Temporarily Getting Rid of Characters
Do you ever have scenes with 6+ people and you can’t seem to juggle them all? Or do you ever want to get 2-3 characters in a scene together for some quality relationship development, but that means sending the other characters elsewhere?
I’ve compiled a list of “off-screen” things your character can be doing, for any time you need them to be temporarily somewhere else. With this list comes with a few caveats:
If you find yourself always sending the same character somewhere else to a point where that character never actually gets much page time, are you sure you actually need that character in your novel? Don’t use this an excuse to keep deadweight characters that are 100% unnecessary to your plot, but your heart can’t bear to cut. Either draw them back into the plot as a necessary element, or get rid of them.
This is only for temporarily getting rid of someone—meaning for a short amount of time, and infrequently. It starts to feel weird if your character always happens to be taking their nap when something happens, and if you’re not careful, it’ll come off as lazy writing. Use this kind of thing sparingly.
Sometimes, you’ll need to have a result to their temporary absence. For example, if you say they’re off spying on the bad guy, occasionally they need to come back with a tidbit of info. Not all of their missions will be a success, but again, it’ll start to feel fake if there’s no point to the spying.
And now to the list! There are two sections to it, depending on if your character to be doing something actively plot-related and useful while they’re away, or if you want them to stay uninvolved. Both have their uses depending on the situation.
Fighting in a different area
Guarding a captured enemy
Protecting someone in potential danger
Watching someone suspicious
With another character (off-screen relationship building)
Injured/sick/in the hospital
Out of the loop (no one told them about the meeting, etc)
The passive list could be incredibly longer, but I tried to list enough for you to get the idea. Whatever you pick, make sure it makes sense in your plot and setting, and like I warned before, don’t use this as an excuse to hold onto deadweight characters.
Working this kind of downtime into your novel isn’t bad, since it can take up the necessary but boring actions that your story needs. Someone learning how to fight, for example, won’t learn everything in a week. By occasionally putting them “off-screen” to train, you’re further convincing us that he or she has trained enough to pull off a future scene where they hold their own in battle. It’ll also give a sense that other characters are working in the background and getting things done, even if your protagonist or narrator isn’t always there to see it, which is realistic, of course. It’s not like everyone else freezes in place the moment your protag isn’t around.
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