Today, I’m guest posting over on Wordserve Water Cooler, with the post  “How to Create Walk-On Characters Who Are Memorable (But Not Too Memorable).” Here’s an excerpt:

Every character is the hero of his own story.

That bit of popular advice is a marvelously evocative reminder to breathe life into even minor characters. However, chances are you’ve also had the sometimes-charming, sometimes-frustrating experience of a minor character who decides he’s not just the hero ofhis own story, but the hero of the story. He tries to take over, usually with mixed results.

So how can you go about hero-izing your walk-on characters into memorable and realistic personalities without letting them derail your story? Charlotte Brontë’s masterful novel Jane Eyre (which I analyze in-depth in my book Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic) offers some excellent examples on how to deftly bring to life any type of character—without letting them run away with you.

Keep reading!