good character development techniques

by David Castanho
2nd August 2015

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask if there was any techniques that you use to outline your characters. I'm starting the first chapter in an idea I have that involves fantasy and was hoping to find good ways to outline fantasy characters. any advice or useful links would be great.

Thanks :)

Replies

One way to find out a bit more about your characters is to think about how they may react to something. For example, you spill a cup of tea...some people may react with anger others may run to the kitchen and grab towels, a third may laugh but offer no help. The fun thing is that you can do this throughout your first draft and it can offer up surprising plot twists. Every reaction your character shows is another way of building a relationship between that character and your reader. Remember Lorraine's advice though; your characters need to facilitate your plot so make sure that they react in ways that progress the plot forward.

If you're a bit more of a planning freak and you don't like the sound of surprises you could do this as five hundred word shorts that would form notes to remind you of the kind of person your character is.

Some people like to draw their characters too, others like to create top- trump's, I suppose it depends on what kind of book you intend to write.

There's some really good advice above me, I think I need to check out that Maren Elwood book.

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Sophie
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Sophie Barlow
04/08/2015

Any time David. Will you please read my most recent question?

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Grace Gotts
02/08/2015

Thank you guys for the great tips

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David Castanho
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