From Secondary to Main: Unlocking New Paths in Storytelling

Promoting Characters and the Power of Residue. Part of the Murakami Challenge

Dear Readers,

How are things out in the world? I have been buried with the usual things — work, home, a small social life. Oh and I got one of these…

Meet Cafecito, our 10-month-old puppy, who has made writing a challenge lately. Even now, I’m late for her morning walk, and she’s side-eyeing me from her crate!

However, writing beckons. I did take some time off to be a dog mom but I returned to my Murakami Challenge and to my novella. As I read what I had written so far, I noticed a pattern in my writing — the Margaret Mitchell technique of writing.

So Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind. Large, thick book that was inspired by her family’s stories of the Civil War. We can get into the whole thing about the story and its portrayal of African Americans and Antebellum South but we will leave that for another day. Clearly, I have opinions. However, I do want to talk about how she wrote the book.

Mitchell built Gone With the Wind around four central characters. The entire story revolves around their lives and relationships—a technique that resonated with me as I revisited my novella.

Inspired by this approach, I realized my novella centers around two characters, but the story felt stilted. The novella, which I am currently calling “Marigolds in May” (it’s a place holder, don’t get attached) is centered around two characters—coworkers that could be friends but aren’t. It told of the end of the world through their lenses and experiences. It was the secondary characters that flowed in and out but they remain constant.

But, I hit a wall. There were only so many scenes together that I could write. The story felt a bit stilted and, frankly, I felt bored. However, what if you promoted a secondary character?

Now things could get interesting. Or could completely fall apart, but since this part of the Murakami Challenge is to create and take chances, leaving the cleaning up and revision for another session, this was the time to do something somewhat unconventional.

Note, I’ve never done this. I keep my secondary characters in their place. But…what if I did something different?

When I promoted a secondary character, the story suddenly opened up—new contexts, dialogue with double meanings, and fresh dynamics I hadn’t anticipated. It was like opening up the new wing of a building. There were possibilities here that I didn’t anticipate. Bright shiny possibilities and plot holes that needed to be worked on had, suddenly, an answer.

What is their new role?

The role of a secondary character, at least one of them, is to assist the main characters in some way. They give advice, information, or context. They can be the mirror of the main character. In this way they keep the plot moving forward, like those black blobby fish that clean the fish tanks — they aren’t pretty to look at but man is that fish tank shiny!

So moving the secondary into primary means that they have to be assigned a new role. That’s a question to answer. Are we experiencing the story in their voice? What does their voice sound like? Is this in third person POV? Is it close or ominicent? What serves the story better?

In my case, the POV is first person. That means a new voice, thoughts, goals and motivation. I like to get into “the skin” of the character to the point I can hear an accent or a speech pattern when I write. It also means…

What is their Backstory in Relation to the Original Main Characters?

And here is where the fun — snicker — comes in. What is the background to this? Who is this character now? Why is their voice important? Why now?

By default, when promoting a secondary character, their relationship with the primary becomes even more important. That, I think, is a good litmus test. If the relationship with the primary character is important enough to elevate, then promoting a secondary character is something you should try. When I elevated the secondary in question, it put the relationship, in this case dysfunctional romantic, under a microscope. And it should be as it gives the story the ability to show who the characters are, their motivations and what they want.

That means I had to go against part of the Murkami Challenge, I had to return to certain parts of what I had written and adjust, tweak, and, wonderfully, I did not have to re-write hardly anything. This is another indication that promoting the secondary character I did was exactly the right move. At least for now.

In this way, the story opens — the new wing of the building I wrote about earlier. In the story soup you are creating there is a new spice which means you have to see how it fits with the other main characters. While promoting one means you have to demote another? It depends on the story you’re telling. It may be the case that, yes, you will demote a character that probably needed demoting. This was just an opportunity, then, to fix a problem you wouldn’t have seen coming until a future draft.

Showing and Telling and the difference

One of my writing teachers once said, “Even the scenes you cut leave an imprint on the story.” She called it "residue," and I realized how true that was during this process.

When I promoted the secondary character, I began writing an origin scene showing how they met the main character. Halfway through, I realized that scene wasn’t for the reader—it was for me. Let me explain.

The original scene detailed how the main character pulled strings to meet the new primary character, revealing traits like cunning and determination. But instead of including that scene, I returned to a later moment—a conflict-heavy dialogue between the two characters where they mentioned this earlier event. The reference was enough to move the story forward and added tension, without needing to spell out the entire backstory.

That’s when it clicked: I didn’t need the full scene. The residue—the trace of what happened—was enough to give the interaction weight. It left an imprint without bogging the story down with unnecessary details.

Would I recommend promoting a character?

Short answer: no. Long answer: depends.

I suggest promoting a secondary character as a writing exercise. Start with telling the story from their point of view.

This could tell you so many things about your story! Is it working? How well it’s working (or not)? What do you need to add, substract, or expand?

And it could be that the story sounds better from the secondary’s perspective. However, it still doesn’t mean you promote them. Consider Weuthering Heights, the novel. The story is being told from the maid perspective as she is telling it to the visitor. We are getting second hard accounting at best. Imagine how that story changes if it’s told through Catherine or Heathcliff’s perspective. Or Earnshaw (ugh). It’s a better story in the hands of the maid (through the visitor), but it doesn’t mean the maid is a main character.

Promoting a secondary to primary requires thinking about their ending. I know the ending of the story and the ending of that character specifically. I can see and know the character arc. He has a goal, a motivation, and a conflict. I know his backstory and how he got to where he is when we meet in the story. All of those details are flesh out. HOWEVER…

I have scenes with him and the primary in pieces at the moment. Like a jigsaw puzzle you’re trying to put together and you emptied the entire box on the table — it’s all there, you just have to put it together.

In this way, it’s A LOT of work. It’s not something I mind, but it has slowed me down a bit. And in that slowing down it has made re-examine another character, their reactions and interactions. I don’t anticipate demoting that character but I see where the revisions will need to begin with her.

Promoting a secondary character added complexity and depth to my story, a challenge worth embracing if you’re stuck. Now, back to my revisions…and to Cafecito’s walk, before she demands more of my attention!

—Icess