Character Development Secrets - 7 Steps to Developing Real People Who Bring your Fiction to Life - 2

Part Two: Creating the Past and Shaping the Present

The quality of your characters will form the foundation you desire for a strong story. In this four-part series, we're looking at ways to develop three-dimensional, dynamic, story driving characters. Using the following seven-step framework, you can develop rich, complex, and multi-dimensional individuals:

1) Label their desire essences

2) Label their fear essences

3) Get specific about their past

4) Label their behavior

5) Raise their stakes

6) Don't meddle in their lives

7) Let them play

In the previous article, we looked at the first two steps in this process: 1. Label their desire essences and 2. Label their fear essences.

In this installment, we'll explore your characters' backstories - where they came from - and then determine how their histories shape their behaviors. As we continue to the next two steps, you'll take a great leap in crafting your characters into engaging parts of your story.

3. Get specific with your backstory

Human behavior is made up of a string of moments and the reactions to those moments. A character's present is carved out by her past. Current behavior is a battle between fear and desire, and your character's immediate choices are based on very specific (yet unconscious) experiences from her past

Corey Blake is President of Writers of the Round Table Inc., a unique literary development and author management company that assists best-selling authors, directors, executives, business owners, magazines, publishers and producers in crafting significant written works and bringing them to market. Visit Writers of the Round Table to receive a free quote on how we can help you bring YOUR characters to life!





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