How to Develop Your Characters When Writing a Fiction Novel

I've just started writing my first novel and I'm surprised at how smoothly it is going. For ten years, I agonized about how to write my first novel, even though I had read tons of novel writing and fiction writing books. It just didn't click with me. Then, it hit me within the past few weeks. I had to write the novel in my own way, otherwise, it wouldn't be written in my true voice.

Yes, fiction writing does have a certain formula to it. But what is that formula in reality? The formula is just certain elements that need to be there to make it a full story. One of those important elements are the characters. This is an extremely important element in fiction writing, whether it's a short story, a novella, or a full-length novel. Your characters are the life-force of your story. They are the ones who act, speak, and think your story into existence. They are the ones who breathe life into your plot to help draw readers in.

Without the characters, you do not have a story because you wouldn't have anyone to tell your story. Then, this leads to how to develop your characters to tell your story. Believe it or not, I found this element of fiction writing quite easy to do. Below are a few tips on what I did directly from own notes on my characters. I hope you find these tips helpful.

Tip #1: Names. I created names for my characters before I started to develop them into living, breathing beings. One of the things I did to help me with coming up with a good character is that I went through some of my past published short stories to see if there were any characters I'd like to develop and expand on in a novel format. I came across one character that I absolutely loved writing about in a short story. In previous years, I had entertained the thought of expanding her character and giving her more of a story to tell. So, I started with her. And then, I decided she should have a boyfriend, a best friend, and a conflict. And there you have it. I had an entire cast of characters just waiting to tell their story.

Tip #2: Breathe Life into Your Characters. Well, my next step now that I had two central characters and two supporting characters (names only...mind you), it was time to breathe some life into them. So, I started with what I felt the characters looked like in my mind. For my two central characters, I saw two celebrities that I adore in my head. So, I started with these two celebrities as a foundation for building the characters' looks and I tweaked it a bit, by making their skin tone a shade or two darker or lighter, shortening or lengthening the hair, changing eye color, changing the height and weight of the characters. But you see, I used the celebrities that came to mind as a foundation and just tweaked from there to create characters with their own unique look. Then, I started to think about how they dressed, spoke, and interacted with people. Shy? Extroverted? T-shirt and jeans kind of person? Or business suits and high heels? Informally, I jotted all this information down. I actually talked to my characters in my mind and asked, "Who are you? Tell me about yourself." And then, I waited for the answers and wrote it down accordingly. Oh by the way, I gave each character an age and a place to live. All of these elements create a well-rounded character. And I gave them jobs. So these are a few ideas for you. Think about if they have a favorite food or a favorite place to go. Things like that and next thing you know you'll have a fully developed character, who is eager to tell his or her story.

Tip #3: Conflict. Now, that I have a few characters who have identities and are fully developed and ready to tell their stories. I had to give the two central characters their own conflict. Early on in my novel outline, I decided the story would be told from both central characters' viewpoints - first person multiple. So, I had to give them each a conflict to resolve in the story. After all, that is the plot of the story in a nutshell - a character with a conflict that needs to be resolved. The story itself is all of those elements playing out on the pages from beginning to end. On a separate piece of paper from the character outline, I wrote the character's name and wrote down 'conflict' next to it. So, it reads: Stephanie's Conflict. I went from there. I looked at my own life and thought about a few things I feel need to be resolved in my own life. I thought about two in particular, and gave each of the two central characters one of my conflicts to resolve in the novel. Keep in mind, you do not want to give your central character too many issues to handle at once. Yes, it is true that our lives in reality are like that - when it rains it pours. But it's easier to keep up with your own story, if you give each character just one conflict to resolve within themselves and not a ton of things they have to figure out. Because since you're the one plotting this story, you don't want to put this project into overload. You want to be able to follow it through until the end.

So, this is what I did to develop my characters for my novel. Now, I have fully developed characters with a conflict for each of them to resolve in the story. For me, this eliminates a lot of anxiety on my part concerning the writing of the story. I feel confident that as I write these characters down and tell their stories, I will in turn be helping myself resolve some conflicts as well. And be able to make it entertaining all at the same time.