Boyd Crowder in Justified, 
Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Han Solo in Star Wars. I’m going to throw in Jacob from the Twilight movies because he managed to get an entire team named after him.
Show stealers, every one of them.
I’ve learned a lot about secondary characters over the past few years. As well as my own writing, I also write paranormal romance under the name Taylor Keating with a writing partner. Secondary characters are usually, although not always, my domain, so when my writing partner came up with the character of Nick Sutton in our first book, Game Over, because our heroine needed a friend, I decided to make him the Expendable Crew Member.
Nick became our first real argument as WPs.
“You’re making him too interesting,” my WP complained. “He’s going to Steal the Show.”
“Nonsense,” I replied. “He’s a total ass and anyway, I’m going to kill him. Heh heh heh.” (Picture me chortling and rubbing my hands with maniacal glee.)
She gave me The Look, but said nothing more.
Until the end.
“You can’t kill him,” she said. “Readers will hate us.”
Again, I disagreed. “I admit he was totally fun to write,” I said, “but he’s such a jerk. There’s not a heroic bone in that guy’s body. Let’s see what our trusted First Reader thinks.”
Let me give you an example of an incident in Game Over that truly defines Nick’s character and explains my confidence that he had to die:
Kaye looked up at him, then lifted the back of his jacket to show the gun holstered at his hip. “You have ten minutes to get me inside. After that, I start blowing off the little gamer’s toes, one by one.”
Nick wondered how throwing up in front of Kaye would be received. Crapping himself probably wouldn’t go over any better. “I can’t get you inside,” he said, thinking fast. “I’m not that good. River is the software engineer. But I can get you audio through the com-link.”
It wasn’t going to be good enough. Nick could see it in those freaky, maniac eyes.
I’m sorry, Babe. Not even for River would Nick risk the chance of those lab experiments being unleashed on him. Losing a few toes to gunfire wouldn’t be half so bad.
“I love Nick,” First Reader announced, unprompted, even after reading that passage.
And yet I persisted. “Forget First Reader. Our editor will agree with me,” I said to WP.
“Go ahead and see for yourself,” WP invited me, a glint of victory already in her eye.
“You’d better bring him back,” the editor advised me. “And stop being so mean to him.”
Sigh.
There’s simply no accounting for taste. I conceded defeat. Nick has survived through all three books in the series, and in the third book, Fair Game, he actually gets a chance to be somewhat more admirable.
“I can’t help it,” our editor admitted after reading the final manuscript. “I know he’s a coward and a jerk, but I love him.”
Even so, he’ll probably never get his own story because, believe me, a little Nick Sutton goes a very long way.
So what is it with me and my fascination with secondary characters? Because that’s what it amounts to. Readers wouldn’t like them so much if I didn’t like them too, and yes, a part of me loves Nick. He’s like the child a mother can never be proud of but will love all the same, and visit in prison.
Secondary characters like Nick are very freeing creatively. They can say what they want. Their thoughts and emotions are rarely politically correct. Secondary characters can throw the kid under the bus as long as they have a plausible reason for it. The hero, on the other hand, has to be…heroic. Flawed okay, but unwavering in his commitment to be a better person, especially for the heroine’s sake. His thoughts and emotions always drift toward Doing the Right Thing.
In short, the hero has to save the kid. The secondary character gets to stand back and cheer from the sidewalk, then take him out for a drink after. He’ll probably stiff the hero for the bill, too.
In my new Demon Outlaws series, written for Entangled Publishing LLC under my own name, my editor was happy to discover that the hero’s less-than-upstanding BFF in the first book, The Demon’s Daughter, was going to get his own story. Toward the end of The Demon’s Daughter, even I had to admit the BFF was shaping up to be pretty awesome. In fact, during revisions, I took out one entire scene (and most of a chapter) because in it, he seriously threatened to Steal the Show.
But by writing the second book, Black Widow Demon, based on this secondary character from the first, my formerly flawed bad boy lost all his freedom to be bad. He now had to spend an entire story in Redemption Land. His days of behaving like a schmuck (or in this case, an assassin) were over, and that poor guy had an Unsavory History.
But in Black Widow Demon, he’s all hero. His story is about the future, and potential, not a dysfunctional past.
Series must be my favorite thing to write ever, all thanks to the secondary characters. They open up world building opportunities and interesting new story arcs. (And yes, the hero for book three of the Demon Outlaws series makes his initial appearance in book two.)
Have you ever read a book with a secondary character you hoped would one day turn into a hero?
About Paula Altenburg
Hi Paula. Im a sucker for a good secondary character too.
Most of Jennifer Crusie’s secondary characters deserve their own books I reckon.
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 5:42 am
Amy, I totally agree! Jennifer Cruzie writes amazing characters.
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Great post Paula! Secondary characters are the seasoning of the story, sometimes they can dominate the flavor, but its so good you wouldn’t have it any other way. Suzanne Brockmann has made so many of her flawed characters into heroes because they’re lovable despite their layers of filth. My all time favorite is Janet Evanovich’s Ranger–yum! New and dear to my heart is Melissa Bourbon Ramirez’ Manny Camacho. I absolutely love him–despite his lack of soul-mate material. Would I want my daughter to fall in love with these guys? No, but they add the flavor that the main course must have to make it an awesome meal!
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 6:02 am
Kym, absolutely. Ranger is a top pick, but definitely not someone you want for your daughter. Andy Suzanne Brockmann’s Kenny Karmody is my alltime favourite. I read his story four times. I love those SEALs!
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Hi Paula! Great Post!
I love love love finding an author that populates her world with interesting secondary characters. That’s how I know I’ll have more books to read from that world. I discovered Sherrilyn Kenyon late and had so many amazing characters to choose from. My all-time fave is the Johanna Lindsey historicals with the Malory family. I first read her in High School and I was hooked on Romance ever since!
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 7:31 am
Kimberly, I love Sherrilyn Kenyon’s characters too! She spends a lot of time on them. And I hate to admit this, but I don’t think I’ve read any Johanna Lindsey, even though a friend has been highly recommending her. I’ve been caught up in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series lately.
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Ian McNabb started out as a very secondary character in the In Death books. I have no idea whether he was always intended to be Peabody’s love interest, but boy, was he annoying when he first came on! Ranger is a classic case of a secondary character being so interesting he started to become a bigger and bigger part of the series. I don’t think it was until book 3 or 4 that Janet Evanovich came up with the idea of the love triangle.
In my DIY series, Melissa is a secondary character. Derek’s ex-wife and a thorn in Avery’s side. She has no real redeeming qualities, and everyone loves to hate her. All my readers keep asking when I’m gonna kill off Smelly Melly. The problem is, I love her. She’s annoying to the core. One day I’d love to give her her own series. I’ve suggested it to my editor, though, and she says Melissa is too universally disliked for my readers to accept as a heroine. Which is precisely why I want to see if I can pull it off! (And besides, at the end of book 6, the one that’s coming in September, there’s a hint of a different Melissa. I could totally do it and make it work!)
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Jenna Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 6:29 am
Forgot to mention… Nick sounds fantastic. I can totally see why everyone wants him to stick around.
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 7:32 am
Thanks Jenna, and now I have to check out Smelly Melly to see if I’ll hate her!
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Okay, who wouldn’t choose Han Solo over Luke Skywalker? Seriously…
Anyway, one of my favorite secondary characters is Matrim Cauthon from the (unending) Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan. He’s a gambler, a sneak, and a womanizer – and I totally want him to win in the end.
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Mary Sutton Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 7:16 am
Oh, and in Nancy Martin’s “Blackbird” mysteries I think Mick Abruzzo starts out as a secondary character. Now his role might get bigger as the series goes on (working on it), but if it does, I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing more of Mick (and she did write a short story with him as the main character).
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 8:58 am
Hi Mary, thanks! Now I have two more series to check out. My TBR pile is growing.
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Jenna Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 11:53 am
Oh, Mick’s role definitely gets bigger!
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Mary Sutton Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
And I don’t have a problem with that. =)
Nick sounds like a great character. Sometimes, even with so little prompting, they just take over, don’t they? Manny Camacho is like that for me. I’m pretty sure he’s going to get a novella one of these days. Antonio, Lola Cruz’s brother in my series, is another one.
Gotta love the sidekicks and secondary heroes!
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I love secondary characters. Usually they are the most interesting ones of the book. I still remember these two old men who fought all the time in a historical novel I read a million years ago. Don’t remember the book or title, but those old men are still as vivid as ever.
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Misa and Boone, I agree wholeheartedly. And right now I’m trying to remember the name of the blond vampire sheriff in True Blood. I love him way more than Bill. The scene that makes me laugh the most is when he returns Bill’s “daughter” to him and says, “There are favors, and then there are favors.” LOL. I think that’s the parent in me.
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All of Linda Howard’s books. She’s GENIUS at secondary characters. Think of the McKenzie series. And Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars series. It’s still telling so many great characters’ stories.
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Cinna from the Hunger Games is the only one I can think of … but he was nice. But there were a few movie/TV characters that I wanted to see more of (and eventually got to!) …
The guy from Notting Hill who is the roommate … they could have a movie with him alone!
Eric from True Blood (I guess that’s technically a book … but I’ll admit to only seeing the show)
Logan from Veronica Mars
And I love that you have Boyd Crowder from Justified in here!!! Perfect example!!
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Mary Sutton Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
The Welsh guy? He was hilarious. He turned up in a Keanu Reeves flick “The Replacements” and was totally the best character there too.
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Nikki, Boyd’s a favourite. In season 2 I was rooting for him to rob a bank. I could go on all day.
Madeline Hunter, Mary Balogh, Larissa Ione… A few more with amazing secondary characters. Who doesn’t love Wraith?
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I love Manny Comacho from the Lola books. Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a plethora of interesting characters. Marian Keyes has to be my all-time favorite though. The Walsh sisters (and their parents) are THE BEST. They’re a true study in flawed characters that readers adore because we see so much of ourselves in them. I also love Boyd Crowder. The chemistry between him and Raylan is top notch. I haven’t read the books, but Deb in the Dexter series is also amazing.
I loved Cinna from Hunger Games too, but my heart totally shattered when Rue died. It was necessary, but painful nonetheless.
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Oh secondary characters are sneaky, sneaky things. I’m especially a sucker for bad boys who have a tiny little spark of good in them. Al from Kim Harrison’s Hollows series is the first that comes to mind. He’s a crazy demon, and not at all nice. But he steals every scene he’s in. *dramatic sigh*
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 24th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Yep, I love Al too. Of course, I seem to have a thing for demons.
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After reading all the comments, I feel the compelling need to go watch True Blood …
Oh, and I love Nick.
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I must watch True Blood!! I only found out much later that he “came back” in “Angel.”
Spike is my all time fave seconary baddie, who became a huge hero in the end. I was devastated and so proud of him
Paula, your books sound brilliant!
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Paula Altenburg Reply:
May 25th, 2012 at 5:33 am
Anne and Robyn, True Blood is definitely something to watch. I’m not especially fond of the heroine Sookie, she’s a bit TSTL, but Lafayette is another really amazing secondary character who steals a lot of scenes. Love him!
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When I am working on a story idea, my secondary characters are more vivid to me that my heroine. Every. Single. Time. I begin to think it should be them telling the story, but the story isn’t about them. Reading this article and some of the comments, I think that may be because I have more freedom with the secondary characters. I can explore motives and personal choices and not feel bad if it goes awry.
Eric in the Sookie Stackhouse novels is the ONLY reason I kept reading. I was so in love with him. Bill Schmill.
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