In Defense Of Shallow Characters

In defense of shallow characters -- Some people just simply are shallow.

Yes, for the most part, we want to have story characters with depth, mystery, and things to discover. We want to follow their character arc throughout the story, to see them change and grow, to go with them on their journey of transformation.

But sometimes, it simply isn’t there. Nor should it be.

You probably know at least one person who only has the depth of a grease spot under the car in the garage. [Comments about some politicians and some used car salesmen belong here.]

And as one of my Texas friends once snarked, “She’s so shallow you could find her inner depths with an emery board”.

Again, that’s okay. In stories anyway. In real life, it unfortunately happens anyway.

One of my favorite quotes is from the fabulous 1984 Walter Hill classic Streets of Fire, starring Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, and Michael Pare. Amy Madigan opines, “I tell you somethin’. Some people never talk about their feelings. They’ve got ‘em. Deeper than anybody. Other people never talk about their feelings ‘cause they ain’t got any.” If you haven’t seen the film, you’re in for a treat.

So Who Are These Shallow Characters?

Typically it is the tertiary [3rd level] characters who have no depth. They’re there to serve as stereotypes, and of course should always be in service to tell us more about the protagonist and the antagonist in how they relate to them, or not.

They’re the homeless chick in the alley who has a good word for the cop, telling us he’s really a good guy.

They’re the soup-nazi who tells us about the atmosphere of that locale.

They’re the police department shrink who puts out his cigarette in the coffee cup in the precinct office, who we think might just be killed for that civility faux pas when the criminal (or the Terminator) comes back -- and we’re right.

They’re the characters at the ball as the prince and the princess meet and we hear their comments about the newly-formed couple to get a sense of that particular society and culture.

In Shallow Hal it’s the main character and the concept of “shallow” is the pivot point of the story.

Why Even Have Shallow Characters?

They can tell us a lot about the time period, what’s going on then, and what are the prevailing attitudes? Engaging examples are the next ring out of friends and relatives in Bridgerton, Pride and Prejudice, and Bride and Prejudice, the colorful Bollywood version of the story.

They’re the Greek Chorus. Or in an orchestra, they’re playing 5th clarinet or 4th French Horn. They’re important to the organic whole but they’re not spotlighted.

They can show other characters what might happen if they continue down a certain path, such as substance abuse or criminality.

In the complexity of Frank Herbert’s Dune series and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy, they’re remote officials, second-level officers, servants, fellow travelers, and friends of friends.

They’re the people at the beginning of an NCIS or Midsomer Murders episode or a detective novel who discover the body while going about their regular activities. What they do kicks off the action, but to go into their personal stories would take us away from the intimacy and engagement we want to have with the main characters.

A recent example is in the Netflix murder mystery series A Perfect Couple starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber. Watch how deftly some seemingly shallow characters turn out to be more integral to the action.

How Do They Serve Your Larger Story-Telling Scope?

A lot of what the story is about is contrast. It’s the same thing with two-dimensional art. It’s chiaroscuro, the Italian term for the interplay of light and dark, shadow and illumination, the space and the not-space.

We differentiate one thing from others because of the borders around them. We see one thing because it stands out from the background. It’s the old saying ‘Can’t see the forest for the trees’, only in reverse: sometimes you can’t see the trees for the forest. In fact, recall how slightly unsettling it was when computer-generated imagery first started being used for large crowd and battle scenes. If not done well, the brain recognized that there was too much repetition and too many smooth edges and things just didn’t look ‘real’.

In a similar way, your tertiary characters, though they’re there to serve as context and background, still need to have definitive borders. So you want to give them some quirk or color or unique action – but always in service to the theme of your story and to better define and discover more about your protagonists and antagonists.

This is not quite at the level of - in visual media terms – the undifferentiated background Extras. But it’s close. It’s the next level above that but below the Day Players. It’s the “Under Fives” in SAG terms. If an actor has under five lines of dialogue totaling fewer than fifty words they receive a rate higher than Extras but not as much as a Day Player.

These are characters who may well have a name or a role name in the script [e.g. Sally or Cute Waitress]. They most likely have a couple of lines of dialogue. They may have a specific description.

One of my favourite screenplay descriptions of a tertiary character is, “His enforcer, NAME, 40’s. Big and beefy, his face reflects his sins. And the size of his brain.” What are some descriptions you find especially effective in novels, movies, TV series – including in your own works?

Often they can be the foil for explaining something about the story. They’re the person who just doesn’t understand so a more “important” character explains it to them, hopefully in an engaging as well as informative way.

The role of the Shallow Character is to reveal something we the reader/audience want to know about your plot or your main characters.

So Whatcha Gonna Do About It?

Okay, I hear some of you say, “I want to write some fan fiction about these characters.” And yes, that has happened to some great commercial if not critical success. [Fifty Shades of whatever.]

It’s a typical and quite effective writing exercise to go into the lives of tertiary characters. Given that we don’t want to explore them in the main storyline lest it detract attention from the main characters, we can certainly use it as a writer’s tool to explore character development.

If you’re writing an epic or a series, you can certainly have tertiary characters in one section become more fleshed out in sequential sections or spin-offs.

An exercise to help you bring your shallow characters more to life yet fully in service to the main plot is to look at your own life. No doubt you have concentric circles of family, close friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Which of these people would be your ‘Under Fives’?

And for a sense of perspective, realize that your chiropractor or gardener or waitstaff is somewhat tertiary to you – and so are you to them. Probably you’re only a relatively undifferentiated Extra in their life.

Try playing the part of a shallow character in conversation sometimes, keeping your questions, answers, and participation at a minimum and mostly about someone else. How can you add some flavor to what’s going on without making it about you?

Take a look at your own story’s characters and see if you can easily identify who are the shallow ones. Do they deserve more or less page time? Are they serving to tell us something about the main characters or the plot or theme? Are they rich enough to add texture to the story without distracting us?

So, Shallow Characters – not always a bad thing, eh?

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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