Writing the barely there characters

[vegablack]

I enjoy writing the characters who are in the books but lack fully defined personality and life story. These can range from Hannah Abbot, who I would argue we know quite a lot about in the books, but who is not as completely drawn as Luna or Hermione to Kenneth Towler who is nothing but a name shouted out by the Sorting Hat.

Some people hate reading and writing about these characters as more than background while others enjoy them.

I've written Madam Malkin, Benjy Fenwick and Alice and Frank Longbottom and love doing it. (Next Gen writers do you see yourselves here.) What are your thoughts on writing the characters who make up the milling crowds of the wizarding world?

[maraudercat]

Personally I find writing the minor characters infinitely more fun than major ones as you have some direction to their personality usually (ie their conversation with someone, what their house is...) but with enough leeway to write them as you see fit.

I've written Theodore Nott, Barty Crouch jr, Roger Davies, a Lucius/Narcissa pairing, and a sorting hat piece which covers the Next Gen characters

[pigwithhair]

Yeah, they can be fun. I've written about the Catermoles before and I've a story that I've not finished editing from Merope Gauntt's POV, obviously not a happy story.

[MWPP]

I've had great fun writing about Crookshanks or from his POV.

The "lesser" characters allow so much more freedom. I'd rather play with them than with original ones.




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[kelleypen]

Agreed . . . lesser characters are more fun to write. My favorites? Frank and Alice, Narcissa, Andromeda, Charlie, Nott Sr . . .

[magikcat]

I actually prefer reading and writing stories on minor characters. I like reading about Ron and Hermione, but here is so much more room to bring new personalities and back stories to the screen.

On Checkmated I wrote a story with Theodore Nott and Neville Longbottom POVs, I have a Lily/Scorpius and Hugo Weasley one-shot still in my computer, and have written a Dean/Lavender one-shot that's half way done.

[vegablack]

How do you decide how to write these characters? With some, like Benjy Fenwick, I just ran with him, going so far as to make him a Muggle-born of Jamaican background with a love of muggle-music who is an old school friend of Alice's and Frank's. He is invented out of whole cloth since all we know of him is that he was in the Order and blown to little bits. All his qualities are those that are useful to my story and would serve as a good counterpoints to the Longbottoms since he mostly shows up as their friend.


For Alice and Frank I study what is said about them and extrapolate sometimes wildly. Alice is an Auror and a popular person, who Slughorn implies has flare, but who looks exactly like Neville, down to her friendly smile. When I write her, I think about what kind of personality a woman would have who was short, chubby, and sweet-faced, yet could also command authority enough to be an Auror and still remain friendly and popular.

Since Lilly and James were dead at 21 and it takes three years to become an Auror, I decided she had to be older than they were. It's the only way she could have built a career given the time taken up by training and pregnancy.


Writing that woman was fun.

[birdg]

How have I never before responded in a topic that is practically tailor-made for me?

Sometimes characters just come to me - fully-formed - like Scorpius did. I just started writing and hours later found myself with 5,000 words of an epic-length series.

Others reveal themselves slowly, sometimes to suit the story. For the aforementioned long story about Scorpius, I had an OC for his mum but then JKR revealed who his mum was and after mulling over it, I decided to go with that. Some of Draco's background had to change but there were a few things I didn't want to give up - like Draco and his wife running a potions business - so while Draco remained a Potioneer, Asteria Greengrass became a healer. (The OC wife had been more of a business type, the daughter of one of the most renowned Potioneers in Russia.)

Even though the OC had yet to be introduced and they'd be playing the same role in story, Asteria's personality wound up being different in several ways just because that's how the character materialized in my head. Other things, like the Greengrasses being Jewish, came later. (In that specific instance while I was trying to write a Christmas scene and finding it unexpectedly difficult.) And then I just build as I go along - either out of inspiration or necessity.

In a lot of ways, Asteria and Scorpius were a reaction against common-to-the-point-of-cliched versions I saw in fandom. But some characters - like my take on say Hannah, or the Longbottoms - tend to follow popular fanon because I agree with those interpretations.

[siriusgirl]

Alice and Frank are two characterS I'd love to write, Frank I see as well frank. . .straight forward, to the point. Alice I see as having quite the fire behind that round, friendly, happy looking face. We know as much because she and Frank evaded Voldy three times and was quite gifted.

barely there characters give you a lot more freedom because anything goes, as long as it's canon

[siriusgirl]

So in my story (right now a series of vignettes) I have Penelope Clearwater marry my OC, Marcellus Gamp. We know Percy doesn't marry Penelope. What do you think happened to them? Penelope disappears after POA. Do you think maybe their relationship simply fizzled in GOF, or did they break up in OOTP because of Percy's attitude, and Penelope didn't like how he turned his back on his family, and didn't believe the Ministry, so she ended it with him? That's what I think