Mastering Character Development: 5 Essential Tips for Your Writing

Are you struggling to develop strong and compelling characters in your writing? Look no further! In this video, I unveil the ultimate guide to mastering character development. These six essential tips will propel you into character genius. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, these six essential tips will transform your characters from one-dimensional to three-dimensional, making them truly unforgettable.
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[@DaveandAngieSmuin]

What challenges do you have with developing your characters?

[@oldguyinstanton]

I've got two intertwined (framing and framed) stories (cf. Princess Bride). Yes, there are problems in character development.
First, my main protagonist/antagonist/villain (it's deliberately vague, depending on your POV) who shows up in both stories is an alien sapient AI program, known as The Presence, who is trying to take over the Earth. I think I can pretty much make "his" attributes up, but it is tough not making them too god-like. Edited to add: what kind of flaws would a self-aware, self-programming AI have?
Second, I'm an old white guy (and pretty much a pantser) and the protagonist for the framing story somehow turned out to be a middle-aged black woman from a poor background, who became a radical firebrand trial lawyer, and is now the owner of an R&D firm she inherited. Not being a lawyer, a black radical, or a CEO, or I have no idea (aside from stereotypes) on how to write her. Her antagonist is the sapient AI, above.
Third, the framed story tells the tale of a hundred foot tall worm-with-tentacles alien who raids Earth with a ginormous starship and abducts a huge number of people. This is somewhat easier, as I can make it up, but this is one confused and clueless worm. His implant is at her wits end with how to fix him.

[@oldguyinstanton]

Thank you for this video. Good advice!

[@DaveandAngieSmuin]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

[@angelabailey9515]

I have a hard time, or maybe just self doubt, with knowing how to get my reader to quickly connect with my main character when first introduced.

[@DaveandAngieSmuin]

Some of the things I've learned to do this is to focus on the internal conflict within your character, introduce your character first, and then plunge the character into terrible trouble as quickly as you can. I hope that helps. This might need to be a new video topic!

[@angelabailey9515]

Yes that is good advice, thank you, and it would be an awesome video!

[@randomspirit]

OMG, now all the beginner writers are settling in to spend a year or more writing character profiles and backgrounds, deciding their childhoods in detail, their favorite food, song, color, sibling spats, parental dynamics, pets, childhood traumas, goals, successes and failures, etc...and if they ever get around to actually writing the story, they'll discover they only need a teeny tiny fraction off all that stuff. LOL

[@DaveandAngieSmuin]

Wow, that's a bit of an over reaction. Taking time to develop the character and back story helps writers create depth and find inner motivations and weaknesses. A few weeks to create a character and back story seems reasonable to me.

[@randomspirit]

@@DaveandAngieSmuinDifferent strokes for different folks. I know people who have taken that kind of advice and gotten bogged down in endless character planning and endless world building that drags on for months, and in some cases, years, and it is an overkill waste of time.
I'm not saying a person shouldn't know a few key things about their characters. What I'm saying is if you're going to make writing advice videos, it's a good idea to clarify and not assume that the more novice viewers will understand that in your mind, you're "only spending a few weeks" on it. Some people can do it in an hour or two, others figure it out while they're writing the first draft and tweak it in revision. But I think most experienced authors would agree that getting so engrossed in the planning that you never start writing the story, is a problem, so they wouldn't advise a novice to learn everything there is to know about their character's background, without also clarifying that there needs to be limits on how deep they go or how much time they put into it. They can always add to it or even change it, later. Nothing is written in stone until you actually publish.