And after all that, I was too mcranty rantington to even get to the whole, "Anita is my eyes and I know what she knows, so I have no desire to explore the backstory between my secondary characters." thing.
FIE!!! FIE AND A HALF!
*sets fire to things*
For shame, and I am not just saying that because I really like to write secondary characters like they'll be the heroes in their own story. I'm saying that because I believe that the best way to get a good secondary character is to explore every bit of them - because you never know when they can provide the missing like, or do something totally unexpected, that pushes things in a whole other direction. I like knowing that characters have that potential when I write them, even if I don't show it and I wind up sitting on it until I'm ready to break it out. I like to know the relative personal history of a character because I want to know if they've run into any of my other characters before, or because it helps shape who and what they are.
Such as, if someone was involved in the French Revolution, they'd have to have half a brain because it was a bloody and dangerous time to be alive. Doubly so if you were an aristocrat. Almost the same thing can be said if you went through both World Wars. Making some shit up and shoving it into someone's personal history will change who they are, how they react, how they think - look at what's happened to JC! He's gone from a manipulative, Machiavellian bastard of awesome shiftiness that could pwn prettily and still be home to make out with his boyfriend, to some sappy bleeding heart that cares about how the humans feeeeel and if he kiiiillls them that's omg, SO VERY BAAAAD and vampires shouldn't hurt the puny huuuumaaaans!
*stomps on Tokyo, destroys*
RAGE. SO MUCH RAGE. RAR!!! *kills younglings, goes to Dark Side*
no subject
FIE!!! FIE AND A HALF!
*sets fire to things*
For shame, and I am not just saying that because I really like to write secondary characters like they'll be the heroes in their own story. I'm saying that because I believe that the best way to get a good secondary character is to explore every bit of them - because you never know when they can provide the missing like, or do something totally unexpected, that pushes things in a whole other direction. I like knowing that characters have that potential when I write them, even if I don't show it and I wind up sitting on it until I'm ready to break it out. I like to know the relative personal history of a character because I want to know if they've run into any of my other characters before, or because it helps shape who and what they are.
Such as, if someone was involved in the French Revolution, they'd have to have half a brain because it was a bloody and dangerous time to be alive. Doubly so if you were an aristocrat. Almost the same thing can be said if you went through both World Wars. Making some shit up and shoving it into someone's personal history will change who they are, how they react, how they think - look at what's happened to JC! He's gone from a manipulative, Machiavellian bastard of awesome shiftiness that could pwn prettily and still be home to make out with his boyfriend, to some sappy bleeding heart that cares about how the humans feeeeel and if he kiiiillls them that's omg, SO VERY BAAAAD and vampires shouldn't hurt the puny huuuumaaaans!
*stomps on Tokyo, destroys*
RAGE. SO MUCH RAGE. RAR!!! *kills younglings, goes to Dark Side*