Character development

Character development =The change in characterization of a dynamic character, who changes over the course of a narrative.
Oh yea…I’m on to the big things now. *LOL* seriously though, this is a hard to thing to master and sometimes…you just don’t want to. You just want to plow along and get the story written and forget everything else. Unfortunately for you types, this is an important, integral part to any story that is written. ANY story.
If your character does develop or grow, the story stagnant. Who wants to really read a story about a jackass who stays a jackass? Or a wimp who never grows a backbone? Or even the über housewife who never learns to leave the house and be her own woman and make mistakes? All these stories would just collect dust if nothing ever happened to them, if they never learned to live so to speak. As a beginning writer, it’s hard to master this step, to be able to see from above how your characters change. As the writer, you are in the story with them, living through what they do and how they feel.

Which can be used to your advantage. This is how development comes naturally, how people learn to ‘master’ it in a way. As you write the story, you have to realize that every page, every word, your character is growing, becoming someone else. The mean grumpy old man is becoming nicer, easier to be with. Not that he has to change completely, that just doesn’t work. But he has to have a spot, someone or a something that brings a smile to his face that wasn’t there in the beginning. The workaholic that thought he didn’t want kids finds himself slowly falling in love with an orphan he found shivering on the sidewalk. Some of this is cliché, but you get the drift.

In a way, this is how you as a person would relate to changes in your life. Would you grow, adapting and changing, or would you dig your feet in and refuse all attempts at newness. If that’s the case, then there has to be a damn good reason for it. Even then, once the reason is acknowledged, the change begins. The person starts to see how the reason no longer fits, how out of date it is, how stifling the reason has become. They evolve. Slowly, but surely.
Even villains evolve, though we as readers are loathe to admit it. They become either colder or warmer, but never fully good. They may even have soft spots, something that makes them almost human, that helps them develop into a different person, another character.

All of this is natural, which I know at times it hard to see. It may even become hard, if you think about it too much or too hard. You can force it, but it may come across as just that. Forced and difficult. Though at times, this may work for you. If the situation calls for the character to make rapid developments, then work it the best you can.

Just as you as a writer or a person have developed (hopefully) so too must your characters.

Any thoughts? Let’s discuss this.