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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48017
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48017
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

That is what secondary characters are for. If you conceive of a story as the arc of a principal character, then every event and every secondary character exists to define that arc, to push the character along that arc, and to demonstrate the change that occurs in the character (if any) as they traverse that arc.

Of course, some characters are more secondary than others. Some stories have multiple protagonists, each with their own arc, though usually one protagonist is preeminent. Some secondary characters have partial arcs, if only because for them to play their role in the main protagonist's arc, they have to develop as well.

The main concern in all of this is that as much or as little as you show of any particular character, whether you give them a whole arc, a partial arc, or merely a cameo, the reader has to find them convincing. If your secondary characters suddenly change behavior in the middle of the story in order to push the main character to the next plot point, the story is going to be unconvincing.

This, of course, makes piloting your main protagonist's arc to its desired end a complex bit of logistics, which explains why this stuff is hard to do and why most who attempt it don't manage to accomplish it with complete success.

There aren't any obvious paint-by-numbers tricks to accomplishing this. However, readers will typically give you much more leeway on improbable events than they will on inconsistent characters, as long as you foreshadow them appropriately.

Your story will flow fine if you create secondary characters who exist simply to show the protagonist's growth, just as long as their characterization is consistent, and they behave in a way that is consistent with their character as you have established it earlier in the book.

Original score: 14