How To Learn New Things About Your Characters

If you’re like me, when you sit down to write a story, you have a pretty good idea of who the main character is. But because they’re the main character, they don’t always get to be surprising or exciting.

So how can you make sure that your characters are as interesting and dynamic as possible?

We’ll start by looking at ways in which writers can learn more about their characters, before moving on to some specific exercises designed to help you really understand your own protagonists better.

7 Character Development Exercises – YouTube

Takeaways
1. Continuously explore your characters’ backgrounds, motivations, and aspirations.
2. Put your characters in different scenarios to observe their reactions and decisions.
3. Allow characters to surprise you by deviating from your initial plans.
4. Engage in freewriting exercises to uncover hidden facets of your characters.
5. Interview your characters as if they were real people, asking them about their experiences and thoughts.
6. Embrace the process of discovery to enhance your characters’ depth and relatability.

Table of Contents

Give Them A New Skill Or Ability

This is one of the most popular ways writers introduce a new character, especially when they’re working on an established series.

A great way to do this is by giving your character something special that makes them stand out from the rest of the cast like if they can speak to animals or have super agility or have magic powers! Whatever you choose for your character, make sure it suits their personality and backstory.

For example, when I was writing my first novel about a group of friends who discover their parents are superheroes, I needed some way for them all to bond with each other so that readers would understand why these characters were drawn together on their adventure.

So one girl developed telepathic abilities after being exposed to radiation from an alien spaceship crash landing in New Mexico!

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Give Them A New Job

This is one of the easiest ways to give your character a fresh start, and it can be an excellent way to jumpstart their arc by having them enter into a new environment with different people and problems.

If you want to write about how your character has been promoted in their career, consider what kind of work they were doing before, how they got into that line of work, and what they like/dislike about it.

Then think about what might have happened at work that would have led up to the promotion (or demotion). What sort of skills does this new job require? How does it change their relationship with co-workers or supervisors? How does this affect their personal life?

Put Them In A Weird Or Awkward Situation

When you’re writing your characters, try putting them in a weird or awkward situation. This can be as simple as having them do something that they are not used to doing or putting them in a position where they are uncomfortable.

You should also make sure that it’s a situation that they are unprepared for so that they have no idea how to act or react.

For example, if you’re writing about a woman who never goes out without wearing heels and has naturally long hair (like myself).

Then one way that you could challenge her would be to have her lose her purse on the subway during rush hour and get off at the next stop without paying attention because she’s so worried about getting back home quickly before anyone notices she doesn’t have any money on hand.

In this scenario, it’s not just your character who will experience something out of their comfort zone; readers will find themselves in unfamiliar territory too!

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Give Them A New Pet Or Animal Encounter

If a character is going to trip and fall, it’s best if they have something to land on. If your character is going to have a near-death experience, make sure they don’t just get pushed off a cliff give them the chance to grab onto some roots at the last second.

If your character is going through some intense emotions or an internal struggle, give them an animal encounter that helps them through it. Animals can act as catalysts for change in many ways:

By providing comfort or joy when we need it most
By helping us find our true selves again
By teaching us something new about ourselves
By showing us how we feel about things

Take Away Something Important To Them

When you want to learn new things about your characters, it’s important to take away something important to them. If you give them something new, then they can begin exploring their world with a fresh perspective.

You can give your character a new skill or ability (for example: if they’re good at baking, have them make a cake). You can also give your character a weird or awkward situation (like having them perform as an acrobat in front of strangers).

You could even put your character into an unfamiliar environment like outer space or on another planet!

To take away something from your character, try changing their physical appearance by giving them an injury or illness that requires treatment;

Maybe they get fired from their job and have no money left over anymore; maybe they lose the love of their life through death or just because they weren’t compatible anymore…

Change Their Physical Appearance

If you’re looking to learn more about your characters, changing their physical appearance can help. For example, if you want to know what a character would look like with red hair or if they have freckles, just change their hair color and see how you feel about it.

You could also change their skin tone or eye color. This is a good way to see how different features might affect how others react to them, too and even how it might affect how they react themselves!

Make Them Fail At Something Important To Them

We all tend to assume that, because we know our characters so well, they would never make mistakes.

But real people have flaws and weaknesses as much as they have strengths. It’s when you put your characters into situations where failure is possible that their personalities start to shine through and feel more realistic.

A good way to do this is by making your character fail at something important to them whether it’s something they’re good at or not, if it comes down to the wire, or if it’s something new for them.

If their dream job doesn’t work out and they end up starting over in an industry very different from what they studied in college (or even doing something unrelated), then maybe this was meant for them after all!

Perhaps there was some sort of divine intervention involved in getting them out of their comfort zone and into the right place at the right time…

As always: don’t be afraid of failure! Letting go and trusting yourself will bring great things into your life!

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Make Them Succeed At Something They’re Not Used To Succeeding At

When you want your characters to learn new things about themselves, trying out a different perspective might be the best way to go. Making them succeed at something they’re not used to succeeding at will force them out of their comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory.

This can be as simple as giving them a new job or putting them in a weird or awkward situation (e.g., going on their first date).

Or if you’re looking for something more dramatic, give them a new pet or animal encounter (like owning a dog), take away something important to them (like their cellphone), change their physical appearance dramatically, or make them fail at something important to them (like failing an exam).

Make Their Love Interest Break Up With Them (Or Vice Versa)

If you want to learn about your characters and the relationship between them, make their love interest break up with them (or vice versa).

You can’t control who falls in love with your character and you can’t control who loves your character back. You also don’t get any say in what happens when one person in the relationship decides they don’t want it anymore.

And if you’re writing a romance novel, then I’m assuming that there’s probably going to be at least one breakup scene in there somewhere for both these people which means that it will inevitably happen at some point during your story.

The breakup scene is something I’ve been thinking about lately since I recently wrote one into my novel. The main reason why this scene was important for me is that it highlighted how much my main character had changed over time and not just because of her new haircut!

Take Away One Of Their Senses (Temporarily)

Take away one of your character’s senses and then give them a new sense in its place. Maybe they can’t see, or maybe they have to learn how to smell better.

Maybe they are blinded by the sun all day long! This can be fun if you’re trying to figure out how your character interacts with the world around them.

Give Them A New Sense (Temporarily)

Does your character have an extra sense? Can they hear infrared waves or see ultraviolet light? Try taking that away from them for a while and see what happens when they’re still able to function normally without it; then give it back!

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Give Them A Best Friend (Or Make One Of Their Friends Become Their Best Friend)

Your characters are going to need someone they can rely on. Be it a friend, a family member, or even a pet, having someone who has your back is essential to any character’s happiness and well-being.

Your character could try out for their school’s basketball team or join the debate team; this may require them to learn some new skills and meet new people outside of their circle of friends. If they have no support from their family or friends, this can be very difficult for them.

A bestie will help them through these tough times by offering encouragement and support when needed most!

Besties also make it easier for characters not only to learn more about each other but also about themselves as well!

Besties know what makes us tick (and when we’re being moody), so we’ll open up more easily with our besties than anyone else because everything feels less scary when you have a backup from someone who cares deeply about you!

Give Them An Archenemy (Or Make One Of Their Enemies Become Their Archenemy)

The most obvious way to develop your character’s personality is through their relationships with others. Whether that’s the love interest or a best friend or mentor that they trust and look up to, there are many ways you can use this to create an archenemy for them.

If you’re looking for a more subtle approach, it can be as simple as having someone who was once an ally turn into an enemy over time.

This could be due to jealousy over something else happening in the story (for example, if one character has been receiving more attention than another).

It could also be because of something personal between them (if one character did something wrong by accident and then refused to apologize).

Or perhaps both characters had issues with each other before even meeting each other such as hating each other’s political views and those feelings have only grown stronger since then!

So what do you need from these types of relationships? Well…

Make Someone Important To Them Sick, Injured, Or Die

One way to do this is by making someone important to them sick, injured, or die.

But wait I know what you might be thinking: “But I don’t want my characters to have emotional reactions!” That’s fine. They don’t need to react emotionally (though they will). If they’re not feeling anything at all, then why should we care about them?

Why should we care about their goals and dreams if those things are meaningless in the face of real tragedy?

And that’s where it gets interesting: when your character reacts with indifference or anger toward something terrible happening around them instead of sadness or fear that’s when you can show us who they are underneath all the layers that make up their personality.

Write About An Argument Between Two Other Characters

One way to learn more about your characters is by writing about them in a scene with other characters. First, think about the relationship between the two characters you’re writing about.

Are they friends? Are they enemies? Do they have a history together and/or do they share some sort of common goal or purpose?

Next, describe each character’s physical appearance. How tall are they? What color hair do they have and what style is it in (e.g., short, long)? How much body fat do they have (i.e., skinny vs chubby)? Are their clothes fashionable or dated-looking?

After that, describe their personalities by thinking back on how they’ve behaved throughout the story so far what kinds of things your character say or do when interacting with others at home or work;

How did she react when something bad happened; was she able to keep her cool under pressure etc.? If you still don’t know what kind of person this character is yet then go back into chapter 1 where we first met them and see if anything stood out from before now!

Finally write out all three paragraphs above so that your readers can get a good sense of who these two people are: Who are these two characters?

Then write out an argument between them where one tries to convince another person that he should believe something but ends up convincing HIMSELF instead because no matter what anyone else says there will always be more than one side making sense at any given moment depending upon which perspective we choose over another.”

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Write About Another Character That No One Ever Gets Told About From Your Character’s Point Of View

Write about another character that no one ever gets told about from your character’s point of view.

Why?

This will help you to better understand your characters, as well as what motivates them and what makes them who they are. It will also give you a better idea of where to take the story in later chapters, so it doesn’t feel like everything is happening at random.

Conclusion

It’s hard to know what to say about characters and how they should act in a story. As an author, it can be difficult to understand why certain characters do things or make certain decisions when you aren’t always sure why they would do that in real life.

However, when you take time away from your manuscript or book and just observe people around you, it will become much easier to see how other people react differently than we would expect them to if put into similar circumstances

FAQs

Have questions about character development? Check out some common inquiries below:

How do I develop realistic and compelling characters?

Creating realistic and compelling characters involves understanding their background, motivations, and desires. Consider their strengths and weaknesses, and place them in situations that challenge their beliefs.

What are some techniques to reveal character traits organically in a story?

One effective technique is “show, don’t tell.” Instead of explicitly stating a character’s traits, depict their actions, thoughts, and dialogue to allow readers to infer who they are.

How can I avoid one-dimensional characters?

Give your characters internal conflicts and contradictory traits. This adds complexity and makes them feel more authentic, avoiding the trap of being one-dimensional.

What role does character growth play in a story?

Character growth adds depth to a story. Characters should evolve based on their experiences and challenges, allowing readers to connect emotionally to their journey.

How can I make sure my characters’ motivations are clear to the readers?

Clearly establish your characters’ goals, desires, and fears early on. Show how these motivations drive their actions, decisions, and interactions with other characters.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.