incorporate those little characters that don't have anything to do with the story, but make it more real, you simply cannot do a story without them. You just can't. The descriptions wouldn't work, nor would the narration.
That is all.
Hmm...how shall I put this?
Well, how about this.
If you were just walking down the street, totally focused on you, yourself, your problems, etc., there really isn't anything interesting about that. You need to have your characters thinking their subconscious thoughts or have your narrating voice pick up on those characters lurking in the shadows, without making them into a full-blown main/secondary character. If you just have Billy walking down the street and doing absolutely nothing, not making observations or anything else, there's not much you can do. But if Billy is accidentally bumped into by a passerby, that adds just a squick more to the story. It breaks up the monotony and makes your story more realistic.
Even if you're going for the fantasy or sci-fi writing styles and your character is in an abandoned city, your character can still feel uneasy or confused as to why the usual mob isn't around, jostling for fruits. If you just have your character going about their day like normal in this city, give them an old memory that was rooted up by a certain object to remind them of those days when people would do this and that on their little jaunts through town.
Whatever way you choose to incorporate those little characters that don't have anything to do with the story, but make it more real, you simply cannot do a story without them. You just can't. The descriptions wouldn't work, nor would the narration.
That is all.
True. They are necessary too in a book to keep the story from going blah.
ReplyDeleteIndeed they are.
DeleteMy problem is that all my characters must have a purpose. They can't just be there for the protagonist to bump into. If the protagonist bumps into them, it means they'll show up later.
ReplyDeleteYou have a point. But if a squirrel bumped into the MC, it might be hard to include that later in the book.
Delete