Character Development

Character development, one of the key ingredients needed in a story of any sort. Or maybe it’s not the development itself but the characters. Characters are a key element. They hold the story together; they are the glue to a piece of plot.

Characters are not only in stories or novels.

They are also in reports, and poems. Songs included. How?

Reports have to be about somebody. That somebody has just become a character in your rough draft. A poem can be wrapped around a figure, and so that becomes a character. Same with a song. Your dad is a character in your life, and each word or thing he does will affect you in some way.  Just like your main characters dad’s actions will affect your MC’s life.

Characters are simple. Then again, they’re not.

Characters have to have names, and personalities. These characters are the key to a successful piece of writing and you have to get them right. This takes time though, so no freaking out. Characters. They are flawed creatures. All in all, they are human, in our minds, in our brilliant minds these characters are a piece of us and so to us, they are more than just a person to read about. They are human, they have flaws like us, they have favorite foods and colors, and they have things they do and do not like. They are paper versions of humans.

I think one thing authors really have to work at in their books, is character development. If your character can walk through anything, and have no fears then that isn’t a character. Well it is, but your reader isn’t going to feel bad for that character later when it loses its final battle, which is apparently this characters only existing fear. Characters should have human emotions. (Unless of course you’re writing something sci-fi and decided that that Vulcan should not show emotion when it comes to anything as that is not logical at all.)*

My characters, for me, are pieces of people. I know, I know you’re not supposed to base characters off of real people, but how else are people supposed to be inspired to create a character as unique and brilliant as that? I think each author (and I could be completely wrong) takes something they like about someone and (unknowingly?) make it a part of a character. I think some do it on purpose and from reading a friends work, where she based *cough* a couple characters off of 1) herself 2) myself and 3) other mutual friends, it takes work to cover up the fact that that character could indeed be based on Edward Cullen.** I’ m quite certain that writers can pull this stunt off. And I believe that is something all writers are going to have to work at. Because when someone at work or school makes you mad and you go home, you sit down at your desk, couch, whatever, and start writing. Okay that’s a lie and we all know it.

 First you’re going to sit there and mope. Then you’re going to surf the web and waste countless hours because, why not? Then after eating five tubs of ice cream, and when the cookie jar is empty (this means Saturday will be spent cooking instead of writing.) you will set up whatever program you use, and start (finally) writing. And say, your villain comes in, or you don’t have a villain so some random stranger is going to start yelling or whatever at your MC because that’s simply you letting your frustration out because someone yelled at you. And when you read that over, you might not see it at first, but give it a couple of days, and you’ll be able to tell that that piece of writing happened because of what you were feeling that day.

Tip!*** You should erase all emotions that you are feeling, maybe go over what you last wrote, get into your characters brilliant mind, and think like said character! Get your creativeness going, and write based on what your character is feeling. Not you.

*If you just understood that, I love you.

** I don’t read those books or watch those movies or anything to do with sparkly vampires. It was the first thing that came into my head.

*** Don’t listen to my tips, I don’t do them myself. These are just ideas popping in to my head at the same speed my fingers type this up, which after somewhat non-thought-process took me about 10-15 minutes to write.