Character Development
Your story lives when your characters do.
Preamble
I started writing seriously a year and a half ago. I remember finishing my very first draft of my novel – and it took me about 3 weeks to do it. It was short – maybe 50k words. But it was a draft! Within a couple of weeks, I added another 30-40k words.
Then I sat on it for months. I made edits here and there, even commissioned a cover from a local queer artist (shout out to Quinton Singer). I was so sure that my book was at least close to publishing status.
And then I started at Antioch in their MFA Creative Writing program. Through working with my mentor (shout out to Rachelle Cruz – seriously an amazing person with thoughtful insight and I was lucky to work with her), and reading plenty of books, I realized that I could write with all the flowery language and it would sound lovely – but if my characters were under-developed, the entire project would suffer. I am choosing to rewrite my novel, and in March, I stepped outside of my comfort-zone and began writing in 1st person, present tense.
Now for the meat!
How do you ensure that your characters are realistic and fully developed?
Goals
Give them a goal (or more) for the novel. What are they hoping to achieve by the end? You can give them temporary goals, as well, but they need at least one big goal they are striving for throughout the novel.
Example: My main character (David) has a chaotic and abusive home life. His goal is to go to college on a full-ride scholarship to play football. He wants to escape. His additional future goal is to play professionally.
What do they face throughout the novel that prevents them from achieving their goal?
Example: David’s father is controlling and abusive and often uses football as a way to control his son (i.e. telling the football coach his son needs to be benched because he didn’t do as he was told).
Motivations (ties into goals)
Fears
Example: David is afraid of being stuff in his hometown.
Insecurities
Example: He’s not good enough or strong enough to escape.
Desires
Example: Leaving his hometown (ties into goals but could be other things in his arc)
Trauma Responses (if applicable)
Example: Hiding things for fear of punishment
Relationships
Ask yourself questions like:
How does this other character interact to your character?
Example: David is obedient and quiet with his dad – he takes the abuse and doesn’t make waves.
What does the main character gain from their relationship with this other person?
David maintains the relationship with his Dad because he believes that his Dad would prevent David from getting what he wants (goals).
Does the relationship cost the main character anything?
David’s relationship costs him emotionally and physically – it’s unsafe and causes him a lot of psychological distress.
Big FIVE Personality
I think this is great exercise in fleshing out your character’s personality. The basic concept behind this is that there are five main personality traits that form a person’s personality. I’ll list the traits and their descriptions below, but you can read more about Big 5 Personality Traits here.
Openness to Experience
Reflects an individual’s curiosity, imagination, and willingness to try new things. High scorers are often described as imaginative, creative, and intellectually curious.
Conscientiousness
Describes an individual’s tendency to be organized, reliable, and disciplined. High scorers are often described as hardworking, punctual, and efficient.
Extraversion
Refers to an individual’s sociability, assertiveness, and need for social interaction. High scorers are often described as outgoing, energetic, and confident.
Agreeableness
Reflects an individual’s compassion, kindness, and cooperative behavior. High scorers are often described as good-natured, trusting, and helpful.
Neuroticism
Describes an individual’s tendency towards negative emotions, such as anxiety, worry, and sadness. High scorers are often described as moody, nervous, and prone to stress.
The above should give you a solid, reliable structure you can use to determine how your character(s) will respond to a variety of scenarios. For example, my character (David) isn’t open to new experiences because he craves a reliable, consistent environment. With that in mind, would David be willing to go on an overnight trip with people he doesn’t know well? Probably not.
Conclusion
In my experience, character development can be one of the most exciting parts of writing fiction – but it’s also one of the most challenging. It takes significant, conscious, intentional thought and it can’t be rushed. If you don’t know where to start, do a free write where you dump everything about your character out into a single document. Don’t worry about how it sounds. Just get it out. Come up with a few scenarios your character might run into and jot down how they would respond. Then you can refine through some or all of the above if it helps you.
I created a character brief template that you can download below - no annoying mailing list sign up needed. Overall, just take your time and do your characters justice.
Image Credit
Title: Sextuplets in the womb Contributor: Berg, S. vd Creator: Tinkelenberg, J. Date: 1978-07-07 Providing institution: Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden Aggregator: Dutch Collections for Europe Providing Country: Netherlands Public Domain Sextuplets in the womb by Tinkelenberg, J. - Leiden University Libraries, Netherlands - Public Domain. https://www.europeana.eu/item/744/item_3461810