There’s always the discussion about what’s more important, the plot or the characters.
No matter which side you agree with, the character development is important to any story. If your reader doesn’t connect with the characters, they’re not going to care what happens to them in the story.
Writing relatable characters takes work. Here are a few tips.
– Create a character document. Give each character their own section. List their physical characteristics, age, height, weight, hair color, eye color age, skin color, and any distinguishing marks.
-Next list education, family, siblings, occupation, marital status or relationships, likes and dislikes, religion, hobbies, vehicles, favorite food, favorite color, clothing likes, and styles, etc. Anything you can think that helps you know and write about that person.
-Now expand your descriptions with internal and emotional information, their goals, fears, desires, successes, and losses, addictions, any that help round out the character shows how they might react to the various situations you might put them through.
-Then do an interview. Most writers interview their characters. You can write your own questions, or google and you’ll find questions of all types from 2 or 3 pages to ten or twenty pages. Listen to the answers but also the tone of voice, pauses, anything that can give you an insight into the character. The above are ideas and hints. Get to know your character. You need to be able to write them like you’ve actually met them and spent time with the person.