Southern Fried Chicas

After finishing second round edits this week (yay!), I actually dug up my most recent wip, which has been languishing on the hard drive.

I discovered I’d missed this story!  And that I didn’t think it was too bad.
I also remembered that, as has happened so many times in the past, I really, REALLY like a couple of the supporting characters.
No…I mean REALLY.  As in TOO MUCH.  As in a little MORE THAN I LIKE THE MAIN CHARACTERS.
I plan on giving them their own stories eventually anyway (hopefully), but this is a pattern with me  It made me think of a post called ‘Second Bananappeal’ from a couple of years ago, and a keen observation by author Bernita Harris:
“I think it’s because w/the hero/heroine we, to a degree, write to trope based on reader expectations, and those restrictions don’t apply to secondary characters.”

Ka-ching.
They don’t have to be heroines.  They don’t have to be a heroes.  They don’t have to do the right things now or eventually, or necessarily worry about fixing the wrong ones.

They can just be themselves.  They don’t have to settle in or settle down.  They can carry their edges right to the end.  They don’t have to live up to certain expectations, sooner or later.
And yes, there are heroes and heroines who begin with these characteristics.  And while I know there has to be a character arc, sometimes the leads just arc too damn much, to the point that they’re barely recognizable as the same people by story’s end.

The supporting male doesn’t have to be handsome or even ‘manly’.  It’s okay if he hasn’t had his nose broken sometime in the past or if he has a hard time sticking with one woman.

The secondary female character doesn’t have to have a (secret) heart of gold.  She can be a piece of work without having suffered abuse/trauma in her past to justify bitchy behavior.  And she doesn’t have to be pretty/attractive/sensual/nurturing.

They can come and go and interact as they please in the story.  They don’t have to like small animals or children.  They can be mean.  They can fail without nobility.  They can give up.  They can even die.
And maybe that’s part of the attraction too.  We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen to them, and there’s a delicious ambiguity about that.

My favorite supporting character in the current wip is dark, surly, violent, dishonest, with no apparent redeeming characteristics.  In his first major scene, he beats the hell out of a guy, in part, for making him spill his drink—and then proceeds with his verbal seduction of a terrified young lady.
I can’t wait to give him his own story.

During the premiere of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 b&w classic, “La Belle et La Bete”, he sat beside Marlene Dietrich to watch the film and her reaction.  When she saw the transformation come over the hero, she reportedly cried out, “Where is my beautiful beast?”

Exactly.
Ever find yourself more attracted to your supporting characters than your primary ones?  Or in your reading, do you sometimes hate what they do to your beautiful Beasts?