A to Z of Writing

Character Development

Ever heard of character development. Ill bet the lot of you have. For instance, when watching series, movies or animate shows, you often hear people say that character has so much development and you'd wonder what they mean by that. 

For those that don't have a firm idea of what it is, Character Development can refer to either the task of setting down and creating a character (such as working out their appearance, family tree, history etc.) or can refer to the change a character undergoes during the course of a story. 

I read somewhere that your character even has to surprise you once in a while. Make them sooo real that you'd sometimes think they were sleeping next door or sitting next to you in class or work. 

There are countless formats to building characters depending on the genre you're focusing on. Below is a general format you can use that I created. Feel free to use it, and add on to it for a better character development.

Character Profiling Format

Name: -

Other Names: -

Nickname (If Any): -

Age: -

Sex: -

Mother: -

Father: -

Sibling(s)?? YES/NO

If YES, Sibling(s) Name: -

Personality

Likes: - What the character likes. Optional but I feel is necessary.

Dislikes: - The character's dislikes. Would have an effect on the character's behavior.

Fears: - Their greatest fear. Possible fears are; being scared of dogs (I know I am), spiders, geckos, height, water. Be creative but not STUPID.

Virtues: - Honesty, Hard Working......there's a whole book to pull these from for your characters.

Traits: - Physical attributes that gives your character a sense of identity, advantage or disadvantage. Let's say pointy ears, wings at the back.... your reader would know your character is a fairy.

Physique 

Race: - if your book develops on ideas about magical beings or (extra terrestrials) ...include the race here

Height: - Insert the height of your character (Optional)

Weight: - Put in the weight of your character (Optional)

Eye Colour: - Necessary!! Sometimes during a descriptive scene, you would talk about the eyes. Its good to know each major character's eye colour.

Hair Colour: - Also Necessary.

Complexion: - Necessary too......helps a lot. For this you'd need to observe various skin tones.

Appearance: - How does the character appear normally to your other main characters. For this you'd need to envision the character through the eyes of the other characters.

Weapons (If Any): - For writers that'll base their characters in settings that require the use of weapons it's a healthy practice to know your characters desired weapon for combat...and their appearance should complement the weapons they'll use.

Carried Possessions: - Could be a necklace handed down by a departed father, something that allows the character to stand out or provides an advantage in certain situation like a totem for teleporting or something of that sort. It could also be a friendship bracelet that's the key to untold wealth or a hairpin with an engraved code leading to massive wealth. Just know you aren't limited.