What is it that divides main characters from secondary characters? It could be a natural tendency for writers to favor some characters over others, or perhaps it's a coping mechanism for dealing with overlong character lists. In my own situation, I believe it's the latter. As I'm writing this, my characters folder for this November's NaNoWriMo novel contains eight character files. My 'Characters List.txt' file shows that another five exist that still need to be named, and I'm sure there's more to come. However, prior to my most recent project, I've never written anything that doesn't have 2-4 characters who clearly stand out above the rest of the cast.
In my first novel(which was a disaster all around, but at least it taught me character design basics), I had three main characters, who were all point of view characters. I started to write a sequel, with a fourth new point of view character, but then I had a flash of clarity and threw it in the back of a drawer somewhere to never be found again. At any rate, the rest of my cast was remarkably small, only containing a handful of parents and a few unnamed throwaway characters.
My second novel, the one I wrote for last year's NaNoWriMo, had a much more diverse cast. I had three main point of view characters again, but I also had their roommates, parents, coworkers, bosses and clients. Though I don't think I fully immersed the reader in a realistic world full of people, it was a far cry from my first attempt. Also, I tried to give throwaway characters names, so that it felt like they were real people instead of just socks.
Apart from my two novels, I've written a variety of short stories, and in all of them I've stuck to one or two viewpoints. Only one experimental science fiction story that I never finished contains more than two points of view – it has three viewpoint characters, and was planned to span three parts. The differences between my main characters and my secondary characters was very striking.
This novel, however, is different. I have such a large named cast to begin with, who all have their own looks, personalities, and opinions. My brain will be a battleground even before November starts, but that's OK. I'm a writer, I can deal with it. There's just so many of them though, and when people ask me “But which ones are the main characters?” I'm not even sure where to start.
There's a girl and her father, a scholarly mentor, a motherly healer, a modern-day ninja, a warrior treading the line between good and evil and a garden witch, just to name a few. Only two of these people(the father and then the daughter, in that order) will be viewpoint characters, but does it make the others any less important? Does the father even do anything besides sit there and look pretty? They're all equally as important to the plot, but when someone asks who my main characters are I can't rattle off a list of ten, can I?
Is the girl involved in a climactic encounter any less important than the girl who grew the flowers that were thrown to the ground? Is the man who discovers the secret of how to protect the temple any more important than the girl who stands guard on the roof every night keeping it safe in the meantime so he can conduct his research?
I'm beginning to think not. All of my characters are equally important to the world, and none should be labeled 'secondary', because I couldn't write the novel without any of them. And so, when someone asks me what my main characters are, I will rattle off my list of characters without shame. Because they're people too.
