Tonight I wanted to dash off a few words about character development and what brings your characters to life.
Someone asked me a few days ago how I outline the personalities in my stories. He wanted to know if they grew while I wrote them or if they came pre-ordained. I told him, as I’m telling you, that it is a little of both really. My goal, when I write a personality, is to write someone who is believable individually.
I love flaws. We all have them, some more than most, and it is by our flaws not our virtues that we are defined. What I mean is, no one is 100% horrible, or 100% great.
In fiction, it is sometimes hard to bring this out. But I think by doing so you help to create a more ‘real’ experience for your reader. Stories with one-note characters are boring to me. Villians with completely unrelated acts of non-villiany (villainess? Villinantiude?) draw me even further into their story lines.
Delve into the WHY your hero is who s/he is. What motivates the antagonist? What completely non-sequitur habits or personality quirks can you give your MC or those he deals with that brings them from the flat to the 3d?
