Writing Secondary Characters with Karen Odden

From My Fantasy Writing Desk

Even in my current locked-down existence, writer friends gather virtually and we learn from each other. This past Saturday, the Arizona Historical Novel Society hosted Karen Odden to talk about writing secondary characters. She’s a masterful author of historical fiction set in the Victorian period, and I was eager for her insights. She didn’t disappoint.

A Resource for Writing Secondary Characters

One of the ways she develops full secondary characters is to identify the character’s “personal myth.” For this approach, she draws on a book by Dan McAdams, Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self. It’s definitely now on my reading list. The personal myth grows from past experiences, core beliefs, and desires. It governs the way a character (or we ourselves) approach and respond to all interactions.

A Core Misbelief of Her Very Own

The especially useful insight that Karen brought to me was the recommendation to identify a core misbelief within a secondary character’s personal myth. Will the character revise that misbelief on her own? How will it drive her character arc in an independent way from the main character? That idea of the secondary character’s independence from the main hero is also hugely helpful to me. Letting the secondary character grow and act from within her own needs is, you’d think, quite obvious. But when I’m constructing a plot and focused on that main character’s all-important arc of change, it’s easy to let the secondary characters serve the “MC”’s arc not their own. But oh, how liberating to let them be themselves!

I’ve already put these ideas into action during some revisions and editing I’m buried under at the moment. Thank you, Karen! (Karen has excellent notes for writers on her website here.)

Karen’s Books (Writing Secondary Characters in Action!)

Karen’s books are rich reads that you will love. Her knowledge of Victorian England glows on every page and, you guessed it, her characters, all of them, are deep and full. So, I highly recommend you dip into her historical mysteries. She has three thus far. There are some connections between her books, but they aren’t a series. You can choose any order. They are all superb.

A Trace of Deceit

A young woman painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder.

A Dangerous Duet

Nineteen-year-old Nell Hallam lives in a modest corner of Mayfair with her brother Matthew, an inspector at Scotland Yard. An exceptionally talented pianist, she aspires to attend the Royal Academy; but with tuition beyond their means, Nell sets out to earn the money herself—by playing piano in a popular Soho music hall. And the fact that she will have to disguise herself as a man and slip out at night to do it doesn’t deter her.

A Lady in the Smoke

Karen’s debut plunges a headstrong young Englishwoman into a conspiracy that reaches the highest corridors of power. It opens when a train careens off the rails and bursts into flames. Karen wrote her dissertation on Victorian railway accidents and this one gets more intriguing with every turn of the page.

(Here for fantasy set in the Victorian period.)

Kudos for Of Kings and Griffins

By the way, my latest historical fantasy, Of Kings and Griffins, received some lovely praise this week. It is in the running for Discovering Diamonds’ Book of The Month and the site’s review warms my heart. Click here for the review on Discovering Diamonds.