5 Steps for Developing Fictional Characters

Holly Huntress
4 min readOct 25, 2021

In past posts, I have talked specifically about secondary characters and villains. If you want to check those out, here are the links: secondary characters and villains. Now I want to take a deeper look into overall character development, focusing primarily on the main character. But these tips can be applied to side characters as well! Here are my 5 steps for developing fictional characters.

Step One:

First, in my 5 steps for developing fictional characters, you need to decide what kind of character you want to create. What are their personality traits, what do they look like? You need a good picture in your mind. This will help when you are trying to imagine the situations that they are going to be getting themselves into. Make sure you are creating someone that your readers will care about. If your reader doesn’t care about your characters, they won’t want to keep reading. They don’t have to be perfect, or goody-two-shoes, but some relatable features are necessary. Here are some different archetypes you can draw from!

Next, you should come up with a name. I suggest delving into the world of baby names. I go through a whole bunch of different lists, writing down all the names that stick out to me. If I am writing fantasy, I tend to go for more fantastical names. You can find lists for those too! When I was writing my book, Broken Angel, I knew I wanted my main character to have a name from Greek mythology, so I googled that and Andromeda jumped out at me! It was perfect — and her nickname became Andy. Ever since I read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks, I love female characters who have more “masculine” nicknames (like Ronnie.) I like to break those gender norms and boundaries.

Step Two:

Now that you have a name and an idea who what your character is like, they need some backstory. This is going to explain why they are the way they are! What are the big events that shaped their personality? Are there any traumatic events you want to include? This may also give you some idea of what it is your character needs to overcome in your story. For example, in Broken Angel, Andy experiences anxiety and must deal with the complications that present for her. Your character doesn’t need to have specific health or mental health issues, it could just be a certain trait they need to overcome, like selfishness or narrowmindedness.

Also in their backstory, there should be events that have brought your character to their current predicament. Of course, those events could be happening in real-time — so the conflict may not be known yet. It all depends on where your story begins in your character’s journey. It does not necessarily need to be the character’s own life events that caused conflict, it could be their parents’ actions, or a change in the world (a dystopian society for example.)

Step Three:

Everything in your book should come back to your main character. All of your villain’s actions or secondary characters’ actions should have an effect on your main character’s journey in some way. Otherwise, it may lead you on side tangents that aren’t relevant to your book. This does not mean your villains and secondary characters can’t have backstories! Those most certainly are relevant to your main character because they drove the villain or secondary character to be in your main character’s life.

This will also be what helps to motivate your character. A villain or your secondary characters may push them along on their journey, or they may have the resolve to plunge onward themselves. It all depends on the personality you have given them. There can also be other forces at play that motivate your character, like circumstance or duty they believe they have to uphold.

Step Four:

Your characters (not just the main character) should evolve throughout your story. People do not usually remain unchanged after conflicts or adventures. Even if the changes are subtle, they make your characters more realistic. Think of how the situation your characters have been placed in would affect you. Of course, your characters will be affected differently than you would, but it does help to put yourself in their shoes. Reading your writing out loud can help with that. If something makes you mad, it probably would make your character upset as well. Or, if something feels awkward to you, or doesn’t quite fit — then it will seem that way to your reader as well.

Make sure your character is behaving as their characteristics would dictate them to. If you want to go back and change your character’s traits — go for it! You are the writer, they can be whoever you want them to be!

Step Five:

Have fun! Creating characters is one of the best parts of writing (so I think anyway.) You can put yourself into your characters, or create someone totally out there and different than you ever wanted to be! This is living through writing! Let those arguments play out how you wanted them to go, or have your character be swept off their feet by the fantastical man/woman/person of their dreams. Throw in some dragons, a secret, talking animals, or whatever floats your boat! Be creative, enjoy yourself, and keep writing! These are 5 steps for developing fictional characters, it is up to you to put in the work and bring them to life!

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Holly Huntress

Author and content creator. My books - the Broken Angel series & Unbound - can be found on Amazon!