A Minor Character Takes a Major Role
When I create a new character, I usually design it to fulfill a specific purpose--to reveal a clue to the detectives, to become a suspect in the investigation, or to be a counterpoint to someone else’s personality. Since each character is designed with a purpose in mind, it’s usually not too difficult for me to get them to behave. I write the character, I tell them what to do, and they do it.
But one character in The Scheme refused to be compliant. I planned for Mrs. Nichols to be the kindly older woman who lived downstairs from the missing woman. I needed her to talk briefly to a detective and reveal what she knew about what happened the night Olivia disappeared. Which, as far as I knew, was not much. She would wring her hands, apologize for not being more help, express concern for the sweet young lady upstairs, and that would be that. Exit Mrs. Nichols. That was my plan when I started writing this scene:
“Lee knocked on the door of apartment 116, located directly beneath Olivia’s apartment. A woman with rosy skin and gray curls pulled the door open until the security chain caught.
“Yes?” She peered at the intruder, clutching the collar of a pink bathrobe to her chest.
Lee flashed his most winning smile. He pulled his credentials out of his pocket and held them so the woman could see. “Mrs. Nichols, I’m a private detective hired to find your upstairs neighbor, Olivia Ames.”
The woman didn’t budge. She took her time reading the license in his wallet. Lee swallowed back the impulse to ask her to get her reading glasses. Then she turned her bright green eyes onto the tall detective, looking him up and down. She nodded curtly and pushed the door closed.”
And that’s when I realized the this character was not going to be following my instructions.
Ms. Nichols is a vivacious and independent woman. She works at the library with the missing woman and is able to give the detectives a lot of information. The first scene with Ms. Nichols is the longest scene in the book. She commandeers the interview and makes the detective, Lee, slightly uncomfortable. She makes no bones about that fact that she finds him attractive!
In a later scene, Ms. Nichols interrupts a a conversation between Katherine and “her handsome detective friend.” The librarian gives the team what she considers to be an important clue—a stack of books that the missing woman had checked out of the library. This interaction also results in my personal favorite line in the entire book, when Lee reveals that he isn’t a reader: “The librarian sounded deeply disappointed, as if her prince charming had just turned into a toad.”
I found this surprising twist on Ms. Nichols character to be a delightful diversion. I ended up being more pleased with how the story developed when I let Ms. Nichols have her own way with things rather than trying to force her into a mold. Near the end of the novel, I had an important clue that I needed the detectives to find. And I couldn’t think of a natural way for them to come across the missing phone number. I thought about this plot hole for a couple days. Then it hit me.
The phone number could be written on a post it note inside one of the books found by Ms. Nichols. And how would the detectives know to look for it?
Ms. Nichols would tell them, of course!
I had planned for Ms. Nichols to be a minor character, but I love the bigger role she has. And if readers love her as much as I do, I think there is a good chance that she will reappear in a future novel.