Secondary Characters That Steal Your Heart but Not the Show

with guest Allie Pleiter.

Love Inspired novels—like lots of romances and most successful series—host a vibrant community of characters.  A cast of personalities your readers know and love helps pull them into the world of the novel.  If you do it right, secondary characters can further your plot and bring important aspects of your hero and heroine to light.  If you do it wrong, they can steal focus, derail your momentum or—gasp, demand their own book (hey, it happens—SAVED BY THE FIREMAN’s Jesse Sykes started out as a secondary character in THE FIREMAN’S HOMECOMING).

 
In the spirit of secondary character respect, here are some of my best tips for wrangling them:

1)    Let them bridge the series, but not build it.
 
Readers love to recognize characters they know, so secondaries can provide continuity for your series.  Make sure, however, that the driving elements for your books and plots remain the hero and heroine. 

2)  Use the running gag in your favor
 
Your secondary characters can have texture and depth, but keep them essentially one-trick ponies—one character trait or tendency—so you reader isn’t having to hold vats of info in her head while she reads.  It’s useful to use a trait over and over in several books—your reader will feel like she knows just what to expect from Ned the Barber and that helps her to feel at home.

3) If you develop something substantial, do it over several books

The senior citizen romance in SMALL-TOWN FIREMAN has been brewing over several books—including the two that are currently up for the RT award, A HEART TO HEAL and SAVED BY THE FIREMAN.  It also involves two characters my readers have expressed as favorites.  This keeps my readers eager to see the next book, provides a satisfying additional payoff in this final book of the series, and just plain lets favorite characters have fun.  What reader doesn’t want that?

4)  Don’t give them the best lines or crucial plot points
 
Simply put, keep them in the background.  Don’t hinge plots on them, or they will draw too much attention.  If there are great lines to be said, don’t give them to your secondary characters.   Instead, make sure your plots and zingers are about your hero and heroine reacting to those secondary characters, and their actions.

5) Choose your foils wisely
 
Take your cavalier guy and stick him with a control freak best buddy.  Give your neat nick heroine a slob of a roommate.  Your shy guy hero might need a total extrovert of a mom.  Surrounding your main characters with a crowd of opposites hands you loads of opportunity to show off their personalities, growth, and weaknesses.

Use these tips to get the best out of your secondary characters without letting them get the best of you. Your readers will thank you for an engaging story and a vivid read.

What about you?  What are some of your favorite side-kicks in books or movies?

 An avid knitter, BBC Television geek and French macaron enthusiast, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction.  The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework.  Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois.  The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, eighteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing.  Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com or her knitting blog at www.DestiKNITions.blogspot.com

The Catch of a Lifetime 

Karla Kennedy doesn't belong in Gordon Falls. The aspiring restaurateur has far loftier goals than running her grandfather's quaint coffee shop. The only person who seems to relate is handsome volunteer firefighter Dylan McDonald. Dylan understands dreams—he risked everything to start his fishing charter business. Now he needs Karla's help to make it succeed. As they work together, Karla and Dylan quickly discover that while their timing may be bad, their chemistry is undeniable. Karla always thought of Gordon Falls as a layover on her way to a big-city career, but could it be where her heart truly belongs?




Seekerville is giving away one copy of Small-Town Fireman in honor of Allie's visit (winner announced in the Weekend Edition) and we thank her for opening the door on a new obsession: the macaron. 

 

Guest Allie Pleiter: The “Real People”

It happened again. I had set aside an afternoon to make serious progress on my manuscript when the phone rang. A “you must come NOW, this is a sort of emergency” kind of request--the kind of chip only a true friend can call in.

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I hate that I hesitated. I’m not proud of how I calculated the lost opportunity of work--on a Sunday, no less (cut me some slack, I’ve got a book due June 1)--with the gained opportunity to help out a dear friend. I’m so bad at these kinds of decisions. Not that I make the wrong choice, but that I agonize over the choice. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who puts people ahead of tasks, but the truth of the matter is that I’m too much of a time-management freak to really do that. I dislike how I try to manage what ought to be a matter of the heart and Holy Spirit.

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Part of it is born from the fact that I cannot procrastinate. My writing style is such that I cannot lock myself in a closet and barrel headlong toward an impending deadline. The most words I’m ever able to produce in a day is about 2,000. Not that I haven’t tried to become what I lovingly call “a big chunk writer,” but the essential truth is that my muse comes in small plates, not combo platters. So, I tell myself that missing a planned day of writing is sure to spell doom down the road.

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That’s a lie. It has never, ever spelled doom. I’m smart enough to know better--or ought to be.
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It’s the old saying, “there’s always time to do God’s will.” When will I ever learn that often, when I come back from much-needed time with a good friend, or being there when a friend ought to be there, the writing gushes out of me? It’s because I’ve filled the well. In over a dozen years of writing, I’ve only missed one deadline, ever, and that was for a crisis of such gargantuan proportions that most people were stunned I could write anything at all, much less make a delayed deadline.

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I know how to deliver a manuscript. Why do I doubt I’ll recognize the line of “time to buckle down,” on days like yesterday when I know I will?
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I went and helped my friend, had a grand time, and made my word count with ease today. I’ll make my deadline, too, because that’s the kind of writer I am. Why on earth do I continue to doubt myself on decisions like yesterday’s?
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What about you? How and when do know when to do what I call “laying down the work in favor of the real people?”
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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a copy of Allie’s Homefront Hero, please mention it in the comments section and leave your e-mail addy (remembering “at” and “dot”). Then watch our Weekend Edition for the winner!

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Homefront Hero

Love Inspired Historical - May 2012

#978-0-373-82916-3

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Dashing and valiantly wounded, Captain John Gallows could have stepped straight out of an army recruitment poster. Leanne Sample can't help being impressed—although the lovely Red Cross nurse tries to hide it. She knows better than to get attached to the daring captain who is only home to heal and help rally support for the war's final push. As soon as he's well enough, he'll rush back to Europe, back to war—and far away from South Carolina and Leanne. But when an epidemic strikes close to home, John comes to realize what it truly means to be a hero—Leanne's hero.

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An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the Midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing. Visit her website at http://www.alliepleiter.com/ or her knitting blog at http://www.destiknitions.blogspot.com/

 

Guest Author Allie Pleiter: The Kiss That Isn't

Way back at the beginning of my career, I read a romance novel with the most surprisingly romantic scene I’ve ever known: a man literally seducing his beloved by the way he set the table. She was a lover of fine manners, and he won her heart by setting a perfect table in the middle of a pioneer wilderness. I’ve never forgotten the effectiveness and creativity of that scene.
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While I don’t write seduction scenes, I try with each book to emulate the brilliance of that scene. The truth is the seduction wasn’t the pull there, it was the romance. That magic moment where a mind is won along with a heart. Where souls meet their mates. For me, to make that moment their first kiss is cheating. I strive for what I call “the kiss that isn’t.”
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Think of it as the polar opposite of “the issue that’s not the issue”--you know, when you argue with your spouse about the dishwasher but you’re really arguing about how you feel unappreciated? The craft of well-wielded subtext can make for a memorable book, and make us fall head-over-heels for the characters. We fall because we know why he loves what she did, or why he needs what she gave. It goes so much deeper than a wet smooch.
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I still get letters about the Kung Fu chai tea ceremony scene in my 2007 novel The Perfect Blend. Will woos Maggie by his attention to what she holds dear. A man paying rapt attention is downright knee-buckling, don’t you think? Sure, there’s sexual tension in the scene, but it goes several layers deeper.
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There’s a tender scene in my 2008 novel Bluegrass Hero where Emily tells Gil to close his eyes while she tries to get him to smell the difference in the many soaps she makes. It is intimate and romantic--not because of who’s hands are where (they never even touch), but because of what’s being shared.
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My current book, Falling for the Fireman, has two such scenes. One involves lighting a match while the other involves lighting a paper lantern. Both involve flame because fire has become the enemy to Chad and Jeannie in ways that go far deeper than a burning building. Both are “first kisses” that aren’t really kisses.
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How do you write such scenes? What makes them work? Here are a few tips:
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- Find a metaphor for the hero and heroine’s deepest needs. The tea ceremony’s attention to detail met Maggie’s thirst for validation. Lighting a match is a metaphor for Jeannie’s fight against the darkness of her recent trauma. What need does your hero or heroine have that can be expressed in an object or process?

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- Focus on non-touch sensory responses to detail. Sight, taste, smell...all of these can be wildly romantic and intimate. Think of touch as “cheating” and see how many of the other senses you can highlight.
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- Imbue an ordinary object with special meaning. Something as simple as a birthday candle or a red scarf can become a love note between the hero and heroine. This allows it to resurface over and over in the story and build the relationship.
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Scenes like these can give your readers those memorable moments where they sigh and smile. And the books that do that always end up on the keeper shelf.
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So share with us today what object or gesture would win your heart! If you're a writer, what “a kiss that isn't” scenes have you incorported into your own manuscripts?

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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my February release “Falling for the Fireman,” please mention it in the comments section -- then watch the Weekend Edition for the winner!
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Falling for the Fireman
Harlequin Love Inspired February 2012
ISBN #978-0-373-87725-6
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There's something achingly familiar about the look in fire marshal Chad Owens's eyes. Widowed mom Jeannie Nelworth knows firsthand what it is: loss, hurt and yes—bitterness. Ever since the fire that changed their lives, Jeannie's young son has borne that same look, pushing everyone away. So she's grateful when Chad tries to get through to the boy with the help of his trusty fire station dog.
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But the man who's all about safety and prevention keeps himself protected—from loving and losing again. Seems as if Jeannie will have to add his kind, guarded heart to her rebuilding efforts.
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An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the Midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing. Visit her website at http://www.alliepleiter.com/ or her knitting blog at http://www.destiknitions.blogspot.com/

Seekerville Welcomes Guestblogger Allie Pleiter & Giveaway!

Cheryl here again with another fabulous friend and amazing author, Allie Pleiter who writes for Love Inspired and Love Inspired Historical. Don't you LOVE this cover? LIH does a wonderful job on covers. Allie comes today bearing a knitted heartbasket of sage advice; an important message on professionalism.

I've looked up to Allie and admired her professional ethic and sense of humor for a long time, since before I was published. I LOVE what she has to say about professionalism and hope you will take it to heart wherever you are in your journey. Here's Allie:



Professionalism by Allie Pleiter

Last night at my local RWA group I gave a talk on professionalism. At its core, professionalism is a code of behavior, an attitude, if you will. If you do it right, it can give give you a good rep in the industry and hopefully make you someone with whom editors and agents want to work. And we all want that, right?

So here are Aunt Allie’s Five Professional Sayings (courtesy of some family members and a few overused cliches). These are little helps, little internal speeches, for when things go or feel wrong. I believe controlling our internal thought process is the key to professionalism. It’s easy to be professional when things go well--it’s when it all hits the fan that we tend to let our inner tantrum toddler out and regret it in the morning. So, tuck these away in your brain to bring out when your pulse goes into the stratosphere:

1. From my mom: “If you’re small enough to need it, I’m big enough to give it to you.” Picky details can wear you down. People will always demand things from you--often unimportant or annoying things. Be gracious, even when you have to do it through gritted teeth. Now, I’m not saying I believe I’m the bigger person (even though I am six feet tall), or that others are small and petty people. This is about attitude, not fact. This is merely an emotional trick to talk my temporarily selfish self into taking the high road even when I don’t care to know that it’s the right thing to do. So, while I’d NEVER say this out loud, I say this over and over to myself while granting favors I don’t really have time for, am asked to do one more thing at an all- ready packed conference, when someone demands to be listed first or given the title Grand Supreme Chairperson, or am listening to someone’s enthusiastic list of the typos in my last release. Don’t be a doormat, but don’t be a diva, either.

2. From my friend: “The first twenty four hours don’t count.” Bad news is bad news. A cutting remark, a nasty re-write letter, a scathing critique--it all hurts. Give yourself a day to yell “ouch.” We all take our work extremely personally. I tell people that calling someone’s writing bad is like telling them their baby is ugly--there’s no nice way to do it and even if it's true, it’s horribly painful to hear. So let yourself be hurt, but do it in private. Call your agent but not the editor who rejected your work. Call a buddy but don’t vent at a full chapter meeting of your writers’ group. DO NOT hit the “comment” button on your blog, or their blog, or anyone’s blog. You can--and should--feel nasty now, but you can be calmer, clearer, and saner in a day or so.

3. From my brother: “Don’t engage the loonies.” There are always people out there who have lost perspective...if they ever had it in the first place. When someone is over the top, way out of line, or just plain cooky, don’t engage. Thank them for their comment, or their photograph of their eleven cats dressed up like your heroes and heroines, or their way-off-the-mark comments on your contest entry, and move on. Your goal is to end the conversation (electronic or face to face) because any kind of open ended response to someone like that only fuels the fire. Remember, however, that we all can get like that and someday that “loonies” might be a really insightful person when she calms down a bit.

4. From my editor: “Publishing has a very, very long memory.” Don’t gossip in the hotel lobby, bar, elevator, or hot tub. Don’t trash that editor who just rejected you anywhere but in the privacy of your own room. Be nice, write thank you notes, volunteer at conferences. Quite frankly (and I know this probably isn’t even an issue for lots of you), watch your public alcohol consumption. One regrettable incident (or blog comment or email) can last entirely too long in an inbred industry such as ours. All of us, however, get tired. At conferences, we all hit a wall when fatigue or tension get us to the place where we’re a snark waiting to happen. Know when you’ve “used up your nice,” and send yourself to your room.

5. From my dad: “When the third person tells you you're drunk, lie down.” One comment is one person’s opinion. Two similar comments is something to notice.
When the third person tells you your hero is unlikable, or your presentation went on too long, or you get too enthusiastic with your edits at critique group, or you get way too defensive about your work, LISTEN. The ability to be teachable is golden in our industry. It’s the key to improvement. Don’t let individual comments derail you, but if you see a trend in what you’re hearing, pay attention.

There are so many things we cannot control in this business. So much of it is out of our hands. This, however, is entirely within your grasp. How you react when things feel unfair and annoying, how you handle bad or disappointing news, how you keep your cool, is entirely in your control. Wield that to your advantage, and you’ll become your own best advocate.
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Cheryl here. Isn't Allie's advice great? Here are details about her book.

YUKON WEDDING is in stores now!
Publisher: Harlequin Love Inspired Historical
Released April 2011
ISBN #978-0373828630

About Yukon Weddings:
A gold-rush town is no place for a single mother. But widow Lana Bristow won’t abandon the only home her son has ever known. She’ll fight to remain inTreasure Creek, Alaska—even if it means wedding Mack Tanner, the man she blames for
her husband’s death. Mack sees marriage as his duty, the only way to protect his former business partner’s family. Yet what starts as an obligation changes as his spoiled socialite bride proves to be a woman of strength and grace. A woman who shows Mack the only treasure he needs is her heart.

About Allie:
An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing.. Visit her website at
http://www.alliepleiter.com or her knitting blog at http://www.DestiKNITions.blogspot.com

Here's a You Tube video of a Romantic Times representative interviewing Allie with her editor, Krista Stroever, in a video which you'll also find informative and interesting.

One lucky commenter will win a copy of Allie's Yukon Weddings!

What was your favorite tip provided by Allie? Do you have any familial advice you'd like to add?

Comment away!
Cheryl & Allie