THE B-LIST

While you’re planning (or, if you’re a non-planner, while you’re thinking about writing) a story that you hope to develop into a novel, which character tends to walk into your head first? The central character? David Copperfield, Eleanor Oliphant, Tom Sawyer, Anne

of Green Gables?

The person who has a challenge to face, a journey to make, a problem to solve?

The character without whom the story could not exist?

Or might it be a member of the B list? The witness to a crime? Someone who introduces your central protagonist to his nemesis? The wicked stepmother? The good