Feedback Wanted
Secondary characters are useful until they become too useful.
Once they start arriving with the exact fact, key, contact or workaround the plot needs, they stop feeling like people and start feeling like a piece of office equipment with dialogue. I keep noticing how thin that line is. A believable secondary character can open a door. A convenient one already has the right key in their pocket, which is usually the problem.
I’m curious how other writers decide where that boundary sits. How much usefulness can a character carry before the story starts to smell of arrangement rather than life?
Once they start arriving with the exact fact, key, contact or workaround the plot needs, they stop feeling like people and start feeling like a piece of office equipment with dialogue. I keep noticing how thin that line is. A believable secondary character can open a door. A convenient one already has the right key in their pocket, which is usually the problem.
I’m curious how other writers decide where that boundary sits. How much usefulness can a character carry before the story starts to smell of arrangement rather than life?
A secondary character can be useful as long as the usefulness has a cost. If they turn up with the answer, fine, but let them arrive late, get it wrong, or want something awkward in exchange. People are rarely just a key in a pocket. They’re more often a locked drawer with opinions.