Last week, we started to plan out our story by developing a few tentpole scenes. This week, we’re going to tackle the filling or those little moments of character development that go between these moments. The following writing exercises will help you flesh out those characters you’ve created.
In this part, we get to have some fun with our story. The character development kicks into high gear, and we get to let their personality shine. We test those characters more than we’ve ever thought possible. All so that our character’s become more believable.
What We’ve Done so Far
Before you continue with our writing exercises that help with character development, make sure you’ve done the other writing exercises to get you to this point. Of course, like always, take what you deem helpful from here and make your own writing process.
- Developing a Killer Theme
- Complete Guide to Creating a Character That Readers Will Love – A Study of Han Solo
- Tips to Creating a Great Story Outline – Plotting a Character Arc with 5 Scenes
Last week, we developed an outline for Bill, our character, who is afraid of heights. His friends have asked him to go with them to the theme park and ride roller coasters; however, Bill is scared of heights. Bill has only agreed to go with everyone because his crush is going. In the middle of the story, Bill has a chance to go on a rollercoaster with his crush, but his fear makes him run away. His character and the crush will talk, and she will push him to overcome his fears. Together, they ride the rollercoaster. Bill has overcome his fear and has changed.
It’s a great story, and while our character does grow through the story, his character development is short. We need to know what he does, what he likes, and what makes him, him.
Fill in the crack – Character Development
At this point, I like to look at the elements of character development that I hadn’t shown off when I created my first 5 note cards. So far, in our outline, we’ve only tackled the top elements of the theme. Bill is scared of heights, so he will go on this journey to conquer his fear. But who is he? We filled out all this information in our Character Development section and haven’t touched it yet.
While the 5 big moments we created in our last lesson show us who Bill is when it comes to his issue, we don’t know much more about him. Readers will only care about Bill if we’ve set him up so that the reader cares about him when he addresses one of the problems we put in front of him.
Writing Exercises
So let’s determine the things that make Bill. Let’s say he likes 90s rock bands compared to some of his friends. He is friendly and kind to everyone. He wants to belong to a group.
So here’s your exercise:
- Figure out what aspects of your character you need to show off. Make a card for each one.
- Determine how you’re going to have your character show that aspect of themselves.
For Bill, I would make a card of that says “Friendly,” another that says “Wants to Belong,” and one last one that says “Style.”
On these cards, I’m going to try to come up with a scene that shows off these elements of Bills.
So think about your character and create some cards with those attributes as the title. Don’t worry about what else goes on them for now, just plan out the 2-3 characteristics that you would like to show off in your characters
Building Your Scenes to Show Character’s Characteristics
I’m going to look at these three characteristics and think about how I can use them to continue to flesh out Bill as a character. So I will add to my cards like the examples below.
Style Card
In my mind, I’ll start with the “Style” card. I feel like it’s a great way to start the story and get some minor character development going. So on the style card, I see Bill at the mall shopping for new clothes. I might also add to the card here that puts Bill’s favorite store on the second story and hint at Bill’s fear of heights. This will help set up Bill’s style, which doesn’t do anything to the story, it just adds flavor to Bill, and it helps set up that he’s afraid of heights.
Wants to Belong
The next card to show off Bill to me is the Belonging card. This scene will help us to see that Bill is a little bit of a loner, and he wants to really belong to the group of kids that just showed up. It just so happens that Bill’s crush is also in the group. If we see Bill standing away from them and wishing to be with them, it could make it more impactful when he gets the chance to go, and it will provide tension when he sees that he will have to conquer his fear.
Friendly
I’m going to use this characteristic of Bill to help him break into the group. I see one of the group members dropping something, and Bill sees it. He will go collect the item and return it, thereby granting him the invitation to go with them to the next location — which will be the Amusement Park. This act doesn’t define Bill, but it does bring more light to his character. Not everyone would return a lost item to its owner.
Rinse and Repeat
While we might not have as much character development going on in the later parts of the story outline, I’m going to try to find other moments to show elements of Bill. I’ll look at the cards I have and think about ways to show elements of his character. I’ll make cards as I go and figure out the story.
Your Writing Exercise
Now that you’ve seen how I would work in elements of my character, it’s your turn. Of those three cards you made earlier, how can you fit them into your story?
Spend some time and think about how you can show off elements of your character through actions like we did with Bill.
My Beginning Card
Now that I’ve built out a few scenes that show off my character, Bill, I’ve noticed that I have stepped on the toes of my Beginning card. I have a few options here. I don’t like to get rid of cards right now, so I might change my card into a folder in Scrivener and move my new cards underneath it. If you are using Presentation Software to create your cards, you could make a new section – using the Beginning card as the main one and including our new cards underneath it. Or, you could get rid of it.
We fleshed out the scene more and developed our character more than we had with the Beginning card, so it’s not needed anymore.
If this happens while you expand your ideas, don’t be afraid to move or get rid of one of your cards.
Wrap Up
Our characters are starting to become more real! We are also expanding on our story outline. But I want to close with this: while we my get invested in a story, we only really care about the story if we care about the characters. Set up your story now so that we are developing these characters to stand out.
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