#WriterProblems: When a supporting character jumps into a story and steals the attention from the hero and heroine.
This happened to me with Tynan Cates in the Cates Brothers Series. And it’s happening again with Eli in the Thorne Brothers.
With each book I’ve written in the Thorne Brothers Series I try to make sure each brother is the star of his own book. Most of the time this isn’t a problem. But in a family of six brothers…each with a strong and unique personality…sometimes it’s a problem.
Beckett Thorne, the oldest brother was up first, and he was easy to get to know. Beck has always stepped up and taken care of his five younger brothers. Fighting for the spotlight wasn’t a problem when writing Beck’s book, GIVE IT UP. Probably because I was getting to know each brother myself and sometimes that’s a gradual process with characters taking shape scene by scene.
Next up was Wyatt, the youngest, and I’ll be honest, I was nervous about writing his book. Nervous because he was still a mystery to me even after getting to know him in Beck’s book. I was afraid I wouldn’t figure him out, and it did take me a lot longer to know who Wyatt was while writing GIVE AND TAKE. But he’s a quiet one, so it makes sense. He’s an onion, my Wyatt. He’s got layers. It turns out he’s just about the nicest guy you’ve ever met. He’s methodically moving through life with his eyes fixed on his goal of paying his brothers back. For what? Not even his brothers can guess…
And then it was Gray’s turn up at bat as I began writing GIVE A LITTLE. And I was nervous about writing Gray too, but for very different reasons from Wyatt. Through the first two books, Gray was actually easy to get to know. Not quiet or introverted like Wyatt. No, for Gray the complication was that he had shaped up to be a character I’ve never written about before. The type of hero I don’t usually enjoy reading about. I wouldn’t say he’s a man-whore, but doesn’t do commitment. So I needed to figure out how to make who he was–who he’d been until his heroine barges into his life–how to make his tom-cat ways understandable. For me and for readers. I think I achieved that. It works for me and I hope it works for readers.
But through writing each of the three brother’s books, Eli has been my problem child. He’s been a force to reckon with. He’s got a very quirky personality and just about stole half the scenes he was in. I had to pull him back a few times. So it’ll be interesting to see what his story is. And even more intriguing is…what will his heroine be like? I’m pretty excited to see for myself.
