Writing Tip: How To Fully Develop your characters

One of the most common mistakes inexperienced writers make, especially in their beginning attempts, is to not fully develop their main characters.

The main characters, those characters who have a major impact on the outcome of the story, need to be complex. It is their complexity that makes them interesting.

Minor characters, those characters that only exist in the story to fill a specific need, can be shallow or one dimensional.

Only truly troubled characters create the conflict needed to move fiction. The beginning author needs to pay less attention to the external aspects of the main characters, looks, size, etc. and more to the internal aspects. The author needs to understand what makes their main character’s tick in order to make them really interesting. And, as the author, as the one who is developing the character, you can make the characters fit the needs you need to make the story come alive.

As the author, asking yourself the following questions about your main characters will help you know and develop the characters:

1. How does the main character feel about self? Some traits and resultant possible story conflicts are:

2. Character seeks acceptance from people - he could be hostile or aggressive to others.

3. Placid characters - put road blocks in his way to see if he is able to rise to the occasion.

4. Self-confident or egocentric characters - other characters or things test his abilities.

5. Discontented characters breed conflict. Content characters breed helpless, conflict free stories.

6. Is character in or out of harmony with his world? Is it likely to change?

7. Easy plot interaction is when he is at odds with environment.

8. An aggressive, repressive rebel can be waiting for another character, an event, or a final indignation to set him off. A character against society can be powerful.

9. An alien in a strange world. ET.

10. A cowboy in a vanishing west.

11. Who are the most important people in characters’ life and how do they interact?

12. Relation of person to family.

13. A man wants out – out of the ghetto, a gang, the KKK, the army. But the love of a woman keeps him there. In the end he is sad.

14. What unattainable goal does he want and what price will he pay? Later, does he regret the price he paid?

15. The odds must pile up against any character who is fighting this type of battle.

16. Triumph could result in an empty feeling.

17. What could character most often not part with.

18. How would he react if he lost.

19. What must character deny or disguise because he cannot deal with it.

20. What does character believe that is doubtful or totally wrong.

There are many ways that you, the author, can fully understand your character. When you fully understand your character, when you really know them, you can make them as complex as you need for the story, without making them a cliché cartoon.

As mentioned, one way is to ask yourself these questions. There are other ways the author can know their main characters, and therefore them real and interesting.

In the upcoming weeks, I’ll put out some more ideas about making your characters real.

I’d be interested in hearing from writers on ways in which you insure that your characters are as full and rounded as you can make them.

Got any thoughts? As an author, how do you insure that your characters are interesting. You do, don’t you? You would never create a character that is dull, would you?

I’d like to hear how you develop your main characters.

Send your thoughts to -- kercherblog@gmail.com