Many students struggle to develop their stories, and the reason is often that they’ve neglected the most important element of a story: the characters. A compelling story requires characters that feel like real people, ones whom readers can empathize with. To achieve this, students must build their characters well before beginning drafting.
This article will explore a few strategies that will help students create deep and engaging characters before starting to draft their stories. Students will learn how to craft characters with texture, depth, and background—characters that will make the world of their story come alive.
Character development is the process of showing a character’s personality, beliefs, and growth throughout the plot of a narrative. Characters drive the plot forward through conflict and tension, as they make decisions that reflect deeper issues or values.
For a story to be compelling, the protagonist must have goals that are at odds with the antagonist’s goals. To set up the initial conflict, the author needs to introduce the protagonist’s ordinary world and then introduce an inciting incident that disrupts it.
The next step is to record opportunities for the protagonist to pursue their goal and highlight the things that stand in their way. This can also be used to highlight the character’s flaws, as a flawed main character is more relatable than one who is perfect. In addition, a student may want to consider how to twist certain plot points to merge some secondary characters together, helping them focus their characters and provide clarity for the audience.