How Do I Develop Stronger Characters? New Writer Questions # 5
A Very Important Element of Your Writing.
To develop stronger characters, you can start by always creating detailed character description profiles that include facts about their backstory, their personality, and their motivations. It’s also helpful to show your characters in the story action and to allow them to change and grow over the course of your story.
How do I develop stronger characters in my writing?
Developing strong characters in your writing requires some attention to detail and an understanding of human psychology. Some tips that can help you create compelling characters follow.
Create a detailed history or backstory. Understanding a character’s past and motivations can help you create a more three-dimensional character. Think about where the character came from, their experiences, their family, and their relationships. This will give you some insight into their behavior.
Give your story characters flaws. Nobody is perfect, and your characters should be no exception. Give them flaws and weaknesses that make them human.
Create a conflict. Characters are more interesting when they face challenges. Create problems that challenge your characters and force them to grow over the course of your story.
Make them unique. Cookie-cutter characters that fit into stereotypical roles have no dimension, and therefore won’t help your stories. Give your characters unique personalities, even unique quirks, and interests that make them stand out from the other characters.
Use life-like descriptions. Use dynamic language to bring your characters to life. Describe their appearance, mannerisms, eccentricities, and accents in detail to create a more realistic character.
Show, don’t tell. Rather than simply telling readers about a character’s personality or traits, show them through their conversations and interactions with others.
Remember that character development is always an ongoing process, and you should continue to refine and develop your characters throughout the writing, editing, and rewriting process.
Last Word
Characters are so important to get a handle on, and the process of doing them right is key. I, myself, always advise newer writers to start writing short stories. They take much less time to write than novels, and the learning curve you experience will serve you well throughout your writing career.
Short stories contain fewer characters, and in fact, are more about the characters than their big brother, the novel, which may be more about the tale than the characters.
What may be most important is that a new writer can see the progress in his own writing sooner than with other types of writing. and motivation is half the battle/fun. Characters make it happen.
Thanks for reading!
Don’s a keen observer and prolific reporter of truth, common sense, humor, & life. He’s a WRITER|HUMORIST, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. He lives in Nashville, Tn. Follow him on TWITTER, FACEBOOK, MEDIUM, or his WEBSITE.
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Originally published at https://donmartinbooks.com on March 24, 2023.