Minor Character Roles: Web Tip

Today's web tip comes from author Paul Rance who looks at how to give your minor characters important roles in your story.

In a post from about a year ago, Rance tells us, "Minor characters can certainly be of great value in fiction, and they can often be as important as major characters. Minor characters will often be pivotal to the whole story, and/or be a vital thread linking the major characters."

Yes, indeed. Think of Gone with the Wind without Scarlett's Mammy or Robin Hood without Will Scarlet. We need those minor characters.

As you consider the roles of the people in your own life, you know there are some (family and intimate friends, for instance) who are main characters in your life, and others (a co-worker you see briefly a few times a week, perhaps?) who take more minor roles, but we need them all.

So do your fictional characters. Give them people to share their stories, push their lives along, move their worlds. Give them minor characters who have important work to do.

What minor characters have had great meaning for you?