Character Development

Boring characters make boring stories

There are certain characters, whether good guys or bad guys, that you remember. You might even remember them more than you remember the plot. Ebenezer Scrooge, Hester Prynne, Long John Silver, Atticus Finch, Huckleberry Finn.

One struggle a lot of fiction writers have is that all of their characters sound more or less the same. They should do more than move the plot or act as sounding boards for each other. For them to come alive, you need to give them the attributes of the living.

You have three basic categories of characters: protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters. In other words, the good guys, the bad guys, and everybody else.

Below, I have created some lists on how to develop those characters. These things will be easier to apply to longer pieces of fiction. With a short story, your lead characters are more symbolic and less fully developed. But if you have 150 pages, you’ve got some space to move around.

If you’re feeling lazy and want to skip the next 1,000 words or so, here the short version: Make them interesting human beings. Make them complicated, not just cookie-cutter good or bad. Avoid stereotypes, etc.

If you want to improve your writing, fight off that laziness and keep reading. If not, enjoy these pictures of baseballs from my childhood.

10 Tips for Developing a Protagonist

1. Give Them a Clear Desire