I am a big fan of character development. I think most people are, too. But I wonder sometimes if our perspectives are a bit different when it comes to this concept. People obviously love characters in general. A lot of people will keep reading or watching a series because they care about the characters and what happens to them. There can be a great plot, a whirlwind of problems and challenges, and one twist after another in any series. But if I don’t care about why this is affecting anyone, then I don’t want to commit to it.
What do you think of when you hear the words character development? I think of time. I imagine how you have journeyed with this person through their ups and downs. After all, time is what makes the word develop different than the word change. Change can happen in an instant, but developing takes a bit more concentration.
That is my perspective on characters. Do I want to spend time with them? I ask myself.
Another perspective people may have is, can I relate to this character? Most people understand that there is usually a wide variety of characters, so you wouldn’t expect them all to be like you. But are you able to understand their motives? If a writer doesn’t think that’s important, people can be turned away from their work. I’m not saying that we need to dive into the mind of every single character. But the ones who are the focus, how can I relate to them? That is a question many people have.
Very much like that perspective, is one that many people think is important: is this character realistic? Do they react in a way that a person would react? Can I see the influence of real life in this person’s actions? Do they express realistic emotions?
These three concepts, time, being relatable and being realistic, are all very close in nature. And they all influence the way we can develop our characters. But I also think that we prioritize as well. Maybe we wouldn’t want to say we do, because overall we know that character development is important. But we will go about it in different ways.
To me, I put the realistic nature as the least priority. Now, I’m not saying that I don’t ever think about the concept. However, I think it is important to remember that we will turn to stories to get away from real life. Hence there are dragons and magic in some of our favorite stories of all time. So of course the worlds we create are full of things we know are not real. However, I think what people are looking for when they like the realistic aspect is the familiar sight of human nature. Yes, we want to jump into other worlds and we want to see how far imagination can take us. But still have a subtle tug in our minds back to reality. And seeing some of ourselves in the characters satisfies that. Personally though, when I am writing my characters, their realistic nature is not always on the top of my list. This is only because I think about a lot of the characters I enjoy. Many of them are crazy, inhuman or something that I know is not of this world. It’s just a different way to look a the nature of characters. You may not like the fantastical take on certain concepts, and that’s okay.
I think that being relatable is very important as well. This is so close to the other perspective that it might be almost the same concept. The difference here is that I think it usually sticks to one person in a series. Many times, someone’s favorite character is the one that they relate to the most. It’s hard sometimes to like characters who’s motives you find wrong or ones you don’t understand. But if you find that one characters who just seems to “get you,” that’s what can make a series awesome!
And finally, the most important thing to me is time. It takes patience to develop characters, so even though I’m normally an impulsive person, when it comes to writing I have to call time my friend. Sometimes my characters aren’t ready to do something I want them to do. Or sometimes they are stronger than I initially thought they were. What matters is that my time is worth watching them grow. Seeing how they have changed, for better or worse. And I will admit, that is how we see people in real life too. Time can affect our friendships and our relationships. It is the same for characters.
More to come in later posts.