I’ve been working on a series called Syndicate of late. It’s what I’ve been calling a novel-in-story and is made up of several short stories that all come together to make a whole novel which itself is only one part of the series. Each story is based around a different character, group of characters, situation or aspect of the universe. As a result, there’s an abundance of people in the universe that get the spotlight for a story or two, but never become part of the universe’s main cast, per se.

Then there is Danielle Mares.

Danielle is a minor character in the universe. She is a main character in one story and has a few cameo appearances. She acts as the front desk receptionist and does a lot of the basic filing in the office. She doesn’t really go out into the field and she doesn’t want to deal with much more than was already on her plate.

And then I started writing her and finding out more. Because of her job, she knows more about the Syndicate than most people involved. She deals with all the sensitive data and she’s curious enough to have flipped through some of them to learn even more about what’s been going on.

Her background is another thing. I knew what she was already. I was never going to bring it up properly, to be honest. It just wasn’t that important until I started realizing that she was far too interesting a character through her insight and outlook to just leave in the background.

So why am I bringing her up? Simple. She’s graduated. Danielle is no longer a minor character in the universe. It just wouldn’t be fare to leave her in the background while everyone else had all the fun.

I like to think this happens to everyone. Sometimes there are just characters that surprise you. Characters that turn out to be too interesting to leave in the background and ones you have to bring much closer to the forefront. Something about these characters that were never meant to do anything just strike you right as you write them and you realize you just can’t just leave them behind in all of this. maybe they won’t become full fledged major characters, but they have to get swept up into everything. Even if only a little.

So congratulations Danielle. You have graduated.

Good luck surviving.