Do you want your reader to love your characters long after the last page of your story is read?
Writing characters who are layered and nuanced, means doing the work to get to know them, whether you've written an early draft and need to take them from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, or you're still planning your story and noodling out who your characters are.
With these 7 character development writing exercises in your writing craft toolbox, you'll have a head start on writing characters that will make readers feel are alive. Your characters will have problems, flaws and take action in the story.
But to create characters that readers engage with emotionally can be tricky. You need to know what is important to your characters and why so that the character's motivations make sense to the reader. You need to know what events shaped your characters, and be willing to let your characters struggle for what they want, and to learn the life lesson of their specific story.
So, let's get under your character’s skin, deep into their heads and hearts, and find out the core values and beliefs that drive their actions.
- Define your character’s story goals – both the internal and the external: Complex and nuanced characters have both internal and external goals that drive them to have agency on the page. This means they have something they want so much in the story that they’ll take action to try to achieve their goals. This also means they do not have what they want at the start of the story, but their desire to have it is so strong and so important to them, that they will be willing to strive against obstacles and struggle with conflicts and opposition to get it.
An external goal is something they want that is outside of the character. For example, it might be: a specific promotion, a sleuth trying to clear their name, or a detective trying to solve a crime, or maybe they want to study art in a European Art School and to do that they have to leave the country and travel.
An internal goal is the emotional or psychological desire or want of the main character. The internal goal underpins the main character’s decisions and actions in the story and creates opportunity for you to show the emotional nuances of that character as they struggle to obtain their internal goal in the story. For example, an internal goal may be to gain self-confidence or self-respect, or it might be to find love in one’s life, or it might be to feel valued as an equal.
Exercise 1: For each of your characters, write a list of 3 external and internal goals. Consider:
- What does the character want? Write that down.
- What does the character desire for themselves and others? Write that down.
- What does the character need to learn in the story?
It is really important to consider what the character needs so they can evolve emotionally/internally over the course of the story.
A need might look something like this in a story: The protagonist is really selfish and doesn't think about how they hurt others with their sharp words or how they step on others to get what they want out of life. But after they've struggled to get what they want in story and failed and had to re-try to get what they wand, they have learned that selfishness only harms them and others, and they learn that caring for others, working with them in a selfless manner brings them happiness and contentment which is what they need, not what they want in the story.
Now, break each goal into smaller objectives and consider what obstacles the character might need to overcome to obtain their goals. This will help with creating scenes to show what goals they have in the story. - Map out your character’s motivations: Character motivations are about why the character wants what they want in the story. And you need to know this so you can show the character's motivations in scenes as they struggle to achieve their story goals. Without this, the reader will be lost on why the character is going after a goal in the story and it puts distance between then character and the reader. You don't want that.
Exercise 2: Against each of the 3 internal and external goals you’ve come up with, write down why they want to achieve the goals. Think about what is at stake for the character if they don’t achieve their goals and this can also form part of their motivation to act. If you get stuck, just keep asking them why do you want it until you get down to the deeper reasons the character wants to achieve their story goals. - Do a conflict analysis for each character: Conflict is where the story really becomes engaging for a reader as they worry about how the character will overcome each struggle or obstacle to attain their story’s internal and external goals.
Exercise 3: Now that you’ve got your character’s goals and motivations it’s time to write down who or what is standing in their way of getting their internal and external goals. So, write down the main conflicts your characters are facing.
Are they feeling imposter syndrome and too afraid to put themselves out there to get the love they want? That’s an internal conflict!
Are they trying to stop a criminal from harming another character? What’s the antagonist doing to put roadblocks in front of them, or misdirect them? That’s an external obstacle which creates conflict! - Conduct interviews with your characters: You can conduct character interviews before writing your story, during the drafting phase to get to know them better, or between drafts. This character development exercise is especially good if you are receiving feedback that your characters are coming across as two-dimensional or as clichés.
When a character is cliché, you need to get to know them as an individual and bring that out as you’re writing the scenes. So, doing a character interview helps you get inside your character’s mind, heart and backstory.
This is a great exercise to do whenever you’re feeling stuck with how a character is thinking, feeling and responding to a particular scene.
Exercise 4: Start asking your characters questions, then take a breath, close your eyes and imagine you’re inside your character.
Act as if you’re looking through their eyes, feeling their feelings, hearing their thoughts, sensing the world as they do. Become aware of the life they’ve lived in the past and all the accumulated events that went before the start of their story.
It’s okay if you don’t get it all in one go. You can come back to the character interview and ask more questions to find out new layers of information. You may not know all this at the start but try to pretend that you are the character and you know, then listen to what they say.
The questions you ask your character depend on the type of story you’re writing, but I’ve suggested a few questions to start the process. When you ask questions that get deep inside who the character is and how they were shaped, you’ll be surprised at what you learn!
Here are some questions to get you started:
- Where did you grow up? Who was your best friend? Who was your greatest enemy? What happened in your childhood or teenage hood that changed the way you see the world?
- What are your life dreams? What is your greatest fear? Why are you afraid of this happening? What do you desire? What do you value most in life?
- What is your biggest secret?
- Have you ever been in love before? What happened? What do you believe about love now?
- What do you think of XYZ character?
- Create a backstory and discover your character’s misbelief: When creating a backstory for your character, don’t be afraid to listen to what they’re telling you. But do be aware that some characters hide secrets or are unreliable narrators.
When writing your character’s backstory, consider how they were raised, their past relationships, and experiences that have shaped them.
Look for moments when they were emotionally wounded and moments when something happened that created a misbelief that they now believe to be truth.
For example, a misbelief might be: no-one could ever love them.
Why?
Because when they were a child their parents passed away, they weren’t wanted by their extended family which resulted in them growing up in an orphanage. Because of this series of events, the character decided they were unlovable.
Now, as an adult, the character sees everyone as untrustworthy and every situation through a lens that no-one could ever love them.
Exercise 5: Write about experiences that have shaped your character’s current emotional state. What happened in their past to make them who they are? What is their misbelief that they now think is true of everyone and every situation?
When you understand your character’s history, you can write scenes that show context and motivation for their actions and decisions. You can also use their misbelief as an internal conflict to show character growth by the end of the story. - Give your character a diary: When you give your character a secret personal diary, you can find out information about what they’d never tell another soul. How delicious!
This exercise will help you understand your character’s emotional landscape and provide insights into their motivations.
Exercise 6:
Pretend you are your character and start writing a personal diary from their perspective only. Don’t censor them. Allow them to share their thoughts and feelings about current events, relationships, and personal conflicts – especially related to your story and other characters. - Get to know their primary relationships and dynamics: To understand your character better and be able to write them with emotional layers and nuances, it’s important to know who they consider to be important in their lives, who they love, who they detest, why they love or detest those people, and how their family has shaped their outlook on life.
Exercise 7: Put a timer on for 15 minutes and free write about your character's relationships with others. Consider how they interact with friends, family, and enemies. Think about what these relationships reveal about their emotions and motivations in the story. How do these relationship dynamics influence their goals and actions in the story?
I suggest you choose one of the above writing exercises, and put a timer on, then let your inner creativity be playful. When you're done with that one, try another exercise and build on what you've learned about your characters.
Now, go back to writing your story and apply what you've learned to the characters in scenes. Show their wants, needs, desires. Show what's standing in their way. Let them be flawed and put them in situations where they have to learn that what they wanted isn't necessarily what they needed. Let them learn their life lesson and see your character's arc transform from the start of the story to the end.
And, remember, when you put in the work to get to know your characters, nothing is wasted. But also, don't allow character development exploration hold you back from writing your story. You can learn about your characters before, during and after writing your drafts. Characters evolve as we write so enjoy!
Selina's editorial feedback is thorough without changing my style or voice and she prompts me to keep thinking deeper about my characters and the story as a whole.
SHANNON FRANCES JAMEs
SPICY REGENCY ROMANCE
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