Character Types: Secondary, Tertiary, and Background

How is the supporting cast important?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

A few weeks ago, we looked at deuteragonists and tritagonists. Now let’s look at our final character types at the bottom of the hierarchy. This will be a bit shorter than the other articles, but the support cast is still important enough to discuss.

What are they?

Secondary

These are the most essential of the supporting characters. They aren’t main characters and don’t have their own plotlines, but they are at least frequently recurring, if not present throughout the story.

Mentors, comic relief, and brothers-in-arms are all common secondary characters. In romance, the best friends whom the lovers discuss their relationship with are almost staple secondary characters.

If someone needs to die and leave a lasting impression, it’s most often a secondary character. That’s because their recurrance makes them matter more to the reader and the protagonist, but they don’t have thier own plot or character arc to derail with their departure from the story.

Tertiary

These are one-scene wonders. In longer works they might show up twice or maybe three times, but in general, you won’t see them again. They are important to the scene they’re in and can even be named.

In an adventure, these might be the friends and family who are left behind by the protagonist. They’re important to establishing who the protagonist is, but part of their importance is that they don’t get to stay in the story.

Other characters may step into the story later but leave soon after. In mystery, a tertiary character may appear for one scene as a suspect, only to point the investigation to someone else.

Background

These are basically props. If they’re named, it’s usually because they’re referenced by another character in passing without being shown. When they’re in a scene, they may get a line or two without drawing focus, or they may not speak at all.

Soldiers in a war or battle are usually background characters because nobody has time or interest in reading details about dozens or hundreds of people.

Background characters can also show up one-by-one if they serve a needed function that isn’t relevant to the plot. For example, if two main characters are catching a taxi together, there obviously needs to be a driver, but most of the details about them probably don’t matter.

All Together

Although supporting characters are short on page time and often details as well, they fill a valuable role in storytelling. Without support characters, the main characters act in a vacuum. With them, the setting is richer and livelier.

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Character Types: Deuteragonists and Tritagonists

What happens when a leading character is not the protagonist?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Last week, we looked at protagonist and main character. (Check it out here for a refresher on what a protagonist is. I’ll be talking about it a lot.) If you’ll recall, there is only one protagonist in a story. But most stories have multiple characters who are major players in the plot. How does that work?

Two Kinds of Deuteragonists

There are actually lots of roles that deuteragonists can fill, but they all tend to fall within two major types: leaders of their own plots and support for the protagonist.

Self-Contained

These are the characters that are often mislabeled as additional protagonists. They legitimately drive their plotlines on their own. However, the plotline they are driving happens to be secondary to the main plotline that the protagonist is driving. If it’s hard to tell which is which, look at the climax of the whole story, the biggest, most important moment in the book. The deuteragonist’s actions may move pieces toward this event, but the protagonist is directly responsible for it.

Support

This could be a lover, sidekick, relative, or teammate of the protagonist. They work so closely with them that it’s hard to separate their plotlines because they end up running simultaneously—or so it seems. The protagonist is the leader, the one calling the shots. Even when the deuteragonist appears to be working side-by-side with them instead of following, when you break down their actions, one will emerge as the first to act or the one steering major decisions.

Tritagonist

This one is very simple. As I’m sure you’ve probably guessed, the tritagonist is the third major player. They follow the same forms as deuteragonists, just one more level removed from the protagonist. Most stories don’t go past these three since things get more complicated as you add more major storylines. However, in very complex plots, it’s possible to have multiple deuteragonists or tritagonists who aren’t quite the main drivers of the story but are essentially equal to each other.

Still a Main Character

It’s important to note that both deuteragonists and tritagonists can be and often are main characters. Being secondary to the protagonist is mostly useful for examining plot movement. It’s not about the most interesting or strongest character or the most page time; it’s a matter of mechanics. In fact, in one of my stories, my deuteragonist technically has a slightly higher word count in his point of view than my protagonist does.

What do I do with this?

Much like the main character vs protagonist label, determining the protagonist vs deuteragonist can help you focus on plotting effectively. You want the right character’s actions to line up with when you want your climax to happen. If you set up your protagonist at the start but focus on the deuteragonist for the climax, readers may feel shortchanged. That may seem obvious, but when both are main characters, it can be easy to accidentally swap roles in the story.

It’s also important that deuteragonists complement the protagonist's journey, rather than distract from it. If the deuteragonist’s—or worse, the tritagonist’s—story is more interesting than the protagonist’s you may want to examine if you’re telling the right story or version of that story.

Join us the week after next as we finish off this series with the characters below tritagonists: secondary and tertiary characters. As for next week, look out for our interview with Diane Anthony about her upcoming release The Rare.

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Character Types: Protagonists, Main Characters, and Heroes

How are they different, and why does it matter?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

A couple weeks ago, we talked about the difference between villains and antagonists. Now let’s look at their opposites: protagonists, main characters, and heroes. First, let’s define these character types.

Main Character

This is simply the character whose eyes the story is told through. A story can have multiple main characters, although most have only one or two. They can sometimes be called a point-of-view character. In a story with several point-of-view characters, the main character or characters are the ones whose view is shown for most of the scenes.

Protagonist

Protagonists are like the immortals from Highlander—in any story, there can be only one. This singular character is the one whose actions and key decisions drive the plot. Their choices move the story forward. A protagonist must act; they must affect either their world or themself.

Hero

There are many definitions for heroes, but for our purposes, they are the opposite of a villain: someone of good intent who seeks to save or better their world.

Aren’t those the same thing?

They can be, but no, not really. Many stories have separate protagonists and main characters, and neither are necessarily heroes. Much like villain antagonists, it’s easy to find heroic protagonists who are also main characters: Robin Hood, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter.

However, those examples don’t tell us much. The importance in knowing the difference between the three is best demonstrated by looking at stories with separate protagonists, main characters, and heroes.

Holmes & Watson

One of the most well-known pairings of a separate protagonist and main character is Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson. Holmes is the protagonist; he is the master detective, and his journey to solve the mystery drives the plot. But Dr. Watson is the main character; it is through his eyes only that we see Holmes, and his observations color the narrative.

By observing Sherlock Holmes from the outside, both the mystery to be solved and the almost mythical intrigue around his intellect are preserved. Using a different main character can be ideal for mysterious or larger-than-life protagonists because of the distance created between the protagonist and the audience.

Edmond Dantes

The Count of Monte Cristo has Edmond Dantes as both the protagonist and main character, but by the definition we’re using, he isn’t a hero. His goal is revenge; he seeks to destroy the lives of everyone who betrayed him.

Anti-heroes or even villain protagonists can make for rich storytelling. In some cases, the protagonist learns to be a better person, and in others, the story may ultimately be about the protagonist’s downfall.

So What?

For readers, knowing who the protagonist is and who the main character is will tell you whose story you’re reading and who’s telling it. When someone else is telling the protagonist’s story, there’s usually a reason why. Think about what you see differently from that character’s perspective.

For writers, identifying your protagonist is vital to clear storytelling. Most writers know their main character well because that’s the voice they’ve chosen to write in. But the protagonist can be less obvious, and misidentifying the protagonist can derail an entire story. Since the protagonist’s actions drive the plot from one act to another, planning the story around the wrong character’s actions can ruin the pace of an otherwise good story as important points like the climax happen too early or too late.

Only one protagonist?

But what about the other important characters who matter to the plot? To find out, join us next week as we discuss deuteragonists.

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Character Types: Antagonists and Villains

What’s the difference? How are they important in fiction?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

To celebrate Halloween today, let’s talk about the scariest of fictional characters, antagonists and villains. An antagonist is a force opposing the protagonist. A villain is a character with malevolent intent or actions.

Aren’t those the same thing?

Nope! It’s true that in many stories, the antagonist is also a villain. It’s easy to identify them: Snow White’s stepmother, the Wicked Witch of the West, Dracula…

But that’s not always the case. To better demonstrate the difference, let’s focus on characters who are not both.

Antagonists

One thing that’s important to understand about an antagonist is that it is essential to the story. A protagonist without opposition isn’t doing anything. If you’re scientifically minded, think of literature as having its own version of Newton’s third laws of motion. For every action the protagonist takes, there is an opposite reaction by someone or something—the antagonist. There are a few different versions of non-villain antagonists.

Friendly Opposition

Most people wouldn’t describe their friends and family as malevolent or evil, but often they are a protagonist’s biggest opposition. They mean well, but their desires happen to run counter to the main goal. Example: A boy wants to go to a party, but his mother grounds him for fighting with his brother. Though the mother does it for the boy’s own good, she is his antagonist.

Lovers and Future Friends

These are similar to the friends and family but less amiable. However, less amiable doesn’t mean malevolent. They could be potential lovers or rivals who become friends of the protagonist. Most romance novels use this type. The protagonist is avoiding love, but the antagonist is driving them toward a relationship, or vice versa. Again, the antagonist’s actions aren’t malevolent—they aren’t even necessarily intentional. In the case of a lover antagonist, they may thwart the protagonist’s desire to avoid love simply by existing.

The Protagonist

Yes, you read that right. The protagonist can be their own antagonist. Although Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are a prime example, most protagonists who serve as their own antagonists aren’t quite so extreme. Someone who’s self-destructive or stands in their own way can be their greatest foe, but so can someone who’s simply battling their own weakness. Example: A man trying to be a good leader is fighting crippling shyness, and that aspect of himself is his antagonist.

A Force of Nature

An antagonist doesn’t need to be a person. An animal, the weather, or geography could all be the primary opposition to the protagonist. Survival or disaster stories make use of this most often, but it appears in all kinds of fiction. Example: To return home, a woman must cross a desert alone. The desert is the antagonist.

Temporary Antagonist

Every story needs a main antagonist, but did you know that each scene has its own antagonist as well? One difference is that scene antagonist may be opposing a main character rather than the protagonist if they are not in the scene. This character may be friendly or supportive for the rest of the story but acts as an opposing force in this one instance. Example: A man and his friend are planning an attack on the main antagonist. The man wants to charge their foe, but his friend thinks a sneak attack would be better and questions the plan. They debate and eventually reach a compromise. Though not truly the antagonist of the story, during this debate, the friend is functioning as one.

Villains

Unlike the antagonists, which can have neutral, benevolent, or non-existent intent, villains are defined by their malevolence. But why would a villain not be the driving force against a protagonist?

Villain Protagonist

If the villain is the protagonist, then the antagonist is likely to be a hero. Dorian Gray is a classic example.

Substitute for the Antagonist

People love to root against a villain, but in a story where the antagonist cannot be a villain, such as with a force of nature, sometimes a villain will be placed in a story to soak up the hate that the audience can’t direct at inhuman force. This character doesn’t ever get in the protagonist’s way for long but is rude, mean or downright evil.

No Villain

Sometimes stories don’t even use a substitute villain for their non-villainous antagonist. While an antagonist is an essential story element, a villain is not. It’s possible to have a story with no villain at all.

Why does it matter?

Because antagonists are necessary, and villains are not, knowing which is which can make or break a story. For writers, in striving for realism, villains are often discarded, but it’s important to not lose the antagonists as well, or the story will fall apart. For readers, being able to identify the antagonist without labeling them as a villain can lead to more honest and in-depth discussion or analysis of our favorite characters and their true roles.

Join us next week when we’ll look at their opposites: protagonists, main characters, and heroes.

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Types of Characters

Which ones are essential to building a story?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

In every story, each character fulfills a basic role. In fact, these roles are so basic that they can all be listed in this article!

Why?

Knowing the role of a character is essential to both writing and analyzing fiction. For authors, misidentifying key roles can cause an otherwise interesting premise to fall apart over the course of the narrative. For readers, knowing these character types will give you a point of reference to compare them across multiple stories.

What are they?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll go over each of these in depth, but these are types from most essential to least:

Protagonist (Protagonists, Main Characters, and Heroes)

You CANNOT have a story without a protagonist. This character drives the story. His or her choices and actions form the major turning points. Unless two or more characters are somehow acting as one, a story general only has one protagonist.

Antagonist (Antagonist and Villains)

Like the protagonist, the antagonist is necessary to the story and is the main force opposing the protagonist. Even a story with only one character still has an antagonist. A protagonist fighting against their own nature can be their own antagonist, or the environment can be an antagonist in a man-vs.-nature story.

Main Character

A main character provides the point of view. In stories with an omniscient narrator, the main character would be whoever the narrator follows most frequently. Usually, a main character is undergoing an emotional journey. A story can have multiple main characters. The protagonist may or may not be one of them. If a story has any deuteragonists, they may be main characters as well.

Deuteragonist (Deuteragonists and Tritagonists)

Most of the time, when people think a story has multiple protagonists, what they’re really referring to is the existence of a deuteragonist. This character is similar but secondary to the protagonist. At major turning points of the story, their actions will usually follow the protagonist’s.

Hero or Heroine

While one definition of hero is the same as a main character, the more useful definition is it’s primary one: someone admirable, noble, and courageous who achieves great feats or is endowed with great abilities.

Villain

Villains commit evil or have evil motives. Similar to the relationship between protagonists and main characters, villains and antagonists often overlap but are separate roles.

Secondary Characters (Secondary, Tertiary, and Background)

These characters are important support for the protagonist, antagonist, deuteragonist, and/or main characters. They have names and history and follow the more essential characters throughout much of the story.

Tertiary Characters

Their roles are even smaller than secondary characters’. They perform important roles for a scene or two and may even have names but quickly disappear.

Background Characters

More like a props than actual characters, background characters exist to populate the world of the story. The extras in a movie would be background characters in a novel.

Multiple Roles

As noted, a single character can fill more than one role. Let’s use a romance for an example. We have a woman who’s actively looking for love, and half the book is written in her point of view. She’s both the protagonist (driving the plot) and a main character (POV). The other half of the book is written from a man’s point of view. He’s reluctant to get into a relationship and is on an important mission to right some wrong from his past. He’s the deuteragonist (his B plot), a main character (POV), and the antagonist (opposes her quest).

Breaking It Down

Over the next several weeks, we’ll go over these character types in smaller pieces, focusing on the differences between similar types. Next week, to celebrate Halloween, we’ll start with a comparison of antagonists and villains.

*This blog post has been updated with links after publishing and will only include links with the first mentioned character title or proceeding blog posts.

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