Character Development

~~~This one's a toughie - so many people have so many different ways of presenting their characters to the audience so it'd be hard to track each and every one so I'll do the main ones. To start, I shall have my personal favourite: introducing characters in the middle of the scene.

This technique is called in media res and involves bringing the reader directly into the action though it must be used with caution: you don't want your readers to end up confused if too much has happened before the book started.
It is best to choose a scene which shows a little bit about the character, be it a snippet of their personality or perhaps how they act in a certain situation. Maybe you use it as an opportunity to show the characters' appearances.

~~~ If you are going to describe the characters' looks at all within the book (a little detail is always good, we don't need an in-depth description of every freckle) then do it at the start, or within the first chapter at least. I'm sure we all know how disappointing it can be to imagine a character is 5'10" and brunetter, only to find out on page 102 that she is actually 4'11" and platinum blonde.

If you are going to describe your characters' appearances, then you must do it fast so that the reader doesn't have a preconceived image in their minds. A reader is very quick to bring to their mind an image and they will be disappointed if that image is completely wrong.

Use description sparingly because there will inevitably be a moment where intricate detail of a character works perfectly so you don't want to bore your readers by it being nothing new. Try to entwine descriptions of the main characters into the main body of the text rather than have a whole paragraph to say "Her eyes were blue like the sky on a sunny day and her brown hair flowed like a chocolate fountain," et cetera, when you could just say something like "She twirled her dark hair into a bun and jogged down the steps." That way, you are managing to give more information with less words, making it easier for the reader to digest.

A character's physical description can reveal a lot about them so try to incorporate this into your thinking when you are writing. Perhaps the moody man at the station wears his hat over his eyes and holds his newspaper high to obscure his face. This gives the reader plenty of questions and when the reader has questions, they will keep reading to find the answers.

~~~Reactions. This is a biggie. Actions show just fine how a character deals with situations and goes about their daily lives but a major indicator of character is in how they react to people, dilemmas and circumstances. Does the sweet blonde girl fly off the handle when her door key won't work? Is the sour elderly woman the only one to keep her head on when there's a fire? These little things are crucial to show the reader that you character is real. The art of storytelling lies in the ability to convince the reader that you know what you're talking about and that your story is worth reading. Not all of this lies in the characters but it certainly helps to have them as a strong base. The reader needs at least one character to root for.

Lydia