Mastering Character Development: How to Get Your Characters to Spill Their Secrets
The first interview episode of the second season of the Write It Scared Podcast is up, and I can’t wait for you to dive in and learn about a handy tool to unlock your characters’ wants, needs, fears and more, so you can write powerfully character-driven fiction!
Before the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season, I sat down with Michele Regenold, an author and fellow book coach with over 20 years of experience in the writing space, and we dove into the intricacies (and struggles) of character development.
We all know that one-dimensional characters won’t cut it, and we strive to create dynamic and emotionally resonant fictional characters.
We also understand that to do that, we have to figure out what drives our characters to take action and engage in our plots. We have to figure out what they want, what they need to learn, what they fear, and the internal struggles that stunt them.
The million-dollar question is, “How?”
How do we figure those things out?
Some of it may come easy. Their external desire might be pretty obvious, (win the game, get revenge, solve the murder, avoid the ex, don’t die, or whatever), but figuring out the invisible and often unconscious desire or need and what could scare them off of their goals can be tricky. More than tricky.
Cue Michele and her digital character development tool, “Interview for Insight,” which we chatted about. And let me tell you, it works!
This tool is quite simple yet very effective. Last fall, I used it to help get unstuck after I decided to alter my plot and antagonist’s motives, alive a character, and add a new POV. Yes. I felt very overwhelmed by all these seemingly small changes. Ha.
But using Michele’s tool did exactly what it said it would do: it gave me insight into my characters that I just couldn’t find through my usual tried and true methods. I actually needed to get in there and talk to these folks, and not just the major players. Some of the side characters were incredibly forthcoming with information that expanded my understanding of my protagonist and antagonist, and led me to uncover some red herrings I could use for misdirection!
We had such a great conversation. I hope you enjoy it.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred platform.
If you are interested in trying this tool out for yourself, check it out here.
And here are all the links to learn more about Michele!
Email: bookcoach@micheleregenold.com
Website: https://www.micheleregenold.com/
Blog/newsletter: https://www.micheleregenold.com/blog
Writing is hard. Let’s make it easier.
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