Tag: psychology

As a researcher and perpetual student, some of the best tips I have learned about character development is to make a chart (for me that is Excel). We have all heard about making our characters three dimensional. What does that mean? I believe this means taking in all three of the “dimensions” of a person and understanding exactly what makes them tick. That is what makes them come alive to our readers, makes them laugh, cringe in terror or brings them to tears. A chart is a great reference point to go back to as you are writing for you to keep the dates in order, the color of that person’s hair or eyes, his mannerisms. If Character A was this age when . . . , then Character B had to be ____ age. Create three sections to your spreadsheet for each character. You will need to go deeper in depth with your protagonists and antagonists, but even the secondary characters will benefit from referencing a chart. For example, I did not realize that I had all the men in one story with the same color eyes and hair until I made my chart. Oops. Needed to change that up. Was this helpful?