Wattpad Block Party - Summer Edition III (August 2017)

Squeaks7 Presents: Creating Memorable Supporting Characters (w/Unwanted Input)

Hi! I'm SJ and welcome to my block party post about supporting characters! I thought I'd take just a moment of your time to share a few tips I've learned along the way.

We all know just what a main character is, you know, that terribly hunky guy who runs around saving the day and makes you swoon every time he's mentioned. Or the cute, funny woman who always knows just what to say and do and has the dozen friends wanting to be her, but if you squint, tilt your head a bit, and look past them... Yep, there, standing a bit in the shadows are the supporting characters. Sometimes their screen time is small or maybe they appear throughout the story. They can be the voice of reason, a bit of comic relief, the gentle (or not so gentle) nudge your MC needs or maybe they steal the show from time to time. Supporting characters fill in those gaps and completes a story, kind of like an unsung hero.

The door behind me swings open banging against the wall with a loud clatter, startling my attention away from the laptop. In walks two of my very first supporting characters, Dov and Brom, from The Shadowed Vale.

"What are you two doing here?"

"You said hero so here we are! Now what did you need help with?" Brom says with a cheeky grin, while the quieter of the two, Dov, just crosses his arms while looking around my slightly untidy living room.

"Noooo... no, I said unsung hero," I correct, slightly confused why there are two brawny knights standing in front of me. "You know, someone who is in the background and stays quiet."

"You know Brom. He has no idea how to stay quiet!" Ranald says as he and Theobald stroll in casually through the door I should have locked behind the last two knights who strolled in uninvited.

"Says the knight who never stops talking," Theobald mumbles underneath his breath. You gotta love Theo, I think. The only truly reasonable one of the group... well, most of the time. Ranald is already pilfering through my refrigerator when I glance back his way, which sadly holds nothing exciting since I started my diet a couple weeks ago.

"If you're going to hang around just go sit over there and be quiet while I start work on this post. Then we'll... well, get you back where you go. Are you sure you don't have something better to be doing?"

"Nope," Dov says with a slow drawl as he plops his feet up on my coffee table. Alright, this really isn't bad. Four cute knights in my living room. I can work with that, I try to convince myself moving on to the post.

"What's that thing you're clicking on?" Brom says pointing at my laptop getting me off topic again.

"It's a laptop." A blank stare greets my statement. "It's magic."