A/N: Upon request, here is my 'how to' with character development

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I would argue, that character development is one of the most important things in a story. Not only must you construct a baseline for your character, but you must also determine where your character will end up.

Character development can be broken into these simple steps:

1. Personality

2. Interaction with others

3.  How changes affect your character

There are two ways I generally go about creating my character's baseline. The first is 'using inspiration'. When I refer to inspiration, I am referring to pictures of text I have read previously. This means I see a piece of art or a photograph and I convince myself this character would be perfect for my story. In the new work I have published (along with Raelyncrasher) "Dose" we used several inspiration photographs to create our main character, Ambrosia.

These baseline does stretch further than just the inspiration, however. A large part of what makes your characters is their interactions. Is your character sarcastic? Then their dialogue should reflect this. Whether that be conversations with another character or snarky inner dialogues to show for it.

In the case of Ambrosia, she is worried in her first chapter. She fears death and she calls her mother. To show how worried she is, she keeps it to a short discussion on the phone because she longs to see her family in person. Now this tells the reader two things: she is family-oriented- proving she cares about them a lot, and she is scared and not in control of her situation. These are key points in the story as it gives us room for character growth.

Character growth can be either positive or negative. Along the way, different scenarios are presented to characters to test them in someone. Whether that be a romance with a sudden love interest introduced or a Scifi with a secret government plot that they uncover. Your character's reactions create the story. When you come to this point it is important to make a few mental notes about your character

1. What would they like to do?

2. What can they do?

3. What do they actually do?

Describing your character's motives and actions isn't always simple. For example, you might have your characters held captive. They would LIKE to kick in the guard's teeth and escape. Well, obviously, this is not always plausible, and this would provide an excellent inner dialogue. 

'I wish I could kick in his yellow teeth'  I thought bitterly as I tugged at the tight restraints.

However, they CAN take some form of action. This can either be action or inaction. If the character has restraints, they CAN do very little. They can't bust out unless they have super strength, but the can interact with other things to be set free. Maybe they wait patiently for the guard to pass close by. Perhaps they entice the guard closer with taunting words. 

'I wish I could kick in his yellow teeth' I thought bitterly as I tugged at the tight restraints. I decided to settle for the old fashioned route, insults.

 "Your mom is a whore."

This would rile up the guard causing them to walk over, provided they are a mommas boy, which is another important thing to note: What are the other characters like?

This is a perfect example of how your character can not only be affected by other forces, but they can also interact with the world around them. This provokes action which leads to another decision on your character's behalf. Now your character has acted on what they can do (taunt the guard) in the situation after clearly expressing why they can't do something else (the restraints). This provokes action OR inaction from the guard. If he is a mommas boy he will confront your character. If he is an orphan he will likely ignore their insults.

 Provided the guard attacks, then your character is left with more options. They can now repeat the steps and determine what is feasible in their current situation. Maybe your character is nimble. They could kick the guard now that he is closer (this would also elicit joy from your character because they were able to do what the previously wanted to). Maybe the guard is knocked out and the character can reach the set of keys with their toes. This is all dependent on the limitations of your character

The biggest mistake I have seen in new writers is invincible characters. Everyone has a limit. The only exception to this rule would be God. The story has to have a conflict that the character must overcome. IF none is present you might want to reevaluate your entire story. 

One example that I have seen a lot is in fight scenes. If your character is a skilled fighter, maybe add something like 

I dodged the well-placed blow. My ten years of vigorous training were finally paying off.

This tells us a few things: The person they are fighting is also skilled, and the character has trained for 10 years (implying that they are more skilled than the other fighter). It is imperative, that your character takes some blows in these scenes. Maybe it was a weak hit, or it just barley grazed them, but nobody likes a one-sided fight. 

You want to make the reads say "What! No! Hit him back, make him pay!". If your character never gets hurt or is never in any apparent danger, then the reader will become bored with these scenes as your character will likely win.

To summarize, a lot goes into character development. Keep in mind how various things will come across to the reader and how these things affect your character's future. Will they experience positive growth as they meet various battles that eventually make them stronger? Or will they experience negative growth where they are scared of the world and never want to return to their heroics?