Writing Tips and Reviews

Character Development Part Two

You can add anything to a character. I don't care if you change their name, I don't care if they get a new outfit, I don't care if you keep adding more to a dark edgy Mary Sue just to make them even more of a dark edgy Mary Sue. That's not what I'm looking for here.

Character development is their growth in the story. Their new abilities and such can compliment their development but it's not the development itself. Changing the backstory to make it even more tragic is not growing. It's trying to gain sympathy. Characters go through events and learn, if they don't change the events could repeat themselves and the character becomes bland and boring.

No matter how many powers they have, no matter how much stronger they are than everyone else with no experience, no matter if they become immortal and invincible, no matter if the creator wants to add what's "cool," none of it is character development. 

Characters become stagnated when nothing changes over the course of the story. There is no excuse for stagnated characters.

Character development happens when a character learns something new, have gone through an experience, or even have friends who criticize them. They change for the better or worse. They become what they should be for a certain reason, they change because they want to or are forced to.

It's when they learn and change. A school kid bullied for years and becoming stronger is character development. Adding on that a character now has super speed and telekinesis is not character development. That's adding abilities. Character development can happen without adding abilities. Real life is a good example.

People change based on the experiences they have and the people they meet. They change because it's what the world does to them. People who are closed off from the world then sent out need to learn and adapt. They change because it's what they have to do to survive. This is exactly how character development works.

A character who is stagnated in personality, behavior and interactions is not good. And adding more to meet a power fantasy isn't helping. They have to grow, that is literally the definition of character development.

I love Code Geass.