How to Develop Characters for a Novel

Instructions

• 1

  Character Sheet
  
  First of all you need to realize that what characters you require in your novel. That’s based on the theme of your novel. Whether you’re writing a sci-fi fantasy novel or a passionate love story, you need to develop the entire list of characters so you can start working on developing these characters.
• 2

  Develop Character Summary
  
  Once done with the list of characters that you would feature in your novel, you need to describe the characters using just one sentence to explain them. This would help you create the basis for the character, upon which you would build the physical features, personality and behavior of your character.
• 3

  Physical Features
  
  Often we have seen that most writers explain the outlook of a character when they first introduce them in a story. It’s necessary that you draw the outline of the physical features of your character in the mind of a reader to help them create a visual. A novel that fails to induce visualization in the reader’s mind, is a novel that has failed to generate the required impact.
• 4

  Character’s Thoughts
  
  Apart from the dialogues and the physical description of the character, you also need to explain the thoughts of the character to the reader. By doing this, the writer conveys the plot in the same manner to the reader, as the writer had originally perceived. These thoughts can occupy the attention of the reader, making them feel as if really there, watching as it all unfolds.
• 5

  Character Personality
  
  Personality really explains a lot about a person in a story. Whether the character may be on the good or bad side, his or her personality would surely cause the reader to develop a likeness or hatred for the character. We have often witnessed that a bad guy might be liked by the readers because of his attractive personality, which just highlights the importance of it. Decide how your character would perceive things and how would he act or she react to certain situations. Would he be an introvert or an extrovert? Writing about the character’s daily life activities would help the reader understand his personality in a better manner.
• 6

  Character Name
  
  The character name is something that you should focus on at the very last. Sometimes the name is used as a reflection of the character’s personality or history. The name of the character conveys the first impression to the reader. For example, a name like Dudley would surely make you perceive a chubby lad, or a name like Rose would often refer to that of a beautiful girl.