The importance of less important characters

I’ve now completed another edit of Potatoes in Spring. I was generally looking to see that there was enough tension and that the story rattled along at an acceptable pace.  Generally, I think it did. I’m actually going to put one extra scene in about two thirds of the way through and that is it.

I also noticed, however, that two of significant minor characters seemed indistinct, even to me. I went through the whole text and found that I had made them different, except in one scene when I’d confused the two of them. I have to admit I tend to think of them as pair – B & C. One of the main characters has a group of friends.  A is the gang leader and tends to boss people about. B & C are two other girls in the circle of friends.  D is C’s brother and I suspect a romantic connection between him and A after my particular story has finished.

Now that I have corrected the misleading scene, I have a much clearer idea of the two girls.  B is leaning towards feminism and tends to offer slightly shocking opinions. C is very caring and a little old fashioned. Now that I understand their personalities better I have a much clearer picture of how they look. B has strong straight blond hair and a roundish face. She will have to make efforts to curl or wave her hair. C has naturally curly dark hair. I see A as also having dark hair but not as curly as D’s. I don’t mention this explicitly anywhere in the book. It will be interesting to see whether my readers pick up the same images.

Perhaps I’d ignored these medium strength characters somewhat. Hopefully my further examination of them and the corrections to that one scene will create a clearer picture for the reader.     

Pinning down those characters

Some argue that novels and short stories are all about character and that plot doesn’t matter all that much. I personally think that story is crucial – especially to the children, teens and young adults I write for. However, story only works properly if it comes out of character, and the stories are only convincing if the characters are believable. The story comes out of the tension between them and form a setting that acts upon them.

Writers really need to know their characters inside out, upside down and back to front. They must know the physical, the intellectual and emotional traits, what is important in this story, what their greatest ambition is and what they fear most. The writer needs to know it but doesn’t necessarily need to share all of it.  Magically, it often comes across anyway.

The characters must be true to themselves throughout the novel / story and they must grow – especially in a young adult novel. They must also be rounded – never completely evil nor completely good.              

This is what I’ve been looking at in my latest edit. Because of the way Potatoes in Spring is structured it was relatively easy to look at one character at a time. I was able to follow the Renate strand, the Hani strand, and then look at the individual girls’ letters, then Hanna Braun and Käthe Edler. I did have to read more generally for the more background characters.  And yes, they are important too.

Most of the growth happens in Renate and Hani, but the others all must move on too.

Have I succeeded in getting the characters right? I hope so. In fact, if I’m to be professional about this, I am duty-bound to do so. But can I see it clearly enough? Thank goodness for critique groups!

At least I like all of my characters. Even the dysfunctional SS officer who constantly snipes at Renate’s mind.

And so, onwards!