One of my first tips on writing concerns your protagonist’s motivations. Every story is driven by the want of its principal character and the challenges that they most overcome in chasing that want. However, very few stories are just about a singular character. The vast majority of tales will involve some interaction with others. These are your secondary or tertiary characters – hopefully named if they’re going to be featured frequently. But they are more than just set dressings to your protagonist’s journey.

Alright, they actually are set dressing but part of the unspoken contract you’ve made with your reader is to mask this fact. There’s a sense of verisimilitude which we strive to achieve with our writing. We’re not recreating reality. Such a task is both impossible and ultimately undesirable. People read stories precisely because they aren’t reality. Stories have clear arcs. They have definitive beginnings and endings. They contain themes supported by actions and events. They’re tight, concise and satisfying.

Reality has none of this. Reality is messy. Reality often has conflicts or issues that don’t get resolved. Or they’ll have random events unforeseen come careening in to drastically alter people’s course and fate. People won’t always learn lessons. Distractions often reign supreme. To accurately mimic reality would be to create a mess of a narrative. So we don’t want to copy reality – we merely want to tease a sense of it. 

Part of creating this feeling of a living world in our works actually rides on the backs of our supporting cast. In reality, there is no protagonist. There is no single person which the world revolves around like in a novel. Everyone is their own main character, consumed with their own troubles and tribulations. Obviously, we can’t have this in our books. In fact, many characters in stories will drop everything they’re doing to help the protagonist. Many go out of their way to assist or hinder in dramatic fashion. There is almost an element of solipsism in novels where one person’s perspective is all that’s important. 

But it is the duty of a good writer to mask this truth. We don’t want our supporting cast to feel like a supporting cast. They should give hints and glimpses of rounded individuals leading their own lives. Not servants to the wants and needs of the main character. 

Yet how do we accomplish this? Well, I kind of do a similar exercise for my supporting cast as I do for the main character. I’ll assign them a goal or motivation which drives them. However, unlike the protagonist, a supporting cast member only ever gets one motivation. More than that will make things too complicated, messy and confusing. Furthermore, unlike the protagonist, this motivation is going to be minor in comparison. And, frankly, supporting characters don’t need dramatic hurdles impeding their efforts to achieve their desire. 

In fact, it’s probably easier if they don’t have much standing in their way. In this manner, the support character can be slowly toiling towards their destination all the while the story revolves around the struggles of their compatriot. 

For example, in my novel A Clockwork Caterpillar, Felicity comes across an old acquaintance Gerard. Gerard led a band of rebels against the colonial throne. His goal was to create an independent nation free of the monarchy’s influence. As such, his interactions with Felicity were always underscored by this desire. He spoke to her of his dreams for liberation. He justified his actions in kidnapping her terms which furthered that interest. At times, his goal for independence aligned with Felicity and he was an ally. At other times, they were conflicted. But regardless of what happened with Felicity on her journey, Gerard always had this liberation from the monarchy as his single-minded goal.

In contrast to this, I’m sure we can all think of stories where a supporting character didn’t have any motivation. In fact, they only ever seemed to serve a very literary function with the protagonist. Perhaps they waited in the wings, willing to drop everything in order to lend the aid the protagonist needs at whatever moment was necessary. These characters often end up rather flat. Without motivation, they lack a personality. Without a personality, they often come across as a bland version of the protagonist. 

So, as a rule of thumb, try to give your supporting cast of characters something to do. It doesn’t need to be anything big or grandiose. But just a little personal desire that is not shared by the protagonist will make them stand out more and help with building that sense of realism in your stories.

Thus, when writing your secondary characters, ask yourself:

What does this character want? Is this want suitably minor enough for the character’s role? Or will this want overshadow the protagonist’s journey? If so, can they have some other motivation that won’t distract from the story?

Finally, how does this motivation manifest during interactions between this supporting character and the protagonist? How can I express this want without distracting from the primary focus of the story?