In today’s video I’ll be continuing with Part 5 of a 7 part Video series on 7 Steps to Nail down Your Novel Before You Begin Writing.

Today’s Video is PART 5 of our series: Brainstorm and write down details about your secondary character(H2). Your secondary character(aka: best friend, mentor, or even frenemy, etc.) helps your Hero achieve their goal. Write down your secondary character’s backstory, their personality and their goals.

Just a little aside here: The ideas I share in this video seres are brainstorming techniques that have helped me to write my own novels. But it’s important to remember that all writers are unique in their own way and what works for you … might not be what has worked for me. I want to encourage you to experiment with different methods for brainstorming your own story ideas — and come up with a way that works best for you.

But that being said, lets first dive into why it’s important to write down details about your secondary character…

The secondary good character is important to your story because they help the main character achieve the goal.

The secondary character can have a variety of roles in the Hero’s life: mentor, best friend or even frenemy(a character who appears to a friend, but is really the Hero’s rival or enemy).

Usually, the secondary character has a different personality than the Hero and has skills that the Hero lacks. They usually have very strong feelings about the Hero. Think, best friend or frenemy.

The characters you surround your hero with will tell us a lot about your main character.

Just as it is in real life, the characters that surround your her or heroine should be characters in their own right, but they also reflect a lot about your Main Character.

The secondary character and Hero don’t have to like each other, but they are usually working on the same side, pulling the story in the same direction.

Some examples of Secondary Characters:

The best friend; the roommate, the sidekick, the love interest; the brother or sister — all of these types of secondary characters can reveal different sides of the protagonist.

The Mentor — a good mentor knows the Main Character better than they know themselves.
The mentor often represents the Hero or Heroine’s higher power or superego…. And holds the KEY to the life lesson the Hero/Heroine needs to learn.

The great thing about a Mentor character is that they’re allowed to be on the nose and say exactly what it is that the Hero/Heroine needs and wants and why they are too messed up to get it … unless they follow the advice of the mentor of course.

Example: In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s first mentor was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan was a hermit… and also a war hero, who taught Luke to fight and gave Luke his first lightsaber.

The Love Interest in a Romance: this secondary character generally plays a dual role: the love interest can also be the antagonist(at least in the beginning), an ally or mentor. The object of desire is very often the opposite of the Hero or Heroine and therefore represents all the qualities that the Main Character needs to become whole.

Here’s an important note about creating your characters:

The most important factor of all is whether your characters are interesting and believable to you. Because you are the first audience for the story you’re telling.

If you as the writer don’t care about your character, you can’t possibly write an interesting story about her or him. If you don’t believe in a character, there is no chance that you can make your readers believe in him either.

Orson Scott Card in his book, Characters and Viewpoint,  says that caring for your characters — isn’t something that you decide intellectually. It’s a feeling, a gut-level response.

When you get an idea for a character, you either get interested and excited and know that you want to write about it, or you don’t.
And if you don’t, if a character or story idea bores you… you can’t possibly write a convincing or engaging story — unless you find something else about the character that does interest you.

Every story choice you make with your characters or even the overall theme of your story, arises out of who you are… at the deepest level of your soul.

Every story you write, shows who you are and the way you see the world around you — reveals more about you…than you know about yourself.

Once you have a story— and characters — that ring true to you … including a story that feels important and worth telling, then you don’t write just to please yourself. At that point you must use every ounce of skill you have — everything you’ve learned through experience — to help your readers discover how important and truthful your story is.

This is to help them understand what’s going on and to bring them into the world of your story and let the events and characters unfold before their eyes — in their imagination and in their memory.

So when we are creating a secondary or main character for that matter — remember character story is about a person trying to change her or his role in life. It begins at the point when the main character finds his present situation unbearable and set out to change that; And it ends when the character either finds a new role, willingly returns to her or his old role; or becomes hopeless that his lot in life will ever get better.

At the beginning of your story —- normally within the first chapter or two — we see the main character dissatisfied with something about his or her life. Often by chapter two we are introduced to the secondary character who in some way helps the reader to understand the main character.

For example, in a romance if the Heroine is a bubbly outgoing character type who is dissatisfied with her boyfriend who likes to manage her time and her art and flower shop… perhaps her dissatisfaction with her boyfriend, causes her to break off their relationship at the beginning of the story.

Next the main character comes to cry on her best friend’s shoulder. This is the secondary character — who is the Heroine’s best friend. This secondary character is the opposite of the Main Character… studious and organized type.

This secondary character might be the person who is the steadying force in the main character’s life and offers a bunch of wisdom just like she’s always done ever since they were in high school.

In the previous example, we can see the main character is dissatisfied with something about her life. Then we are introduced to the secondary character who in some way helps the main character. Now since this is a romance, readers would soon be introduced to Hero… who she would be attracted to but perhaps she wouldn’t allow herself to fall in love with — as she has experienced too much heartache in her relationships with men.

Readers need to understand the main character as well as the secondary character well.

The character story is the one that requires the fullest characterization. No shortcuts.
Readers must understand the character in their ordinary world — and in their impossible role so that they comprehend and hopefully sympathize with the decision to make changes in their lives.

This week, ask some questions of your secondary character.

What are their deepest wounds and fears? What happened in their background to cause these fears? 
How does your secondary character’s personality create a great supporting part for your main character?

Remember: Choose a personality for your secondary character that is different to your Hero. Your secondary character should compliment your Hero, rather than competing with them.

Begin brainstorming and write down your ideas today. You can do this.

I often find it helpful to brainstorm either with a pen in my notebook, or on a whiteboard — somewhere where I’m forced to physically write out my ideas. For some reason, I find I’m more creative when I can use my a pen or marker on a physical surface. I encourage you to try it and see if it helps you too.

After you’ve done that, you will be ready for the next blogpost and video in this series. Part 6 — is coming up next.

In the next video, we will discuss how to brainstorm ideas on who your Villain is. Write out details. Get a vivid picture of who this bad guy is(including backstory), who tries to stop the Hero from reaching their goal.

I’ll share what that looks like next time.

Thanks for joining me today and I’m excited for you as begin your journey to write amazing stories!

Happy writing! 🙂