Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [character-development]

Anything pertaining to developing the details associated with characters in your writing.

Character development pertains to anything that is involved with identifying and detailing specific information about your story's characters. What kind of relationships does your character have with other characters in the story? What motivates your character to do something relevant in the story? What are the character's strengths or weaknesses? Any of these questions can be used to help you develop a better picture of who the character is and how he will affect your story.

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How does one write a character smarter than oneself?

How does one write a "genius" character? I don't mean a scientific genius, or someone who is a prodigious talent in math or chess or something like that. I mean the following scenario (or an equivalent): Character G (for "genius") is a criminal…
Jay
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What would a reader like to know about a character first?

Two characters of opposite sex meet in a blank room (nothing remarkable about the setting) for the first time and the reader isn't familiar with either of them. Since genre would sway the answer to this, let me say it is Action-adventure. My…
Jimminy Critic
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What does Character development actually mean?

I keep hearing the terms "character development" and "characterisation", but I'm still not sure what they mean? How does one "develop" a character?
Shantnu Tiwari
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How to find authenticity in a character of color

I am working on a book. I am aware that, being a white guy, I always perceive characters as white men. I want to push myself into building a character that is black. My problem is that most of the people in my world are white. The blacks friends…
Thom
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Ways for main character to influence world following their death

The main character of a story dies before the story itself ends. Nothing new here, you can keep a story interesting following their death. But I have an additional requirement: The dead main character has to exert influence to the story world even…
Core Xii
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Thoroughly Despicable Characters

I'm midway through a Masters in Creative Writing. My tutor recently told me (something like): each character deserves a chance to be liked by the reader. I didn't want people to like the particular character I was working on and so it got me to…
robertcday
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Should my readers be able to identify with the bad guy?

I'm in the process of defining the characters for a novel. It is a crime fiction, with a really strong focus on the characters. I hope to construct really rich, complex and clearly defined characters. I know that I should, in principle, create…
Carl Seleborg
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Characterisation: What lines can an antihero cross while retaining reader sympathy?

Now, to clarify ahead of time; I'm quite aware that compelling doesn't necessary equal sympathetic and vice versa. That being said, here is the dilemma. There's a character that I intend to write who is an antihero, both in the classical Greek sense…
Matthew Dave
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How do you write an evil character without making him "sexy" or "cool"?

I notice in a lot of media there is a strong emphasis on the greatness of evil characters. They can often end up more popular than the good guys in the book or on the show, and overshadow everyone else around them. Darth Vader is a good example. He…
user24397
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How do I write a friendship between a boy prince and an older commander?

In my story, there is a certain man in his late twenties, who is one of the commanders in a war against a great threat for a medieval-like kingdom (this kingdom is also in such an unstable state that a civil war can break out at any moment). Now, he…
curious
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Writing a Likable Character Who is Mentally Unsound

In an earlier question I mentioned writing the first arc of my story involving two characters partaking in a journey, with one of them wounded and not fully cognizant. This wounded character is an antihero of sorts, and because of his sleep…
ani ben
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Is there any standardized definition of a "Mary Sue"?

I've heard the term "Mary Sue" thrown around a lot, and it seems to mean different things to different people, but is always something negative about the way the character is written, not necessarily about the character itself, usually involving the…
Joe Z.
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I want to explore the psychology of a ruthless, macho killer. What mistakes should I avoid?

This is a follow-up to another question. I asked "Should my readers be able to identify with the bad guy?" and got an excellent answer which explains the continuum of "identifiability" for bad guys. In his answer, Standback also cited George R.R.…
Carl Seleborg
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How do you write a character that HATES being born into a well-off family?

We've seen this character archetype before: A character despises being born into a well-off family. ("Well-off" can range from rich-to-anywhere-on-the-middle-class-spectrum, regardless of whether or not their family has committed any atrocities…
AnAspiringAuthor
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How can I broaden my understanding of my characters?

A problem I have when writing is that all of my characters behavior and speech ends up mirroring that of my own. As a result nearly all of my characters end up being practically indistinguishable from each other, they aren't unique in how they…
user5881
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