Minor Characters, a lesson from George Martin’s Game of Thrones
As writers we stand on the shoulders of every book we’ve ever read, learning the good, the bad and the ugly way to tell stories. When I started writing my epic fantasy, The Silk & Steel Saga, I looked to my favorite authors for lessons in writing. Here’s another lesson I learned from George Martin’s Game of Thrones.
A really good author can make a minor character memorable in just a few chapters.
If you look up the definition of a minor character in literature, you’ll find something like this: “Minor characters support the main character in a story. They play a lesser role. They do not grow or change. They are also known as two-dimensional characters or flat characters.” In other words, they’re boring. They play a minor role and then quickly disappear from the book’s pages as well as the reader’s memory. But does it have to be this way? Wouldn’t a book be so much richer if the minor characters also made an impact on the hearts and minds of the readers?
In Game of Thrones, as well as in my own Silk & Steel Saga, there are legions of characters. Most of these characters are little more than names, knights that died in battle, ladies in waiting, pages and squires that serve, but a few of these ‘minor’ characters sometimes take on rich and surprising roles. A great example of this in Game of Thrones is Syrio Forel, a water dancer from Braavos who Ned Stark hires to teach is daughter Arya the art of fencing. Syrio only appears in a few chapters yet he is a unique and interesting character. Syrio has his own distinctive voice, imparting wisdom as well as sword play to Arya. When the queen’s guards come to capture Arya, Syrio does something surprising, something indelibly heroic. With nothing more than a wooden practice sword, Syrio holds off the guards buying Arya the chance to escape. Since wood is no match for steel, it is implied in the book that Syrio died, but his heroism and unexpected daring leaves readers praying that he survived. Whether Syrio still lives somewhere in Martin’s saga remains a mystery, but he certainly lives in the minds and hearts of Martin’s readers, a great example of a minor character leaving an indelible mark on the story.
But how did Martin do it? In just a few short chapters, he created a unique and interesting character and then he let that character make a choice, a choice that made a difference to a main character and to the overall arc of the story. Syrio Forel is a minor character in terms of the number of chapters in which he appears, but he is not a flat, cardboard character who does not change. Because the author gave him a choice, Syrio Forel matters. Syrio is an example of why Game of Thrones is such a rich read.
So while you are writing your sweeping, epic fantasy with a cast of thousands, challenge yourself to write a few minor characters that remain small in terms of the numbers of chapters ascribed to them, yet are large in terms of the impact on the hearts and minds of the readers. Your story will be so much richer for it. If you are looking for more examples of these types of ‘minor’ characters, consider reading The Silk & Steel Saga.
