Very minor characters

[Xtra]

We've all seen or used them. A character that you only see briefly, to add some depth to the main or supporting characters personality. Or maybe to add some filler, or to make the scene sound more alive. But you could cut them out if you wanted to, and the story wouldn't look much different.

What I'm asking is, how much should you describe a character that's so minor, that they only take up a few paragraphs at most?

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

If they are very minor I don't spend more than a paragraph on them at most, and often they share that same paragraph with other minor characters.
If they are a high raking minor character (that is someone who is very minor to the story but a major part of the world the story is set in I try to have them embody the details and all the good and bad parts of that society...
A good example of this sort of character is any of the minor teacher characters of the Harry Potter books, or Harry’s aunt and uncle...

 

[Sybot]

Any character who doesn't have more than a few speaking lines and only appears in that chapter doesn't get much more than a couple of lines of description from me. Case in point, the girl at the beginning of my latest chapter.

 

[Dragonfree]

For me, at most a couple of adjectives in the sentence in which the person appears. You're wasting the reader's time by spending ages describing something that doesn't matter, in my opinion.

 

[The Burnt Shadow]

For me, if it was a character who would show very little use in the entire story, I won't even bother to describe him/her, but if he/she will make an interesting return, I'd make something like just two lines for that character...

 

[CWisgood]

Heh, unless it's a really, really minor character, I tend to overdescribe. I like to give characters (who serve a purpose to the plot) depth.

 

[Dilasc]

I like to leave minor characters as vague. You never know, that minor character who says that times are tough no matter what manner of word you speak to him may turn around and be the Pokemon League champion. He still only says that times are tough, but hey! He's the champion.