Lesson #1: The Importance of Character Development

Think for a moment about your favorite novel. Why do you love it? Does it have a riveting plot that keeps you breathless as you flip frantically through the pages? Does the theme truly speak to your soul and your circumstances? 

Both plot and theme are vital elements that should never be neglected in writing, but ponder this, if you will: would the stakes of that plot have you biting your nails if you didn’t care about the characters in it? Would the full impact of that theme be adequately conveyed if it was lived out by one-dimensional characters? 

The short answer is no. 

Characters must endear themselves to readers

If you want your novel to become someone’s prized, well-worn copy, you must treat your characters as if they were loved ones. They must feel familiar and vibrant. They must sprout from the page, and endear themselves to your audience with their personalities, quirks, and ways of talking. Yes, even villains endear themselves to readers — the good ones at least — just in a different way. If your readers don’t hate your villain, the stakes aren’t as high. If they can’t sympathize with your villain on any level, you have lost the humanization that makes the best villains great. 

If you learn to build your characters with clay rather than merely drawing them on paper — giving them complexities, distinctive personalities, and strong motivations — your readers will deeply invest themselves in the plot. They can make predictions on what will happen because they feel they know what each character might do in a given situation and they will stick around to see if they’re right. When you make readers love your hero or heroes, they want to make sure those characters come out alright in the end. You’ve hooked them, and isn’t that every author’s dream?

Your characters will guide your plot

Understanding your characters also helps you craft the book. Don’t know where the plot should go next? If you’ve properly outlined your characters, as I am going to teach you to do in the lessons to come, you can consult all of that background information and those personality charts and ask yourself, what would this character do next? What might make this character do this? This brainstorming tool can help you take the plot in exciting new directions, and as you grow more familiar with your characters’ beliefs and motivations, your theme will grow a little clearer, too.

In these lessons, I’m going to give you the tools to shape your characters from the smallest details like eye color and food preference; to how they walk, talk, and interact with the other characters; to the ways in which their pasts dictate their futures. 

If you understand your characters inside and out, the writing process becomes easier, and if you love them... well, chances are your readers will love them, too.

Hannah

Recommended Resources

• Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (book)

P.S., If you'd prefer to get all 10 lessons at once, download the ebook version of this course!

Brought to you by Hannah Sandoval

Hannah Sandoval is a freelance ghostwriter and copy editor who has worked on over two dozen manuscripts, and a published author herself. Her guilty pleasures are Rocky Road ice cream and crime TV shows. If you would like to connect with her to discuss assistance with your manuscript or character outlines, check out her Reedsy profile.​

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