Hope you’ll joining me in welcoming Wendy Lyn Watson to Mystery Writing is Murder today. Wendy is a fellow mystery writer and a friend of mine from the Killer Characters blog. Scoop to Kill releases September 7.
First, I want to thank Elizabeth for letting me hang out on her blog today. So many generous writers have helped me over the years (and continue to help me every dang day), so it’s nice to get a chance to pay it forward now and then.
The first time I sat down to hammer out a manuscript (a historical romance), I made a ton of rookie mistakes. One of the biggest was the endless parade of secondary characters I had strolling through the pages. Much of the action of the book took place at a country house party in Georgian England. Between guests and the cadre of servants waiting on them, that meant there’d be a lot of people around.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t give every last one a name and back story. But whenever I needed something to happen to my hero or heroine–someone to say something cutting to the heroine, bring the hero a note on a silver salver, or interrupt the couple in a romantic embrace–I created someone new. There’s Mary, the maid of all work, who showed up in Chapter 12 and was never seen again. Lady H who destroyed the heroine’s self-confidence at a musicale and then dropped off the planet. You get the idea.
I’ve come a long way (I hope), and I’ve learned to pare down the roster of characters considerably. But I still struggle with the occasional hanger-on. In fact, I think the challenge is particularly great for mystery writers for two equal but opposite reasons. First, characters are often the conveyers of clues. More clues equals more characters (really, it’s just simple math). But once a character does his job and conveys important information to the sleuth, it’s hard to waste precious words on him. Second, because we do love our quirky townsfolk, it’s hard to resist the urge to create a role for every oddball person we dream up.
When these two forces combine, you end up with tons of characters who pop in for a scene and then disappear, causing confusion to your readers and sapping a lot of the tension from your story.
I learned a great trick for weeding out unnecessary characters in a writing class I took a few years ago. It’s primarily for main characters, and it’s known as “the spaghetti bowl.” Identify the six to ten most important characters in your story and write their names in a circle around the perimeter of a piece of paper. Now, draw lines connecting each character to every other character. (This is where the “spaghetti” image comes from; visually, it’s a mess.)
Now, on each of those lines, identify the relationship between the characters. That’s right, every single pair. And here are the rules:
(1) If there isn’t a relationship between two characters, you either need to cut a character or make a relationship. No obvious connection between the butcher and the Sunday school teacher? Maybe they’re having an affair. Or maybe they dated in high school, and he’s never gotten over her. This will increase the tension in your story and add layers of motivation and intrigue.
(2) If two characters are fulfilling the same role in the story, one of them has to go. Your sleuth has two brothers, they’re both cops, and they both give her grief for throwing herself in harm’s way? One of the brothers must go. In the alternative, you can make the brothers different: perhaps one gives her grief while the other eggs her on. Aha, now the brothers are like the angel and devil on your sleuth’s shoulder, and they’re both pulling their weight.
For your minor characters (the ones with names), identify what each one adds to the story. It may be a clue or a bit of insight into a main character. But whatever it is, each named character should do at least 3 things for your story. If a character pops on scene to provide one piece of information and then disappears? She gets the ax. Or, in the alternative, give her two more tasks. This will add richness to the story and make even your minor characters seem more alive.
We write mysteries, and we’re going to have a lot of characters. But each one needs to earn his or her keep. Put them to work to make your story stronger.
Wendy Lyn Watson
I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM – Oct. 2009, NAL
SCOOP TO KILL – Sept. 2010, NAL
www.wendylynwatson.com
www.killercharacters.com
www.facebook.com/iscreamyouscream
What a great blog post. It’s so true, many of us have made the mistake of too many secondary characters that don’t mean anything to the story. It’s so important to cut them out or make them more important if necessary.
CD
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Wendy.
Wendy – Thanks for the thoughts about characters. We really need to be careful just how many of them there are. I think the most important point is that all of our characters have a purpose. They all need to be in the novel for a reason; otherwise it’s filler. The plot comes first, and if a character doesn’t really add to it – ‘bye, ‘bye!
Elizabeth, thanks for hosting Wendy.
Wendy, great post. A story filled with secondary characters can bog a reader down. A few add flavor to the story while too many makes you lose track of your main characters.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
This sounds similar to what I learned from the late Barbara Parker-she used a grid, not a plate of spaghetti, but it works well for a mystery where you have to make sure everyone looks like a possible suspect.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Love the spaghetti bowl idea! I’m definitely going to do that – thanks! :)
Wendy, thanks so much for guesting today!
I love this post because you make such a great point–we need to have these secondary characters really working in our story. And they can do a lot to forward the plot or create tension or conflict for our protagonist–if we make them!
Wendy,
Thanks for the great advice. I’m going to apply your spaghetti test to my WIP.
What helpful tips. Though I haven’t tried writing a mystery, I do like the idea of making sure all my characters are necessary to the story. I think every time I add a character from now on, I’ll visualize a bowl of spaghetti:)
I’ll have to remember the spaghetti bowl. I don’t write mysteries, but I do limit my secondary characters, if only because I can’t keep up with more than a handful.
So glad you’re finding this helpful … I thought it was a silly exercise until I tried it. And boy, did I end up with tons of fascinating, tension-creating connections (none of which I would have thought of without the exercise).
Yay!
wow, what a great analogy on using or not using characters. Thanks Wendy. Makes me appreciate the secondary characters a little bit more.
This is a very good post. I like the similar characters … one of them has to go. Characters need to be diverse, especially the protagonist and his side kick and his antagonist. His better half too. Conflict can be introduced too when there is diversity in characters.
Stephen Tremp
Thank you for the post Wendy! It was extremely helpful and couldn’t have come at a better time!!
Who knew spaghetti was more than a entertaining way to expand one’s hips? Thanks for sharing the technique, Wendy. Can’t wait your new release. Your last one was a scream.
Excellent!
Very sensible tips – many thanks.
Great post Wendy!
I found this problem in my first draft~ not pretty. I cut a few people and made a few people stronger to the storyline. It was a difficult aspect to the major rewrite I did.
Thanks for the tips:)
Great suggestions for controlling a large cast of characters. I don’t have that problem as most of my books have a lot less than your books, but I have had the problem of s secondary character suddenly wanting a lot more attention. I was happily writing along when I realized I had half a chapter devoted to a deputy who had a minor role in the story. Whoops.
Wendy,
Great advice and a good way to identify the unwanted characters! Thanks for the tip!
I love the idea and will implement it in my writing. Thanks, Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
I’m so glad I’m not alone — that others have the problem of the scene-stealers and hangers-on. :)
Dang. I need to go delete classmates from my YA…quickly, before I get in too deep!
Wendy, thanks so much again for being at Mystery Writing is Murder today…and for such a great post. :)
This post is so helpful for anyone doing mysteries in any setting that I just had to do a shout-out on my blog. One can’t have enough writing exercises / techniques for keeping a large cast useful and fresh in the mind.
This post is so helpful! I hope you don’t mind that I printed it off. It helps solve a few problems for me.
That is a great concept. My stories so far have had limited characters…but I’ll definitely be keeping this in my tips file.
~~Angi
I love this Spaghetti bowl idea, Wendy. I loved reading Dickens when I was a kid and consequently I tend to people my stories with too many characters. So thanks! I’ll try this.