Angela, so very true. I try to think of those secondary characters as another opportunity to grow the protagonist. If all they’re doing is acting to support them, there’s no resistance externally or internally, and that means there isn’t any tension. Writing secondary characters can be freeing because we oftentimes feel less pressure to craft them in the same way we might feel about our protagonists. So why not have even more fun and find ways to imbue them with their own desire lines? Thanks so much for having me!

Thanks so much, Mindy! It’s common for all of us to wonder whether we have too many or too few characters, so this is one of those ways to test that out. I’m hopeful that posing questions is a way for your readers to more readily apply craft advice to their own stories. As always, many thanks for having me on today!