Create a Living Background for Your Novel

When we write, it's often easy to forget that secondary characters in the story are not cardboard cutouts. They are, instead, critical entities to the story as a whole, and have their own motivations and goals; this makes them a critical consideration when plotting stories. Why? Because their subplots contribute to and highlight the main plot, and also bring the secondary character to life.

Those writers who do realize this often address the issue by creating additional character sketches. But what good does it do you to know that Rodriguez is blonde if you do not also know what makes Rodriguez tick? And a character sketch does not do this - Rodriguez's personal goals and motivations, and the way he works within the story toward realizing them, are what bring him to life.

For this reason, it's important to sketch a separate outline of his plot and how it integrates with your central plot line. (If his outline is not separate, you run the risk of having yet another cardboard figure within your story.)

The Cinderella Plot Line

Janet Burroway's wonderful Writing Fiction discusses the Cinderella plot structure, a way to discuss rising action in a story followed by a fall and with each new peak being somewhat higher than the last peak. For instance:

Rising: A little girl is born rich.
Falling: Her mother dies. (This is also a plot complication, as all good falls in action are.)
Rising: Her father remarries a woman with two daughters her age.
Falling: Her father dies, and the stepmother is revealed to be cruel.
Rising: Cinderella perseveres, becoming beautiful and graceful and hardworking.

The whole story can be mapped out this way, with each rise in action bringing just a little more tension to the story. But not only should you plot your main character in this manner, you should plot your secondary character Rodriguez this way.

Let's say Rodriguez is the evil uncle of Cindy, an innocent young girl and your main character. You can plot out Cindy's storyline: Cindy is born to wealthy parents, they die, her uncle adopts her, he is cruel and only wants her money, she is locked up, etc. etc. But this is focusing on Cindy. After developing the main plot, you need to view the subplots the same way.

Rodriguez has his own plots and motivations, and will get stymied by Cindy's rising plot action, and very likely by outside plots that also intersect with his. He imprisons the girl. Gloating, he goes to the bank, only to find that Cindy's money is protected in a trust until she is 21. He works with shady bank managers to release the money early. But Cindy somehow escapes, and her love interest the shoe salesman (another person outside Rodriguez, with his own plot structure, goals, and motivations separate from Cindy's and Rodriguez's) discovers Rodriguez's perfidy. At this point, three different plot threads cross. Develop all three plots equally before writing the story, and then write the story from whichever point of view seems most appropriate. Your chosen point of view, not the flat story plot, will determine which of these is the main plot and which are subplots.

By focusing on those secondary characters as individuals, you will bring them to life, giving them a reality outside their interactions with the main character. And if you outline all these plot threads clearly, with rising and falling action marked, prior to writing your story, you'll find that the story itself won't escape from you. When you know everything that's going on in your story, you're much more likely to wind up with the story you started with, and have a more satisfying and rapid writing experience overall.

Things to remember:

* No more than five characters in your story should be treated this way. Some cardboard characters are all right, even necessary to the proper function of a story. What's an evil villain without his henchmen?
* Most of the secondary plots should be kept in the background, revealed instead as the main character or another character discovers them. While you should know what's going on, the reader should be focused on your primary character. Characters treated with this plot outline don't even have to appear in the story themselves, though echoes of their actions certainly should.
* Don't write more than three major subplots for stories that are less than 100,000 words. Over that, you can probably expand slowly.
* Each rise and fall should be integral to your story. Don't waste words, actions, or plot points.
* This method works best for longer works, not short stories -- with short stories, only one to two subplots should be developed, and they should be kept in the background as much as possible.

Most importantly:
* Ideally, your secondary plots should be well-imagined enough to leave your reader somewhat frustrated when he does not get to see the whole thing. What you're looking for is that "aha!" moment, when the reader has to stop and thread through what must have happened in the sidelines when he was not there.