: Re: How Much Focus to Give a Supporting Character? I've been working on my pet project a lot over the last six months, and I thought I had most of the kinks worked out- but I think I found

You say that this supporting character has little "screen time" but that they are a major motivator in the mind of your primary character. You also say that this character is the cause of a lot of the conflict and participates in the primary character's backstory.
So this supporting character is "present" in the mind of the character, through all the struggles and recollections and is hopefully made happy by the ending of the story.
A character doesn't need to be physically present, "on-screen" to be important to a tale.
Consider the victim in any murder mystery. They rarely have any screen time other than the discovery of their corpse in the opening scene. Still, the story would not even exist if not for their part in it.

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: A Deus Ex Machina is a plot device, often appearing out of nowhere and having no previous introduction, which spontaneously arrives to solve an otherwise unsolvable problem. Dei Ex Machina

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: Is it a deus ex machina if the alternative is illogical? Background: I know to avoid Deus Ex Machinas - meaning to me a sudden and unexpected solution arriving out of nowhere to save an otherwise

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: This tag can be used for questions about fiction or nonfiction, as long as it is aimed at pre-teen readers. Middle grade writing is similar to young adult but will generally have younger

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: Moving away from a gender-based analysis I'm writing a short essay on gender undercurrents of conversations, i.e. how do different people approach communication and problem-solving in their relationships.

: Re: How Much Focus to Give a Supporting Character? I've been working on my pet project a lot over the last six months, and I thought I had most of the kinks worked out- but I think I found

More posts by @Bryan361

: A Deus Ex Machina is a plot device, often appearing out of nowhere and having no previous introduction, which spontaneously arrives to solve an otherwise unsolvable problem. Dei Ex Machina

: Is it a deus ex machina if the alternative is illogical? Background: I know to avoid Deus Ex Machinas - meaning to me a sudden and unexpected solution arriving out of nowhere to save an otherwise

: This tag can be used for questions about fiction or nonfiction, as long as it is aimed at pre-teen readers. Middle grade writing is similar to young adult but will generally have younger

: Moving away from a gender-based analysis I'm writing a short essay on gender undercurrents of conversations, i.e. how do different people approach communication and problem-solving in their relationships.

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