How to Develop Fictional Characters

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By PABechko
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print by Linda Hunsaker www.lindahunsaker.com

Story and Character – the two primary elements of writing your story. If you like writing short stories and novels, you probably get ideas at the weirdest times – like in the shower or walking down the street, or picking u a box of cereal at the grocery store. If you’ve taken my previous advice you have some way of getting that idea down, a voice recorder, your phone that will record notes, or just a note pad. Then comes the hard part, character – figuring out how they respond to situations, how they feel, what their background is and what might motivate them to do what they do.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

desire to write fiction
time to think
web access
local library

Step 1

There isn’t room here to talk about all the aspects of personality – may I suggest you study up a bit on psychology, perhaps visit your library and read a few copies of something like Psychology Today? Or visit the web and visit the website of Sixteen Personality Factors listed in resources below. Meanwhile, we can hit some of the highlights and hopefully get you thinking in the right direction.
Step 2

photo by Chance Agrella

Is your character more of a follower or a leader. Does he (we’ll call the main character ‘he’ here for simplicity’s sake) act or react? Forceful and assertive or more reserved?
Step 3

photo by chance Agrella

And that leads to shy or bold? Does your character have to be drawn out, or is he the sort to thrust out his hand and introduce himself? Is he one to observe more or participate? Sip a drink alone or socialize?
Step 4

photo by Roxanna Gonzalez

Think about whether your character is a perfectionist, can tolerate disorder in his life, or initiates it! Does the character realize where he stands in this regard and have some kind of internal dialog about how it affects him? If his apartment is littered with clothes, magazines strewn about and old take-out containers gooey with former contents bother him or is it just part of his life?
Step 5

How about tension? Is your character relaxed or stressed? Is he hyper to the point of driving away girlfriends and social friends? Or is he so laid back he gets himself fired from a job he likes?
Step 6

Does he like change and spontaneity or does he avoid last minute dates?
Step 7

Is he self-reliant to a fault – unwilling to consult or partner with others, but rather doing things ‘lone-wolf’ and getting himself into many sticky situations?
Step 8

As writers we need to recognize it’s the small things that make the character breathe with life. What is their favorite drink? Do they dress predominantly in one color? Is your character afraid of snakes ala “Indiana Jones”?
Step 9

The next time you sit down to write a story, flesh out your characters right away and you’ll find that story opening up in ways you wouldn’t have thought of before.