We all know about the protagonist (the good guy), the antagonist (the bad guy), and even the cardboard character (the boring guy). But what about the spear-carrier?
A spear-carrier is simply a person who appears in more than one scene, but never in the spotlight. The reader will probably not know what the spear-carrier looks like, and probably not his name, either. Spear-carriers also tend to be part of a larger group.
If you were to check the credits of a movie, the spear-carrier would be listed as, “Crowd being attacked by zombies”. The guy whose brain gets eaten? Yep, spear-carrier. Probably would have done better with a shotgun. Or a bazooka.
There you have it. Now next time you’re at your writing circle, you can casually slip in something like, “I think I should off some spear-carriers,” and see how many people flip back through your manuscript to find who the heck was carrying a spear.
The term actually references Greek plays, where soldiers—-usually equipped with spears—-roamed about as escorts or stood aside as royalty passed. Even though gone are the days of such soldiers, it still sounded better than Beretta-carrier. So the name stuck.
