Character Development - Version 2.0

Character Development - Version 2.0

A club devoted to nurturing the people who fill your stories.

  • 2 forum topics
  • 4 wall posts
  • Created Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:51 pm

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  • ElizabethQueen replied · Mar 20, 2013

    I find actually writing my characters, letting them live and talk through the prose and using the words to let them shape their voices to be extremely helpful. Also I find that defining their wants (externally and internally) gives not only the characters shape and structure but starts to build conflicts as well.
    What about you? Do you have anything particularly helpful or insightful in the realm of character development?


    Payne replied · Mar 21, 2013

    Hello, Elizabeth!

    Those are excellent tips; I use those methods a lot, too.

    For me, it takes time to get to know a character; over the period of a week, a month, or a year, I get to know the characters just as I would a real person. I also tend to write about their backgrounds (early childhood, teenage years, sometimes even the lives of their ancestors); it gives me a better grasp on who these characters are and what made them that way. Plus, with the ancestry part of it, I can also develop the world while I'm at it. :)


    ElizabethQueen replied · Mar 21, 2013

    Hey Payne! Time is really important although sometimes I feel like if I spend too much time with one character they get almost muddled and I can get confused about their true personality--does that ever happen to you?
    And I totally agree about the ancestry part, it is so helpful to develop the world and the supporting characters.



The necessary beauty in life is in giving yourself to it completely, only later will it clarify itself and become coherent.
— Richard Linklater