Character development is essential to crafting an engaging story.
Readers stick around for your characters’ journeys, not the flashy fight scenes or dramatic external conflicts.
Every scene within your story needs to influence your main character whether through challenging their beliefs or forcing them to take a risk which ultimately leads to their growth.
None of this is possible if you haven’t spent time finessing your character’s identity and all of the fears or misbeliefs that come with who they are.
Readers are smart.
They can tell when a character is so realistic that every decision they make falls in line with their identity.
To develop a realistic, three-dimensional protagonist, spend time getting to know the key players in your story before writing.
To help you through this process, I’m sharing my 5-steps to developing multidimensional characters. And, leaving you with a free booklet to guide you through it all!
Use these questions and activities to reflect on the key characters in your manuscript so that their presence doesn’t fall flat!
A 5-Step Character Development Process
Step 1: Start with Basic Character Traits
These character traits are often the first descriptions of our MC that we imagine. It’s okay to start here!
Write down the physical attributes that come to mind (their hair and eye colour, tattoos, clothing style etc.)
Include any backstory or personality traits that you’re already aware of.
You don’t need to delve deeper just yet.
Gather a list of all that you believe makes up your protagonist when you first envisioned them.
Character templates or worksheets can be helpful at this stage.
However, I caution you against spending your time on templates that go in-depth with trivial information which won’t show up in your book.
Maybe, you need to know your protagonist’s favourite colour and maybe that doesn’t matter…
Consider:
- Your character’s name/ nickname
- Their age
- Physical features that will appear in the book
- Basic upbringing/ family background (often what you’ll use to determine part of their worldview later)
Remember, if it isn’t necessary for the plot, such as their height, you can probably leave it out.
We don’t want to spend too long on this stage – a step where characters hover in their 2-dimensional persona.
Step 2: Dive into Personality and Motivation
Here, you’re going to explore your protagonist’s desires, fears, misbeliefs and values.
These are all a part of their internal world that often focuses your story around a central theme and influences the journey that your character goes on.
Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story is packed with reflection questions that can guide you through this process.
We want to stay clear of surface level answers, although they may play a small role in your character’s development.
For example, a fear of spiders is not as high-impact as the fears of connection or loneliness.
These fears can be traced back to core experiences in your character’s past that have shadowed their beliefs.
Your protagonist’s misbelief will center on a flawed idea about themselves and/or the world.
It will determine what logically drives them and what holds them back (their fears).
These character traits are interconnected and a strong determining factor in the outcome of your character’s journey.
To develop a multidimensional character, use your answers from this step to determine if your initial conflict serves their development.
Strong plots have both internal and external conflicts working in tandem to push your character toward their goal or teach them a lesson that changes their goal.
For example, if they have a longstanding misbelief around connection, then there’s likely to be a secondary key character who is going to test their boundaries.
Your character is well on its way to becoming a 3-dimensional protagonist. But, we’re far from done!
Step 3: Map Their Journey
I previously mentioned how past experiences often highlight the misbelief and fear the protagonist will have (baggage if you will).
And, that these misbeliefs, values and fears influence how their journey plays out.
This is the point where we delve into your character’s past, present and future – all of the key moments that have influenced who they are at the beginning of your story and will determine how they change by its conclusion.
Emphasis on Key Moments Here!
Your character may have played the violin as a child and have a memory of their first recital, but again, if it doesn’t influence them and they aren’t a violinist in the book, then don’t waste your time.
Character growth is crucial.
Readers remain engaged because a protagonist is challenged and ultimately changes for better or worse by the end of the novel.
A character who stays exactly the same is one-dimensional. There are no stakes and therefore no reason for your audience to care about them.
One way that I love to map character arcs is through the use of Lavendaire’s Current vs. Future Me Framework.
Technically, she came up with this framework for us to map out our personal growth, but it works so well within the narrative arcs we face.
Start by making a t-chart and labelling one side “current.” The other side “future.”
The “current me” side of the chart is where you will define who your character is at the start of your story.
Ask yourself:
- What are their current habits, beliefs and flaws?
- What fears bar them from reaching their goals?
- How does their misbelief drive their initial decisions and behaviours?
- Where do we find your MC at the start of the book? What are they doing/ thinking? Why does it matter?
Look back at your previous notes as a starting point and tease your answers out further.
Now, move onto the “future me” side.
Ask yourself:
- By the end of the book, will they or won’t they achieve their goal?
- Who must they become by the end to achieve their goal?
- What must they learn in order to grow?
- What qualities do they need to develop?
With this chart completed, map out your character’s growth arc.
Add in a section on “past me.”
This allows you to determine the events in the past that have led your MC to who they are at the beginning of the book.
Consider how the gap between their present and future selves will close.
Jot down logical changes that will occur as they face conflicts throughout the novel.
Ensure that your protagonist’s evolution occurs throughout the plot.
Basing the events that they face and their revelations on their internal conflict ensures your characters are realistic to the audience.
Step 4: Build Their Relationships
Often, external conflict comes in the form of friction with other characters.
At this point, your character is truly 3-dimensional and you could use what you know about them to start writing.
But, I’m gonna suggest you do a little more reflecting to ensure that all key elements in your story will truly circle back to your goal: to influence your character’s growth.
Widen your view and think about the other key side characters and antagonists in your book.
You don’t need to do this for every character they’ll come across, just those who will have the greatest impact upon them.
Allies, mentors and adversaries are often significant to your character’s arc.
How your main character interacts with others should speak to their internal conflict.
Some characters will put up their defenses, others will leave them feeling insecure. Some will take advantage of them as they turn a blind eye to what your audience sees as so obvious.
No matter what reaction your character has in the presence of another it should make sense based on their relationship and your character’s internal dialogue.
For each relationship that you delve into, ask yourself:
- How does this character relate to my main character?
- How do they influence the MC’s arc?
- What reaction, belief, lesson or insecurity do they force out of my MC?
- How do they mirror (if at all) my MC’s transformation?
Use this knowledge to write realistic interactions and dialogue between your characters.
Step 5: Use Dialogue and Actions to Show, Not Tell
Speaking of dialogue, multidimensional characters have unique voices and ways of being.
Just as every person has special quirks, accents and phrases, incorporating consistent behavioral traits for your character maintains their uniqueness amongst all other characters in your book.
Demonstrate their personality, the influence of their past and their growth through these actions and words.
By doing so, you can often avoid a heavy-handed use of exposition.
Your character’s thoughts and emotions can be expressed through their uniquely realistic reactions.
Determining speech patterns, phrases and quirks in advance can keep your character’s voice and persona strong throughout the novel.
Ask yourself:
- How has their background influenced their speech patterns?
- What quirks have they developed due to their experiences?
- Do they have one or two sayings that they repeat? (sayings when frustrated, disappointed, excited etc.)
- Do they have a behaviour that appears when nervous, overwhelmed or angry?
Knowing all of these personality traits now ensures that you’ve created a character who pops off the page – realistic in every situation they face.
Additional Activities for When Your Character Feels Flat
If you’re struggling with character development or you’ve already started writing and feel that your character needs some extra work, try out one of these additional activities.
Any and all reflection that you do on your protagonist’s internal world and their past influences will benefit your story!
1. Pretend to interview your character: Get into the mindset of your character. What would they say to any question you asked them? Their response should make sense based on who they are. If it’s generic, do some more digging. Don’t let your character keep secrets from you!
2. Use writing prompts to explore their inner thoughts: Think about what it would be like to read a diary or journal entry from your character. Grab a piece of paper and write out what they would say about an event that occurred to them.
3. Freewrite scenes from their perspective: It could be a scene in your novel, a scene from their past or any part of their life that would be in the book. Consider the 5 senses. What would your character think is significant enough to describe? Not everyone’s descriptions from witnessing the same event will include the same details.
4. Put your character in an unexpected situation: Ask yourself how your character would react if… happened. How they react in an unexpected situation should make sense based on their fears and misbeliefs. If your mini cause-and-effect experiment seems realistic then you’ve got a strong grasp on who your character is at their core!
5: Read Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story: I highly recommend picking up a copy of Lisa Cron’s book. She provides a list of questions and reflections at the end of every chapter. Use these to guide you as you create your multidimensional characters.
Creating well-developed characters is crucial to writing a character-driven story that readers find believable.
The process of discovering your MC’s internal conflict is exciting!
Try out one of these character development exercises to help you blend internal and external growth arcs that provide you with richer characterization.
Over to you!
Share a favourite character from your own or another’s book that feels multidimensional.
Download the free Character Development Workbook here to keep the entire process in one handy place.
Check out this blog post to grab a free copy of questions to help you plot your entire outline!
Talk soon!
Julia
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