Everyone's Guide to Wattpad

Character Development

Like I promised, the ELEMENTS OF WRITING begins with Character Development. This is a pretty big element, because it affects the entire story, overall.

What exactly is Character Development?

It can mean two things.

One: Sitting down and planning your character's looks, history, personality, etc. or

Two: The change a character undergoes through the course of a story.

We are talking about #2 today.

It's the change in your character. How is your character changing throughout the story? Is he/she getting braver, smarter, duller, hateful through the story, or is your character the same as it was in the end of the story?

If your character is the same, I'm sorry to say, you're doing it wrong. No worries! This is why you're here, right?

Here's an example: Maybe a girl is full of fear in the beginning, but throughout the story she learns to overcome her fears. It's a good character development plot, but it can't be just that.

She needs to look at things differently. This is where voice comes in, but we will talk about that later.

What good is character development?

For one, it is an element. The elements all correspond with one another in your writing. Without it, your story will have no sense of direction.

It also helps the audience know who the character is. That's a HUGE win in stories.

It gives you direction. It gives you a character. Nobody likes reading about a "perfect" character. Character development is what pushes this "imperfect" character towards a "perfect" character in the author's eyes. People want to see a character struggling, then working to improve what he/she/it struggled in.

Okay, how do I get character development?

I cannot show you how to get it. I merely explained it, along with the purpose of it. It is your job to come up with it and how to put it into your story. Again, I can't show you how to paint, but I can show you how to hold the paintbrush.

I can offer a tip for starters, though. Start the story with your character struggling in something. What that something is, I don't know, but plan a way your character will improve in that area. Make that something the audience cares about, though. Make drama over it, but not something like: I don't know how to make my bed! The world is out of control! How about someone who has trouble falling in love, or someone who can't learn to forgive, which brings him a lot of trouble. By the end of your story, your character should have overcome that "something," or come close to it at least.

A character's personality should be used to further the plot of the story, especially their flaws. Each character should respond to a situation a little bit differently than the character right next to them. 

This is a great tip for starters, but for those that are experienced in this, then jazz it up a bit. It'll bring originality to your story. Maybe a "perfect" character falls to ground zero (now "imperfect character") and works its way to a "perfect" character again.

A good example of this is from one of my favorite all-time fictional series: Star Wars. In episodes 1-3, you follow the story of Anakin Skywalker fighting evil as a good and justice-loving warrior fall from glory as he evolves into the evil and menacing Darth Vader. (Sorry if I spoiled that for anyone, but that's a pretty common pop cultural reference at this point.) His character development is what kept the plot driving forward, and it's what brought people to advance from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3 and so on. 

Without this element (or any element, for that matter) you will have problems with keeping an audience hooked/interested in your story. This is the end of Character Development, and I hope it helps you in your writing.

OrangeGuy, out!