Posted: February 27, 2024
Character building typically comes before the writing process. Sometimes it comes as you’re writing. You are discovering your character’s dreams, desires, fears, and more, but this is all how they are before the story starts. You’re simply showing more and more of your character to the reader.
[Related Article: What is Character Building?]
Character development is how the character changes and grows as the story progresses. How they’re affected by the plot. They start in one place when they’re introduced, and by the end of the story, they’ve learned a valuable lesson or realized something new—in some way or another, they’ve changed their way of thinking.
Most characters go through some form of development, though not always. Minor characters aren’t often important enough to undergo changes, nor are some side characters. Maybe even your antagonist remains static as an intentional message that change is good, stasis is bad. Voldemort from Harry Potter shows this, as he is evil right from the start, and makes no move to change or grow in any way throughout his life aside from the accumulation of power. Throughout the series is goals remain the same: kill Harry, rule the wizarding world, live forever. He has no development.
You always want to encourage your readers to learn new things and open their minds to different ways of thinking. That’s what makes a brighter future.
That said, not all character development is positive development. Sometimes, characters (often the villains) will change for worse. A shining example of this is Coriolanus Snow from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. This prequel to the Hunger Games series depicts Snow’s fall from grace, and as such, his character development moves in a negative slope. You, as the reader, can follow his actions and understand his thought patterns, but you know that every decision he’s making is a bad decision—and you can do nothing about it.
So how can you help your characters grow? How can you ensure their growth stays consistent?
Take a look at the character you want to work with. Where do they start? Whether they’re introduced at the very beginning of the story or somewhere farther along, consider who they are. What are their beliefs? What do they know about the world? Who do they follow? They may be stubborn; that will make it difficult for them to change. They may be too open to new things, which would make them fickle; the change would be two steps forward, one step back. Keep their temperament in mind as you look toward where you want them to end up.
Have they completed their arc by the end of the book? (If you’re writing a series, what stage do they get to in each book?) If they’re going through a drastic change, the arc may drag out longer, or the character may relapse. If it’s more subtle, you can make the arc shorter (it may not even span the entire book).
Also keep in mind that one step forward (one change) is not the end of the journey. Some people (even in real life) may vow to change, but breaking habits is hard and they may fall into their old ways. These relapses make for good further storytelling, though where the plot ends doesn’t always align with where a character’s development ends.
In the How to Train Your Dragon movies, Stoick the Vast is the chief of the Hooligan tribe, father to the protagonist: Hiccup. He is strong and stubborn. He lost his wife to dragons and has been taught all his life that dragons are the enemy. Hiccup, on the other hand, is weak and scrawny, and while he, too, wants to fight dragons, he cannot fight. Stoick can see no reason to be proud of Hiccup.
The big change is that Hiccup realizes that the dragons are intelligent and not as monstrous as he was led to believe.
Stoick’s attempt at bonding with his son comes when he sends Hiccup to dragon training. This takes place after Hiccup can’t bring himself to kill the dragon he found in the woods. Despite his earlier conviction to kill dragons like everyone else, Hiccup argues with his father that he can’t kill dragons, but Stoick barrels right over him. Stoick’s word is law, and he believes that he’s doing what’s best for his son, so he won’t take “no” for an answer.
However, circumstances arise that Stoick finds out about Toothless and discovers the secrets Hiccup has been keeping. Hiccup is disowned, and Stoick leaves to destroy the dragons on the island. They are outmatched, and it’s Hiccup—along with the new friends he makes—who save everyone from the colossal dragon ruling the Dragon’s Nest.
With this display, Hiccup is able to show Stoick and the rest of the Vikings in the village that dragons are not the enemy, and while Stoick has changed his viewpoint for the better, he still relapses.
In the second movie, five years later, Stoick has overcorrected. He still believes he knows what’s best for his son, and while he has become openminded to the dragons, he still does not listen to his son. He is determined to appoint Hiccup the new chief of the tribe, and he doesn’t allow Hiccup to argue his point of reasoning with the new enemy, Drago—a man with an army of dragons.
As you can see, while Stoick has undertaken an arc throughout the first movie, his development is not complete. There are still new lessons for him to learn, and one turnaround isn’t the end—with characters and with real people.
Top 10 Tips for New Writers
Top 10 Tips for All Writers
Top 10 Tips for Writing Captivating Stories
Writing Good Characters
Writing Compelling Villains
Pixar’s 22 Storytelling Rules
What is a First Draft? [writing]
What is Plot? [writing]
What is an Outline? [writing]
What is a Timeline? [writing]
What is Character Building? [writing]
What is Worldbuilding? [writing]
What is Beta Reading? [review reading — pre-launch]
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