CW: mentions of childhood abuse I need some help fleshing out a side character for a Dramady Romance that explores the long term effects of childhood trauma and finding love even when scarred by abuse. I have my main characters pretty much figured out. I’ve written 90 pages of the story and love their chemistry. I’m now working on the side characters, trying to flesh them out so they’re not one dimensional. MC1 (f 19)’s mother needs work. Mom had MC1 when she was a teen. She was abused by her father and MC1 is a product of that abuse. Though she doesn’t know MC was his because she was sleeping with a few other guys (her age) at the time. She used drugs and eventually ran away from home leaving MC1 behind. She never even cared about the girl. She only kept MC1 because her parents were super religious (dad was a pastor and the scandal that he let her get an abortion was less than the scandal that people think her a…) MC doesn’t know any of this. Mom and her don’t talk much. Mom is living in a slum apartment with no power and drug paraphernalia all over when MC1 is dropped off to live with her at the age of 10. Mom wants nothing to do with MC1 but likes the money she gets from the government. Mom is evicted soon after MC moves in with her and they live out of the car moving from town to town, state to state. Mom uses MC to get more charity from people. She sells everything of value MC gets. MC is often left alone in the car. Hiding under a blanket, laying down in the footwell of the old car’s backseat. Mom doesn’t do anything for MC that she isn’t required to do to keep MC. All the time mom is using the money on drugs. Mom uses Meth, Ecstasy, and anything she can get. She drinks and smokes a lot, cigarettes and weed. Eventually the car breaks down where the story takes place, CPS figures out what’s going on and Mom enters a rehab program while MC goes to foster care. MC hates foster care. She has to move families a couple times and never has any alone time. Meanwhile Mom does get clean and gets an apartment. Following Covid court delays MC moves back in with her mom. For the first time in five years MC has her own room, by herself. Mom makes MC get a job when she turns 16 but doesn’t work herself, nor does MC’s paycheck go to paying the back rent. Mom goes back to using. Loses her job and are evicted once the eviction moratorium is lifted. After a week at a homeless shelter mom signs a lease in MC’s name, using her credit score. The book starts a couple years later with MC working as many hours as she can get to pay the bills while mom is bringing guys and friends home to smoke weed, do drugs, and other things MC drowns out the sounds of with loud music. There’s a scene early on where MC has to go to work early and makes sure everyone is alive before leaving. It wouldn’t be the first time she had to call 911 or push narcan. —— I need to figure mom out so she’s not just the villain. After righting this I can see mom is intelligent. What else can I add to give mom more depth?
I think the problem with making her not the villain is that she is the villain. Personally, I'd humanise her and give her good personality points to balance the bad. So perhaps she loves MC, but the memory of what her father did to her has left her flawed, and she continually retreats into drug use to forget, and that's when she lets down MC. And she'd never consciously hurt MC, but when she brings home other drug users, they'll steal or even make advances on the underage MC. It's one of those "friends" who signs a lease in MC's name. She's now a bit more rounded. Far from a perfect mother, but not out-and-out selfish.
For character depth and modicum of sympathy from the reader, you might consider having the mom try to be better here and there. Unless she's a total psychopath, she'll be trying to pay the bills now and then and care about her daughter to some degree. Most addicts don't want to be addicts. They may fuck up constantly and let everyone down and even do ugly things to feed their habit, including stealing and prostitution and the like, but they usually don't love that about themselves. Most addicts are on and off the wagon, cleaning up and backsliding in a constant cycle. Also look at the reasons she uses drugs. The disease of addiction is bad enough all by itself, but people have triggers. Is she prone to depression? Is she bipolar? Does she have PTSD/CPTSD from childhood traumas? These things can drive people back to drugs when they need comfort.
Another idea is to have the mother constantly begging for reassurance and eliciting sympathy/pity from the daughter, which ultimately shows how insecure she is. "Do you love your mother?" or "I wasn't a good mother." In this way, although she sees things only in terms of herself, she is made pathetic. Does the daughter feel it is her job to take care of her mother?
I added many redcovery and relaps episodes to her life. MC sees the apologetic side of mom during her depressed states. Mom expresses guilt for “leaving her with him.” Mom is intelegent and screwed financially when sober. She’s great at Jeopardy even when high or drunk, especially when on meth. MC sees her mom is trying but falls. Mom will have a subplot where she gets involved with a guy who uses her resulting in getting arrested. The Love Interest (Li) thinks she shouldn’t care. He only sees mom as a villain.
