Julia asked Tom Early:

How do you know if your characters are developed enough? I sometimes have trouble with creating characters in my stories and never know exactly how much information I need to know about them before writing the story!

Tom Early This might have more to do with my particular style of writing than anything else, but for me, characters come first, and story comes after. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've originally intended to have a scene go one way, and then realize that no, there's no way Sam (being my most troublesome character) would do that. But that's a decent rule of thumb, at least. Try to see how it would feel to make a character do something that they definitely wouldn't do. If it feels wrong to even begin writing it, that's a good sign.

As far as information goes, however, I try to get a sense for their personality foremost. Since a person's personality is often shaped at least in part by their past, a lot of my characters' pasts don't even get created until it's necessary for the story. But the general template should be there - age, gender, family dynamic, basic personality, and so on.

But to wrap this rambling response up - I only really learn about my characters when I'm already writing the story. Don't let feeling like you don't know every facet of your characters stop you from writing - start your story, and see what happens after!

flag