The Minor Character Adoption Society

[veronica_rich]

As a writer, have you ever adopted a minor character from someone else's canon for the express purpose of giving them a story? Or six?

I've done it three times, or should say, feel like I'm in the process of doing it a third time whether I want to or not: Reg Barclay from Star Trek: TNG, Prissy from POTC (she didn't even have a name - the fat woman from the first movie, who rubs up against Will in the tavern), and now it seems my brain wants to take home Hillary from the Tomb Raider movies and feed him little doughnuts (whoops - no, that's me who wants those, sorry) and transcribe his history and minor adventures. Just last night I came up with ideas for two more stories.

(I have other stories I need to finish! I have other characters in the brain already. *weeps*)

What is it about minor characters? Is it because they present such a blank canvas? Is it the mystery of trying to piece together a past or expand upon something glimpsed in canon but not much addressed? I know for a fact some of you have taken someone who had two lines in a movie and given them a better history than screenwriters gave the major characters.

I didn't invent these characters. I don't make money off of them, and I don't feel like I should. But I get excited about their histories in a way I don't always about my own original characters (or, I should say, I can come up with the history and ideas, but I find it easier to WRITE the history of someone else's minor character). It can't be laziness, or I wouldn't do any of it. What IS it?

Comments

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

I wrote Lucas Brown's story because I thought he was getting a raw deal--every mention I saw of him dismissed him as a useless drunk who was taking advantage of poor Will and his obviously-superior blacksmithing skills (when he wasn't horrifically abusing Will-the-boy, that is) without any of them stopping to think that Will had to learn those superior skills from *somebody*, and Brown was the most likely suspect.

As for Mr Stevens--whose total canon reference is literally a line shouted by Norrington in the heat of the Battle of Port Royal--I originally used his name for a bit character in a Sparrington story (Dreams & Desire) on a whim, and then when it looked like he'd get a bigger part in the sequel Stevens suddenly started demanding a backstory all his own, and it sort of took off from there.

AFAIK those are the only two minor canon characters I ever gave center stage to--and Stevens is never really center stage, as his backstory is told from Gillette's POV. I don't count Gillette & Groves as they were pretty fully developed fandom-canon characters before I came onto the scene.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Stevens suddenly started demanding a backstory all his own, and it sort of took off from there.

That's basically what's happened with Hillary. I watched "Tomb Raider" just wanting to see the actor's part, and the character moved into the squishy part of my brain with some thoughts about his own development.

I don't count Gillette & Groves as they were pretty fully developed fandom-canon characters before I came onto the scene.

In fandom, sure. But in canon, nothing much was done with them at all. So I still count them as minor characters you can play with like they're your own. :-)