The Importance of Secondary Characters in Your Story

Many times, when writing a script or a novel, you might consider the task of creating strong secondary characters for granted. That is, you have created a unique and interesting Sci-Fi world or main character that drives the action in your novel or screenplay.

This drives the main character to overcome major obstacles and emotional challenges in order to achieve their goal by the end of the movie or novel. Their “Need” or “Desire” to achieve their goal is paramount to achieving a satisfactory conclusion of the story.

However interesting the main character might be, he or she is not friendless. They don’t exist in a vacuum; they need secondary or supporting characters to react to their problems and provide opposition or emotional support. Many times, the secondary characters will have issues or struggles of their own that will create subplots that will affect the main character.

The supporting character’s subplot is often crucial to the emotional struggle or development of your main character. They may sharpen the conflict and provide challenges for the main character on the way to the resolution to the story. It will provide numerous moments of internal reflection and an emotional pathway forward for your main character .

In the classic movie Officer and a Gentlemen, Zack earns the friendship of Sid, another trainee at the base. Sid’s struggle and eventual suicide at the end of the movie propels Zack to transform from being the selfish loner that he was at the beginning of the movie. He has learned the value of teamwork and learns that he needs other people’s friendship and love to survive.

Subplots are not the main plot of the movie or novel, but they add to your story. The main character needs allies or friends who support or conflict with the main character. They must have adversaries with their own issues to resolve or plot to thwart the main characters goals.Their purpose is to interact in a way that creates challengers and push ahead to resolve the story.

In addition, secondary characters enrich the plot of your story. A well-developed supporting character will have their own fleshed out story that intersects with the main character.

For example, in my novel Turbulence, my main character Danny Watkins is the student advisor in a dorm filled with college freshmen. One of the students is Barry Lipkin. He is ambitious and politically aware. He wants to be a leader in the protest movement and constantly barrages Danny with radical literature. His innocent invitation to a dinner party held by Bennett Andrews, leader of the student protest, leads to events that help Danny evolve and change his political views. Bennett Andrews developed from a one-dimensional speech maker at the student protest to a multi – level caring guy who befriends Danny. He befriends Danny at crucial moments in the story and helps Danny grow as a character.

Thus, secondary characters help the main character see multiple perspective in the world. It helps them with their struggles and help develop them as characters. They also provide multiple viewpoints to influence the main character and provide different paths for development within the main story.

About Lew Ritter

Lew Ritter is a retired teacher from Bergen County NJ. He has held many careers from working in the Air Courier industry in the 70’s and 80’s, the computer industry in the 90’s as a Unix Operations personnel and finally as a Library Media Specialist in Bergen County schools.

His interest in writing began in college with a series of correspondence with Larry Gelbart, the legendary producer of MAS*H. He wrote an impassioned letter to CBS protesting the potential cancellation of the series in its freshmen year. Gelbart was so impressed with the letter that the two individuals corresponded for several months. Gelbart sent him scripts and allowed him to pitch potential ideas for episodes.

In 1975, Lew joined the Mystery Writers of America and attempted to write short stories for the Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. He became a fan of 80’s shows such as The Paper Chase and Thirtysomething.
His screenwriting career began in 1985 when he attended a screenwriting seminar hosted by Ron Peterson. He wrote several entry level scripts but reached a new level in 2011 when he became a Finalist in the Wild Sound Film Festival’s Classic Spec script competition for Magnum P.I . The script received a Table Read by actors at the same Festival in 2016.

He worked with Peterson and T.J. Mancini of Crossroads Entertainment in L.A on several projects. Turbulence has undergone several major changes since its creation in 2013. Since then, it has developed into a potential streaming series with five years of episode ideas. He has partnered with Joe Rosario, a writer and stage director on the revisions and creation of Mr. Zak, a series about a wounded veteran who works in an inner-city school. In 2018, Lew began work to turn the script into a novel. He was a frequent contributor to Larry Brody’s TV . This is his first novel, and he plans on writing more novels in the world of Turbulence. His goal is to become an overnight success after forty years.

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