Character who looms large in a seminar's novel reading? (5,6)

'character who looms large in a seminar's novel reading?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'character who looms large in a seminar's novel reading?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'character' could be 's' and 's' is present in the answer.
'large' could be 'l' (eg in clothes sizes) and 'l' is found in the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
'reading?' could be 'r' (one of the traditional three R's of education) and 'r' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'seminar' is 'ismaner' which is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?