We all love a character that grows significantly from the struggles and changes they face in the story because it makes the character admirable and more relatable.
Character development creates more sense for the story because it allows it to flow smoothly from the beginning to the end.
Is it essential for a story to have character development?
The story needs to have character development because your characters run the story. Character development in literature is the art of giving a character a personality, a sense of depth, and motives that carry them through a novel. Another definition of character development is how a character changes during a story.
Realistic characters are unique and relatable. Each has natural characteristics, such as appearance, personality, and history, which allow people to relate to them. A character’s motivations influence decisions and actions, which define the story’s plot line.
Why is Character Development Important?
Characters need to look natural to captivate and move readers. Authors accomplish this by including details that distinguish and identify characters. Characterization offers readers a clear feeling of the personalities and complexity of the characters; it makes them vivid, alive, and credible.
A writer builds fictional characters in any good story by giving them goals, putting hurdles in their path, and creating conflict. Writers engage readers by making characters sympathetic. Character development is a literary term that writers often hear. Still, it’s an essential part of fiction writing and a hook into a story’s narrative arc.
5 TIPS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
- Determine a character’s desires and motivations.
Great characters are supported by solid motivation and work hard to accomplish their objectives. As a result, there are interesting people and a plot. One of the first things you should learn about in a story is what motivates the main character because this will determine how the story will go.
- Provide a backstory of the main characters.
Each of your creative characters, like us, requires a backstory. Investigate your characters’ backstories to give them dimension. Even if most of it does not appear on the page, a character’s background will help you understand how they think and how it influences their decisions throughout the narrative.
- Make a conflict
A literary element that throws competing forces against one another, most often involving the main character, is conflict. There are various types of disputes that will influence your character’s decisions. Create an external conflict by pitting a bad character against a good personality. An internal battle can also occur when a character is forced to act against their morals or contend with opposing views. Conflict generates tension and is utilized to advance a tale by driving characters to make decisions.
- Use recognizable terms to describe a character’s characteristics.
Develop a personality for your primary and secondary characters based on real-life characteristics to help create a multi-dimensional, full texture with recognizable personality traits and flaws.
- Create a physical representation of your characters.
Describe your character’s physical appearance, including hair color, eye color, and size. What are their personalities? How does their body language look? Describe them to assist readers in getting a better picture of your character.