You’ve probably spent plenty of time thinking about your main character, making her/him/them well rounded and full of juicy flaws, wants, and needs.
Secondary characters need interesting flaws, wants, and desires too. Especially if your goal is to make your story unputdownable.
So … imagine that each of your secondary characters must undergo a performance review based on their “work” in your middle grade or young adult novel. How would you rate their performance?
Performance review for your characters
Answer true or false for each secondary character in your story.
The character:
- Has their own wants and needs. (Do you, the writer, know their wants and needs, even if they don’t show up in the story?)
- Has wants and needs that push or pull against the main character in some way.
- Is distinct from other secondary characters in a way that matters either to the main character or to the story overall.
- Has an arc of change of their own, even if it’s small or not visible to the reader.
- Has actions, thoughts, and feelings that could not easily be given to another character.
- Seems more like an actual person rather than a type (or a stereotype).
- Stands out in some way, even if they’re a part of a large group of friends, siblings, members of a community, etc.
Results of your character’s performance review
Count up the number of times you answered “true”:
6 or more times, congratulations! This character is an excellent performer for your story.
4 or 5 times, you’re on the right track. Your character may need some modest tweaking to improve their performance.
1–3 times, this character could use some tough love. Maybe they’re in the story as a placeholder while you figure out who else could fill their role. Maybe they need more development to fulfill your expectations of their work. Or maybe they need to be let go altogether.
You get to decide!
So how did your characters score?
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