Today I was pondering the process of adding new characters to a story. We don’t think much about it, every show does it, and usually a book series that starts with a core crew of personas will have a pretty diverse cast by the end. That being said adding a new character is important for a number of reasons:
- It changes the dynamics of the story.
- The characters we already know and love or hate will have to interact with the new character. They will be impacted by this new persona and they will change. That can be good for a story. Adding someone new might be just what you need to push the story along and help a main character through a transformation or a deeper character development.
- They can also steal the show. You may have a new character that you didn’t set out to make awesome, but ends up being better than the ones they were supposed to be supporting. I personally love when this happens because I feel like if as the writer I can be convinced they are awesome the reader will relate.
- It keeps things fresh by making you write character development.
- By the 2nd or third book in a series your main characters had settled. Now that doesn’t mean that are not going through crisis, love interests, and personal growth, but at this point you know what they are. The great thing about bringing someone new in is that you can capture that magic of developing a person in the later books. People enjoy plot and they love action, but the thing that will make readers keep coming back is the meat of the character development. If you can leave them feeling like the characters are 100% real, and they have a connection with them, well then they are along for the journey. As a writer I try to deliver that in every book.
So why am I pondering new characters?
I’m adding two brand new storylines to the Liberty series in the final book in the trilogy. I decided as much as I want to bring the overarching plots to fruition… I want to capture the depth of story that made the first book in the trilogy something special. I decided I can’t do that by only telling you stories from the characters you already know, there is no mystery there. These books are all about taking a journey with unique characters and seeing how they weave together. I hope Not With A Bang delivers just that.
-kurt
