A few weeks ago on the Story Grid Editor Roundtable Podcast, we had a listener question about how to develop characters. That’s not a storytelling principle we’ve spent any time talking about here on the podcast, but it’s certainly something we’ve studied in our own practices. Our regular episodes are so packed with information that we only have a few minutes to answer questions, but we thought this one was worthy of further study.
The question, simply put, is how do we develop characters?
There are lots of character sheets floating around—Scrivener even has one. But those things are focused on the external and superficial aspects of a character. We need to focus on who the character is on the inside because the truth is that characters aren’t developed, they’re revealed.
As Valerie began working on her novel, she developed a new type of character sheet to help her discover who her characters are. There are seven key points to consider when developing a character, and the first one is objects of desire.
What does the character want and need?
Why do they want and need these things?
What’s standing in the way of them getting it? (In other words, what are the forces of antagonism at play?)
Download Valerie’s Character Sheet Template here.
Join us next week for another episode in which we’ll all deepen our knowledge of story and level up our craft.