Thread: Main Versus Not-So Main Characters

Well, I have another question. Okay, I actually have a lot of questions, but I'll try my best to search for the answers before starting a new thread when I can't find an answer. Anyway, I did run across this thread, on the number of main characters is too many, (which was helpful!)--but I'd like to know: What makes a main character and what makes a "not-so" main character. And by that I mean, a character who isn't just a "walk-on" character, or minor character.

The reason I'm asking is because the story I've been tinkering around with is going to primarily bounce around between two characters: a vampire (I know, I know...) and a human. Both are male and both are my main points of views. However, I'd like to introduce a third point of view, that of a human female who may have a few scenes depending on how things are going. She's important to my story in that she's the parole officer of the human and will eventually be involved with hunting down the human male who has gone missing. Obviously there is more plot than that, more twists and turns. Beyond that, I want to focus on the vampire and human male more than anything.

The parole officer isn't now a main character is she if she's got a few scenes? If I add in another POV of a different character, this won't make them a main character either, will it?

(And for the record, the parole officer will NOT be romantically involved with the said vampire and human male. I hope my plot isn't going to be that romantically cheesy!)

I have three main characters through whom the points of view switch. Anyone else is seen through their eyes, or heard by them. But I don't think just because you use someone for a pov, it automatically means they have to be main. You just may need them to show things your mains don't or won't know till later, if at all, or to carry the story when you can't use your main two. And I generally only get confused when there are more than about twenty characters I have to keep track of. Even then, it is usually worth it to have them there.

Ah. This is good to know. I have a gaggle of eight characters at the moment--the two main ones, and then the others. Most of the other six would be considered minor characters; or, as you said, viewed only through the eyes of the main/not-so main characters at that time.

My hope is to include a not-so main character in the next story (as a main character then), and so on and so forth, so that each story is connected in some way. In a sense I guess I'm worried that I'll get carried away with too many characters.

My last novel had over thirty characters. About ten of them were main. Trust me, you're fine.

Hello

go for it. don't put blocks in front of your story before it's even written.