Novel Kicks Writing Room: Secondary Character Development

Published July 11, 2017 | By Laura

rp_writeanything-300x19911-300x1991-300x1991-300x199-300x1991-300x199-300x199-1-1-1-1-1-300x199-1-1-1-1-300x199-1-1-300x199-300x199-1-1-1-1-300x199-1-300x199-1-1-300x199-1-300x199-300x199-1.jpg In today’s Writing Room, the focus is on character.

Pick a secondary character from your work in progress

Write down five things that have happened in their lives that have been significant. Be as specific as you can. Once you’re done, expand on the event that you are most drawn to. You can use a character in your favourite book if you’d prefer. When expanding on this event, also note down how this has impacted on your plot.

For example, in my work in progress, there is a character named Maggie. She’s the mother of my main character, Carrie.

Significant event – husband left her with two children.

Maggie fell in love with Jack and married him when she was seventeen. Within the year, she was pregnant but when she found out that he hadn’t been honest with her, she lost the baby.

He went AWOL for a while after that. When he did come back, she did have a daughter. She found Jack in bed with another woman on the same day that she brought the baby home. Jack was supposed to come and get her but she ended up taking the bus with a new baby because he was elsewhere.

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Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.

Novel Kicks Writing Room: Secondary Character Development

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