Editor Rosemary Brosnan on Writing Dynamic, Three-Dimensional Secondary Characters

As featured on Epic Reads, Rosemary Brosnan, Vice-President and Editorial Director of HarperCollins Children’s Books/HarperTeen, uses an excerpt from her debut author Gillian French's novel Grit in this article on "How To Write Dynamic Secondary Characters."

The piece has great insights, including:

"As an editor, I often see novice writers describing their characters right on the first page by having the characters pass a mirror, or by using another artificial device. Take your time, trust yourself as a writer, and let your characters reveal themselves throughout the story."

Rosemary also suggests an intriguing writing prompt that involves a main character with two friends, one true, and one a backstabber. The main character doesn't know one is a backstabber, and the challenge is for you to write it in a way that shows the reader who is who. Rosemary suggests taking this prompt and using it to write four specific and different scenes.

An excellent exercise!

Check out the full article and writing prompt instructions here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee