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“I confess right now that I have a secondary character fetish,” J. R. Patrick said here.

Why is that? I wondered. Something along the same lines had happened to me with my editor, who told me she found a secondary character in my debut novel “fascinating”. She said she hoped to see more of him in the sequel.

Which was great, of course – not only that she was discussing the sequel but that I’d planned to write about him anyway. But still. When I wrote Before the Storm, the hero, Robert Demeresna, was meant to be a strong but plain-looking man who treated the heroine courteously and kindly. His sidekick – in this case, Mayerd, the captain of his guard – was the tall and dark and cold and tortured type.

And the “tortured” part was with good reason, since Mayerd committed a terrible crime in his past. As a result, his ability to do magic was removed, and he was forced to flee his homeland. He ended up in a foreign country, where his kind are held in distrust and fear because of their arcane powers – and it doesn’t matter that he lacks those powers, since he has no way to prove that he’s now crippled.

So even though he managed to find a place in Robert’s ranks, it doesn’t make much of a difference. He’ll always be the foreigner and the outcast.

Naturally, he’s more popular among readers. I should have seen that coming, because secondary characters often end up stealing the spotlight for several reasons.

With such characters, a writer can take more risks. In a novel where the hero is a walking sculpture with piercing grey eyes, his best friend can be less attractive. In a novel where the hero is a very good person at heart, the man who competes with him for the heroine’s affection can be an anti-hero, which usually means he’ll have bitingly sarcastic dialogue as well. Secondary characters get to do or say what the protagonists can’t, and might be the comic relief too.

There just isn’t as much pressure to make the secondary characters conform to any authorial requirement. They can have flaws and quirks that might be problematic in the hero, but which make them who they are.

A secondary character’s story also isn’t as likely to be wrapped up neatly at the end. The hero and heroine have to have a happily-ever-after, or at least a happy-for-now. But the secondary character’s fate is much less certain, and that means more tension for the readers.

The more worried you make them, the more emotionally invested they are.

Readers are also more likely to care about characters whom they aren’t pushed to like. If I’m reading a novel where the hero is a handsome, rich and talented SEAL who rescues orphaned children… well, he doesn’t need my admiration when he’s clearly got the rest of the universe on his side. But if he’s unattractive, if he struggles to pay the rent, if he’s ostracized by his family or society because of his lack of a talent – or in spite of it – that’s compelling.

In those cases, it doesn’t feel as though the author’s trying to steer me in a particular direction.

So no wonder Mayerd turned out to be popular in my novel. Although he was competent and loyal, few of the other characters accepted or liked him, so the readers picked up the slack. I just hope that when he’s the hero of the sequel, he won’t be upstaged by a secondary character too.

Bio: Marian Perera is the author of Before the Storm, a romantic fantasy where psychic magic and steam engines clash on the battlefield. When she’s not writing, she studies medical laboratory technology (one more year of college to go!).

She has a website and a blog where she discusses writing and publication. Comments always welcome!