Character Development: Story

It’s time for Character Development 103! If you’ve just discovered this mini-series, welcome! and be sure to check out Character Development 101 and 102 before reading this post. Those first two cover everything from finding the perfect name to building complex fictional friends.

Today, I’m going to be talking about how characters don’t just fit into a story somewhere between setting and plot—they create it.

Story

Imagine that someone wants to write your biography, but they don’t want to say anything true about you or your life. Essentially, they want to use your real name to tell a fictional story. They want to remove you from your own town and timeline and write what they think other people will enjoy reading, no matter how false it is.

I want to live every day of my life like someone’s writing it all down in awe. So, my immediate response to the offer above would be: uh, no. I imagine that yours would be something similar.

If that’s so, I encourage you to take your perfectly named and personified characters, look them in the eyes and promise them, “I will not tell lies” (no blood-sucking pen via Professor Umbridge required).

You have this incredible story inside of you, just waiting to come out. How did it get there? Your characters. Just like you knew when you found their perfect names and chose the individual traits that make them human, you will know how their stories happened. All it takes is a listening heart.

Particularly this month, with NaNoWriMo finished and editing well underway, there are hundreds of articles floating around the web about what your novel “should be” when it’s finished. While I think that structure is important and that deadlines can be beneficial, I firmly believe that your book “should be” only one thing: honest.

Let’s bring this back to our someone who wants to write a fake biography. In my case, let’s imagine that she wants to send me to college. I’m not in college. But she thinks that will make my story “better.”

But I didn’t. If I’d thought that, I would’ve enrolled in college instead of Praxis. And Praxis is definitely making me a better person.

Two of the most important responsibilities that come with being an author are these: watching and listening. If you are seriously considering writing a novel, then I can promise you one thing: No matter how hard it is to believe, you are already very good at both of those things. If you weren’t, you would have nothing to write an entire book about.

So, listen to your protagonist. Listen to your antagonist. If they’re the same person, listen extra closely. Watch them interact with your secondary characters. And listen to them, too.

Whether or not you’ve noticed it, your own life has a story arc, and each of your characters has one, too. Some of them are stubborn as all heck and will drive you crazy with lines like, “I don’t know what happened next. You figure it out. You’re the author!” That’s usually when I write down the craziest thing that comes to mind. Like Cinder’s go-to method of repairing androids, “You’d be surprised how often that works.” Just like you don’t remember every waking second of your life, your characters will need the occasional push to remember their stories. (Throwing them off a cliff usually does the trick.)

And now, the big question: How do I show character growth?

It’s easy to finish off a book with, “His worldview had changed since [extraordinary thing that happened].” Actually showing a difference in worldview is its own matter.

I have good news and bad news. Bad news first.

There is no magic formula for this. But here’s the good news:

Your characters will make the difference obvious.

Ideally, we’re all going to sleep at night thinking about all of the wonderful things that we managed to accomplish while we were awake. Realistically, we’re thinking about all of the things we have to do tomorrow. Plus, I’m so tired, why did they kill off my favorite character and I should’ve eaten that last piece of pie.

We’re not constantly explaining to people, including ourselves, how we’re growing because we don’t always notice it. In fact, sometimes, it takes a second set of eyes to say, “Wow. You’re killing it out there.” In the same way, you shouldn’t have to rub your character’s accomplishments in the faces of your readers unless it adds to the story. The results will usually speak for themselves.

Recap

• Listen to your characters.
• Your novel “should be” only one thing: honest.
• Watch your characters.
• Go crazy. Get stuff written.
• Growth happens naturally over time– even in fictional people.

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this mini-series on Character Development as much as I have. Thanks again to my amazing Twitter followers for suggesting such great topics! If you have further questions, hit me up on Twitter @AquinnahBree or comment below, and I’ll see what I can do.

And hey, by the way, you’re killing it out there.