Interesting to read how much of a challenge people have writing secondary characters. So many stories really depend on our acceptance of these characters - that feeling that "Yeah, Henderson is just like that", or "That's so Martha".
Am concluding that to recreate a secondary character so that we have a sense that we know this character and yet we're finding out more about him/her is quite an accomplishment for a writer.
Why is that I wonder?- a lack of empathy for a particualr character, or the challenge of capturing the speech patterns or an inablity to get inside the head of the character?
c (who never could write most secondary characters and now knows others have had the same difficulty - although, really Jimmy, is verrrry boring...
edit:
know this is a character thread... but can I just mention how much trouble I have with action? I'm not talking about bombs and shoot 'em up action, I'm talking about getting L&C from the apartment to the car! Does anyone else find that troubling? You know, without just saying: Lois and Clark went down to her jeep, got in, buckled their seat belts... Lois started the car and started driving to their destination
Yes!! Those are the bits that always took me the longest to write, got the most attention in rewritng (frequent!) Yet to leave them out is to leave out what "Lois and Clark" was also about - these two people have jobs, they investigate, and he is .. welll... Superman. But so hard to write, harder than anyhting else.
