Ghost Characters

How to make minor characters stand out

In his excellent book Revision, (which I would really recommend) David Kaplin warns writers against the inclusion of ghost characters. He explains that these are,  ‘ … characters who are never described, so that readers have trouble forming an imaginative picture of them.’ Kaplin goes on to observe, ‘some writer once said that you need at least three unique, vivid details to make even the most minor character seem real.’ I have just read ‘One Pair of Feet’ by Monica Dickens, as part of my research for book three. Like her famous great-grandfather, Dickens is wonderful at characterisation. In her autobiographical novel Dickens describes one woman in this way: ‘She talked like a ventriloquist – her lips rigid and her epiglottis sliding up and down her scrawny throat.’ I thought that was a brilliant observation – and it does indeed have three vivid details: the lips, the epiglottis and the ‘scrawny throat.’

My blog post on ‘Quirky Characters’ explains how Dickens’ famous relative describes his own ghost characters, focussing on Miss Murdstone from ‘David Copperfield.’

            We can learn a lot from this pair. So let’s give our minor characters memorable descriptions – and banish all ghosts from our writing!