How do you flesh out a foil/parallel character?

[Suprima]

I have been drafting a novel for the past few months with a lot of scrunched up paper. It’s not my genre as I usually write fantasy short stories (bar some dabbling in long running fanfiction once upon a time).

It was originally a series of diary entries, (semi autobiographical) but that seemed stagnant by itself. I wanted someone to find the diaries, and the story to be told over different time periods. However, I cannot find a motive or plot for the diary-finder. They literally don’t have their own story so it isn’t working as their chapters are not their own.

The diary features a romance- should the diary finder have their own epic romance?

The diary is very much life lessons to the reader- does the diary finder act on their life lesson?

I’m struggling to flesh this out in my mind. In my head it works, but diary reader/character B does not have their own journey. They are very much a foil and opposite to diary writer/character A.

Any thoughts welcomed. Would love to hear about some others who had characters but no where to go with them.

Sounds interesting! They could find the diaries:

Moving into an old property
Clearing out a relative's house
In furniture from a charity shop

Their arc can be based around how they found them, what led them to that point - divorce, bereavement, new job, starting uni. Then go from there?

I would go relative probably...

A grandchild finding the diary after the writer has passed away maybe?

Or a good friend after the writer dies young?

I would say have the reader be in a difficult situation that is not the same but has some parallels and then they apply the advice and it's like their arc is mirroring the diary writer's but in a fresh way.

Either the diary finder is struggling to come to terms with someone in their life eg parent having a new serious relationship & diary helps them see more sympathetically. Or diary reader realises that their own previously ok relationship is actually abusive or just boring/outgrown & diary gives them impetus to strike out on their own rather than settle for second best. Or that they decide that their husband really loves them & turn their back on colleague trying to seduce them,

@Shelby2010

Either the diary finder is struggling to come to terms with someone in their life eg parent having a new serious relationship & diary helps them see more sympathetically. Or diary reader realises that their own previously ok relationship is actually abusive or just boring/outgrown & diary gives them impetus to strike out on their own rather than settle for second best. Or that they decide that their husband really loves them & turn their back on colleague trying to seduce them,

One of your scenarios matched some of drabbles I did yesterday evening after posting this thread. I’m going to explore it more and it’s good that someone thinks it is a good fit to the story style.

A few ideas in the pipeline now.

Thanks all!

The character who finds the diaries needs to have their own character arc. So they need a conflict at the start, preferably something that reflects the conflict the protagonist who wrote the diaries had, and this needs to be resolved by the end of the novel, somehow helped to reach that point by whatever she/he discovers as they read.

Maybe the diary finder has just moved to a new home, embittered after a devastating break-up and convinced that real love does not exist. Finding the story gives her the impetus to move on and look for a new love.