Someone recently asked about character development and I remembered this blog post by c-is-for-circinate. I’ve used the following questions from that post for all my protagonists and antagonists since writing my debut novel:
C’s Five-Point Process For Figuring Out Multidimensional, Plot-Relevant Characters
- What did this person want, before everything began?
(This isn’t one thing. This is a list. Everybody wants lots of things. Think about how much your character wants stuff. Think about priorities. They wanted to conquer the world. They wanted a bowl of ice cream. Which one did they want more? What was more important? Remember to include things your character doesn’t even consciously think about wanting.) - How did they intend to get it?
(‘They didn’t intend to get it at all’ is a completely valid answer for all kinds of things your character wanted. ’They didn’t think they could’ or ‘they wanted this other thing more’ are all real. ’They weren’t sure’ is a little bit incomplete—were they trying to figure out a plan? Were they waiting to see what came along? ’Trying to plan’ and ‘waiting’ are both choices and action plans. Remember that even a character who does very little is choosing, constantly, to do that.)
[EVENTS TRANSPIRED] - Now what do they want?
(How is this different from #1? What shifted? How do they feel about that? Are they resentful? Scared? Excited? Resigned? Relieved? What priorities have completely dropped off your character’s radar? What new things have come up? How much of that are they conscious of themselves?) - How do they intend to get that?
(They don’t need to make a full-on action plan right away. Reflexes count here too. Just like a goal can be unconscious, so can a reaction. Is a plan from before going to be backburnered? Is something previously filed as ‘unattainable’ suddenly attainable?) - How do those actions affect the plot?
(This one is super, super important for creating a character that feels relevant and has agency. They don’t have to get what they’re after. But your character is going to want something, and take action to want something, and those actions should have material consequences, not just for that character but for the story as a whole. This is one problem that female characters often have—they make other characters’ difficulties harder or easier, but their actions do not actually change the outcome of events.)
It seems simple but it’s soooo powerful. You really get to the heart of the character arc. There will be a lot more character work to do after answering the questions but these five questions are a great start.
BJ Sikes, author 