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In just about any story, whether it be a TV show or a written work of fiction, the writer often finds he or she needs to include a nameless character in the mix in order to make the story more interesting or carry a scene. I used to refer to these as throw away characters since many of the ones I included in my stories shared the same fate of the extra crewman Captain James T. Kirk often included in his away team. You know the guy, (and they were always guys in the early Star Trek days), the one who went behind the boulder and was zapped. In the movie spoof of the original Star Trek, ‘Galaxy Quest,’ this character was named Crewman Number Six because he wasn’t around long enough to waste time thinking up a name for him.
When J and I began ‘God Save the Queen’ we had a character who we both thought was going to be little more than a bit player, what Hollywood calls a background artist. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, bugler Hayes refused to stay in the background. By the time we reached the midpoint of the story he had managed to capture our imagination and more than a few scenes as our Crewman Number Six became an important part of the story.
As I have mentioned before, often a writer loses control of his or her characters once he or she has introduced them and set them lose. A smart writer will give their characters the freedom to develop and grow as they story progresses. This not only allows those characters to fit to the story instead of forcing the story to fit the character, it makes writing the story so much more fun, for I seldom know exactly where my characters are going to take me and what they’re going to do once they get there.
So for those of you who are out there, scribbling away on your own stories, never forget that the nameless character in Chapter Two just might become a star by Chapter Ten, causing you to go back and give your Crewman Number Six a more fitting name.
HW Coyle
A.K.A. Nancy Cole
P.S. Shameless plug time. ‘God Save the Queen’ is available on Kindle under the name HW Coyle and Jennifer Ellis.
Comments
In my experience,
they often wear red shirts, and can be referred to as such.
My children.
Have a lot of fun at my expense due to the arguing between me and the characters " Talent ie actors " of my stories. This morning my youngest told me I needed to create a character that I can tell all my secrets to. Thinking about it that may not be a bad idea but she might get angry and tell another character who will have it all around my circle of talent, and no one would work with me Bo Ho Bo ho.
I think this might have gotten carried away already. Maybe I have mutable personalities>? { Alright stop talking about us already.} [ I am not telling them anything they don't already know. ] {Still you talk to much talk talk talk}
hay folks I will get back to you on this
Bailie's misbehaving faerie
Huggles.
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
It's a bit like a McGuffin
a plot device which allows something else to happen. My story 'Secrets' opens with a murder, whose sole purpose is to introduce the two main characters to each other.
S.