: Re: Are different levels of character development required for primary as opposed to secondary characters? Primary characters would normally include the protagonist, antagonist, and maybe one or two

@Megan928

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I think there's no way you can "overdevelop" a character. (This is different from "page time", mind you -- you may have a very well-developed character that hardly shows up in your finished story.) The better you know a character, the easier it will be to work with them and the lesser are the chances of you succumbing to some boring cliche.

As a writer, character-development is the most important (and most fun) aspect of my writing process. My current novel tells the story of an entire segment of society that requires a number of (very different) characters. Developing all of these took a long time, but it definitely paid off. Even if a given character will end up playing only a minor role in the end, I am sure that I can handle this character well and give him or her an appropriate voice. Doing all this character-development was what brought the story to real life for me.

The downside of all this "getting to know your characters" better is that you grow very fond of them very quickly. Take car not to write your own "fan fiction" in which you gush on and on about your great, lovable characters without adding to the plot. The best advice I ever got in writing is related to this problem: Kill your darlings. Be meticulous about this and always keep your "main message" in mind. Ask yourself: Do I really need this scene to arrive at the point of the story to which it all boils down? Don't make excuses when answering this question.

From a reader's perspective, I think that well-developed secondary characters is what really fleshes out a good book. In my favourite book, for example (the German "Center of my worl" by Andreas Steinhoefel), my favourite character to this day is the main character's uncle. He shows up only a few times throughout the book, but these few times are enough to paint him as a full character, with troubles, lost loves, joys, and a life that is pretty independent of the main character (in agreement with Lauren's point). To this day, I would marry this guy on the spot.

Lastly, I want to make the point that I generally use my secondary characters to lighten the story a bit. Heroes are not always easy -- they suffer, they make mistakes, sometimes it's hard to really like them. Secondary characters can ease this load of suffering a bit by providing good-natured characters that are easy to like. With respect to this, it makes a lot of sense to put effort into building your secondary characters and prevent them from being shallow.

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