Should minor characters have names?

[Deadman]

Trying to figure out whether I should give some minor characters names.

I noticed recently in the last 3 stories that I wrote that I didn’t actually give several of the minor characters names. They just get referred to as “naval officer” or “personal trainer” or things like that.

They don’t necessarily matter because they aren’t important. But at the same time I kinda feel like it should work better if I can refer to actual people.
 

[Desiderius Price]

3 hours ago, Deadman said:

They don’t necessarily matter because they aren’t important. But at the same time I kinda feel like it should work better if I can refer to actual people.

A name is something the reader needs to keep track of, so the role itself might be alright, but context is usually everything.

Having a full character workup on that character can certainly help in giving non-standard reactions to what your primary characters are up to.  “Reminds me of my sister” or similar.  However, that might be overboard for the needed role, so you could instead mention “They paid.” and simply move on, even cutting out that minor character all together.   Of course, you can still have a character workup for them and never drop the name too.

If you’ve got two or three minor characters interacting in a slightly more significant way, now you have to differentiate them, so you could always go “blond” vs “black” haired, or use names or their roles or something else; though names require a way to get them, or fast nicknames (as I did in one scene where Hermione “nicknamed” them in her head, just to keep them straight).

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, Deadman and all.

10 hours ago, Deadman said:

Trying to figure out whether I should give some minor characters names.

I noticed recently in the last 3 stories that I wrote that I didn’t actually give several of the minor characters names. They just get referred to as “naval officer” or “personal trainer” or things like that.

They don’t necessarily matter because they aren’t important. But at the same time I kinda feel like it should work better if I can refer to actual people.
 

You can give these characters names, but you don’t have to, and it can sometimes distract you if you do it without needing to.  And, you’re actually describing background characters.  If one of your “more important” characters needs to address the background character by name, then name them.  Otherwise “generic” naval officer, personal trainer, and so on work fine.

A minor character is a character who is important to your story, they’re just not the principal focus of the story.  The background characters vary in importance, but they’re part of the background, the scenery if you will.  If you start an example story at Ebbetts Field in the summer of 1951, and you name every background character, you might die of old age before you even get to chapter two.

Cheers!

[Desiderius Price]

And TBH, even IF I given a name to a background character, I’ll go to referring to them by their role anyways.  ie

“I’m Officer Burton,” the officer said. 
“Was that your vehicle son?” The officer pointed at the smoldering burned metal frame.

Because the burden of remembering the name/association for a short period of time… is that where you want the emphasis of your story to be?

However, when you’ve got multiple of the same role, as pointed earlier, Hermione gave nicknames to her attackers so I didn’t have to repeatedly say “tall one with a freckled face” and “short fat one”, when it became easier use “Freckles” and “Chubby”.  Maybe the reader shed a tear when the coroner’s report described their internal organs as vindaloo?

[Deadman]

19 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

A name is something the reader needs to keep track of, so the role itself might be alright, but context is usually everything.

Having a full character workup on that character can certainly help in giving non-standard reactions to what your primary characters are up to.  “Reminds me of my sister” or similar.  However, that might be overboard for the needed role, so you could instead mention “They paid.” and simply move on, even cutting out that minor character all together.   Of course, you can still have a character workup for them and never drop the name too.

If you’ve got two or three minor characters interacting in a slightly more significant way, now you have to differentiate them, so you could always go “blond” vs “black” haired, or use names or their roles or something else; though names require a way to get them, or fast nicknames (as I did in one scene where Hermione “nicknamed” them in her head, just to keep them straight).

Yeah, I’m more concerned about the ability of readers to distinguish rather than creating a full character workup.

This is because the main focus of the minor character is having sex with the main character. However, what I noticed is that in many of my stories, I either use a canon character who already has a name or if I create an OC, I used to give them names but have kinda stopped doing this.

In the examples I give of “naval officer” or “personal trainer” I will refer to “naval officer on the left” or “naval officer I first spoke to”. Which technically does give people a sense of the different characters but maybe I should just say “John” or “Frank”.
 

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, Deadman and all.

9 hours ago, Deadman said:

Yeah, I’m more concerned about the ability of readers to distinguish rather than creating a full character workup.

This is because the main focus of the minor character is having sex with the main character. However, what I noticed is that in many of my stories, I either use a canon character who already has a name or if I create an OC, I used to give them names but have kinda stopped doing this.

In the examples I give of “naval officer” or “personal trainer” I will refer to “naval officer on the left” or “naval officer I first spoke to”. Which technically does give people a sense of the different characters but maybe I should just say “John” or “Frank”.
 

This isn’t necessarily a problem, per se.  If for example you are trying to stress how generous your main character is with their physical affections, you might actually stress the genericness or anonymity of their paramours.  “Just sayin’”

Cheers!

[Desiderius Price]

Context is everything here. 

If it’s a long scene with only that other character, you might get away with “naval officer” and use “he” or “she” pronouns; M/F being easier at than over, say M/M or F/F.  And your main character not remembering the name the next day. 

Going down a line?  Maybe a name, maybe not.  If I’m portraying the opening run of football players within cheerleaders?  Describe the paint job, the similarity, or even one or two differences as you’re going down that line.

If you’re bouncing between characters, back and forth, well, names are likely more critical.

(ps. trying to retire “minor” from this conversation unless you’re wanting it to be under-18.)

[Wilde_Guess]

Hi, Desiderius Price and all.

Perhaps the terms “Primary and Secondary Characters” is more fitting here.  The “classic Riverdale” cohort are all juniors in High School from what I remember, and I’m far from the only author here with more “curiously age-challenged” characters.

“Going down the line” was what I was referring to.  Lots of people go “railfanning.”  Very few want to read the manifest in the lead locomotive that was pulling the train…

...Off topic, but I can’t resist.  Most women prefer sailing and yachting over railfanning, when given only those two choices for a recreational activity.  I’m told the reason is that no woman has ever had her reputation destroyed for pulling a boat.

Ducking and running...

[Desiderius Price]

5 hours ago, Wilde_Guess said:

Perhaps the terms “Primary and Secondary Characters” is more fitting here.  The “classic Riverdale” cohort are all juniors in High School from what I remember, and I’m far from the only author here with more “curiously age-challenged” characters.

I don’t follow Riverdale… but yeah, given the author set on this website, especially as most of my stories have the underage warnings on them, “minor characters” has dual meanings.  Suppose even primary & secondary could in a school setting.

Suppose a good hint for names is “love interest” vs “sex object”.  If it’s simply another hole (or dick), then names are less urgent.  If it’s in the name of romance, then a name would be more important.

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Context is everything here. 

If it’s a long scene with only that other character, you might get away with “naval officer” and use “he” or “she” pronouns; M/F being easier at than over, say M/M or F/F.  And your main character not remembering the name the next day. 

Going down a line?  Maybe a name, maybe not.  If I’m portraying the opening run of football players within cheerleaders?  Describe the paint job, the similarity, or even one or two differences as you’re going down that line.

If you’re bouncing between characters, back and forth, well, names are likely more critical.

(ps. trying to retire “minor” from this conversation unless you’re wanting it to be under-18.)

Well to give you an example, I have a story featured in Scooby Gang Time about a single cheerleader involved with multiple men. However, when I wrote it I specifically had minor characters who had names in the canon of Buffy. However, the characters maybe appeared in one or two episodes. Some of them were exes of the female cheerleader character.

Whereas using the naval officer example, I don’t ever name any of the naval officers. I don’t think I even mentioned the name of the main female character. The only way you know who the character is because I labelled the chapter with the name of the character. The naval situation isn’t canon to the series or universe as far as I’m aware. So none of the characters are canon and are entirely created for the story.

In the story I’m writing now in the Riverdale space, I do mention the main female character’s name. She’s definitely not a minor, and I make a specific attempt to ensure that they’re not a minor. I think almost all the characters are from later in the series when they had graduated high school and were adults. There’s maybe one character where their age is not clear, something that I did with Scooby Gang Time story.
 

[Desiderius Price]

6 hours ago, Deadman said:

In the story I’m writing now in the Riverdale space, I do mention the main female character’s name. She’s definitely not a minor, and I make a specific attempt to ensure that they’re not a minor. I think almost all the characters are from later in the series when they had graduated high school and were adults. There’s maybe one character where their age is not clear, something that I did with Scooby Gang Time story.

One thing I appreciate here on AFF  is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18^th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. 

Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination.  Jeff?  He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it.

Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance?  Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it.  And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it.

7 hours ago, Deadman said:

Well to give you an example, I have a story featured in Scooby Gang Time about a single cheerleader involved with multiple men. However, when I wrote it I specifically had minor characters who had names in the canon of Buffy. However, the characters maybe appeared in one or two episodes. Some of them were exes of the female cheerleader character.

Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”.  So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them.  If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast.  (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

One thing I appreciate here on AFF  is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18^th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. 

Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination.  Jeff?  He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it.

Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance?  Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it.  And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it.

Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”.  So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them.  If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast.  (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

Well I would disagree with the idea that it’s something that is part of us since the day we’re born, but it obviously becomes a thing during puberty. I’m not necessarily against the idea of youth being interested in sex but I try to avoid it in my more sexual content.

[Desiderius Price]

6 hours ago, Deadman said:

Well I would disagree with the idea that it’s something that is part of us since the day we’re born, but it obviously becomes a thing during puberty. I’m not necessarily against the idea of youth being interested in sex but I try to avoid it in my more sexual content.

Lets not totally derail this topic

Names… yep, size of the role dependent.  Whether it’s sexual or not.  When reworking the potter fanfic, noticed I had removed a doctor’s name between two (earlier) drafts today, kept the name out simply as it’d be more distracting than helpful.  Guess that’s a better measure for your gang of boys & girls the MC is going through – name helpful or distracting to the narrative?

Edited September 30, 2023 by Desiderius Price

[Desiderius Price]

On 9/29/2023 at 9:22 PM, Desiderius Price said:

Names… yep, size of the role dependent.  Whether it’s sexual or not.  When reworking the potter fanfic, noticed I had removed a doctor’s name between two (earlier) drafts today, kept the name out simply as it’d be more distracting than helpful.  Guess that’s a better measure for your gang of boys & girls the MC is going through – name helpful or distracting to the narrative?

And a reading of later bits of that older draft, name is now needed to connect dots, so that doctor got his name restored.  Introduced, but then kept to “the doctor” for most of the rest to signal it’s less...necessary, more about the role being played.