Character Development?

[Nine]

Does anyone have any good ideas, on how to develop a personality of a character, outside of a fic, so you have a better understanding of that character before you start writing it in a story? Do you know what I'm talking about?

One of my main problems with writing, is that my characters are so flat, so inconsistent. and I don't know them as well as a writer should.

I've started writing journal entries, as one of my characters, to see if that will help develop her. So far, it's turning out to be really good. It's working a bit. Does anyone else have any good ideas? ^^;

 

[A Concerned Solomon]

I don't know what to say. Try to exaggerate the character, I suppose, into a caricature, then scale it back a bit.

 

[Seadra Reef]

In order to get to know my characters, I write on a peice of paper everything about them. Their families, favorite foods, interests, bad habits, etc. From there, I look at their traits and decide what kind of past would result in such a personality. Then I decide what kind of direction I want the character to follow. Your character may seem dull at first, but as long as you follow your page of information on them, you know you're still on the right track.

 

[Barb]

Seadra Reef has an excellent suggestion in writing "character webs", i.e., the character's name and personality traits, likes, dislikes, etc.

Remember that inconsistency in a character might be a personality trait. Police chief Martin Brody in Jaws, one of my favorite characters, starts out as a milquetoast but during the course of the novel develops a spine and his actions veer from the cowardly to the heroic. Consider what circumstances in your story might be causing the inconsistency in your characters: a subplot that could be jettisoned? Are the character's motives not clear to the reader?

Sometimes you develop an irrelevant character in a story or a large-than-life character that damages the story and prevents the work from flowing. Killing off a character is always controversial, but it is part of the writing process. Maybe the character would work better in another story.

 

[Ember Blaze]

Making the character real helps a lot for me. It makes other people think I'm crazy, but it's worth it.

The key to portraying characters well is in their actions and reactions as well as their thoughts. You've already got a good start with the journal. That helps to develop the thought of the character. Once the internal world of the character is established, including personality and possible history, and you have their psyche down, start picturing your character. What do they look like? Get the visual in your mind so that you can see it clearly when you think about it. Then add the mental.

What I do once I get to this point is I start acting out the character. This is where people think I'm nuts, but it really really works. Let's say you're writing a tense scene where the character's significant other is leaving them to join the circus. How would your character feel about that. What thoughts would be going through their head. How would the physically act in that situation. How does it affect them as a person.

I also find that it helps to figure out what parts of the character are most like me and what parts are different. For example, when I write pokemon fic and I'm working on, say, Ash, I think, well Ash is like me in that he's impulsive, energetic and slightly short sighted. He's not like me in that he's extremely extroverted, is a 10 year old boy etc. I do the same thing with original characters.

I hope that helps. I also find that when I feel self concious about acting out my character I find a private space where no one can see or hear me, though the secret's kind of out now.