Character Development

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A few different pens with multiple colors and tips exposed as a form of creative writing tips

5 Essential Creative Writing Tips 

Whether you’re brainstorming your first story or publishing your ninth book, there comes a point when all writers wonder the...

A man at the edge of a cliff looking out over ostensibly a big drop below

How to Write a Cliffhanger

A cliffhanger is not a trick, but a promise. As a storyteller, you want to grab your reader’s attention and...

An apple core being dismantled by a machine crank to suggest that theme ideas can be gotten to mechanistically with our blog

Theme Ideas: Finding the Core Your Story

Theme ideas aren’t something tacked on to the end of a story. They are central to the narrative, and woven...

An image inscribed "start now" to suggest that writing motivation tools are offered within the blog for immediate inspiration

Writing Motivation

Have you ever found yourself staring at the blank page and waiting for the spark, but it doesn’t come? So...

A child reaching into a hat to suggest play in the magician archetype

The Magician Archetype: Characters Who Transform All They Touch

The Magician archetype is a character who comes into the story and transforms everything. They don’t wield a specific authority...

Image of a door with the number 7 next to an opened door to suggest elements of fiction with a sense of mystery and invitation

7 Elements of Fiction: How to Build a Story

Have you ever wondered why some stories stay with you, while others fade from memory before you even close the...

Inflatable characters projected here are notations of the various types of characters that one may concoct in the goal of strengthening a story, notes of ancient folktale
Blog
Alan Watt

Types of Characters

Sometimes, when we’re first assembling our cast of characters, they feel static or formulaic. This happens when we approach our characters as

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A series of characters that are meant to be used as tattoos demonstrate the idea of character ideas
Blog
Alan Watt

Character Ideas

The best character ideas do not arrive fully formed. They arrive as a series of questions. Who is this person? What do

Read More »
Hands developing film as a visual metaphor for character development
Blog
Alan Watt

Character Development

Audiences love a great plot twist, a thrilling action sequence, or a quiet revelation, but without real character development they will start

Read More »

Recent posts

A child reaching into a hat to suggest play in the magician archetype

The Magician Archetype: Characters Who Transform All They Touch

The Magician archetype is a character who comes into the story and transforms everything. They don’t wield a specific authority...

Painting of Antigone used for tragic hero examples

Tragic Hero Examples

You might think of a tragedy as just a sad story. A tragic hero, however, is not simply unlucky or...

Inflatable characters projected here are notations of the various types of characters that one may concoct in the goal of strengthening a story, notes of ancient folktale

Types of Characters

Sometimes, when we’re first assembling our cast of characters, they feel static or formulaic. This happens when we approach our...

A hand reaching out toward pages spilling into the air suggests a distance from the work that is mended by personal growth

Personal Growth in Writing: Transforming Both Characters and Yourself

I believe that the desire to write is, to some degree, about personal growth — the unconscious desire to evolve....

A woman being given a drink by a nurse to suggest the classical example of the caregiver archetype

The Caregiver Archetype: Writing the Character Who Loves at Their Own Expense

A Caregiver archetype is someone who keeps everyone else in the story together. They are the ones who are insightful...

An elderly man at a chess game to suggest antagonist examples in relative position to the protagonist

Antagonist Examples: The Characters Who Force Heroes to Change 

If your protagonist’s journey seems to lack energy, they may not be experiencing worthy antagonists. The stereotypical view of an...

When the Main Character is the Villain

Have you considered writing a story where your main character is the villain? You might think, “But doesn’t my protagonist...

A lion in the Serengeti depicted here to convey a visual of the ruler archetype as naturally alluded in folk story

The Ruler Archetype: Writing the Character Who Holds the World Together or Tears It Apart

When a Ruler archetype character enters a room, the atmosphere instantly changes. Not because of what they say or do,...

A featured image for a list of strengths conveys a visualization of physical strength as one quality among many for the protagonist to have

List of Strengths for Character Development: Creating Characters Readers Remember

Writers instinctively know that a character’s flaws drive the story, that the crack in a character’s foundation is what the...

Image of Frank and Jesse James to suggest that the trickster archetype exists in fiction as it does borrowing from the real world

The Trickster Archetype: Writing the Character Who Changes Everything by Breaking the Rules 

The Trickster archetype is the character who enters and immediately makes everyone uncomfortable. They say the thing no one is...

A woman with an umbrella looks sullenly into a window of a storefront to provide internal conflict examples

Internal Conflict Examples: 3 Powerful Ways to Create Character Transformation 

If your narrative drive is stalling, your protagonist could be missing the most vital engine for character transformation: a powerful...

Characters drawn on papers suggest that character sheets are physical illustrations that offer details that just characterize something

Character Sheet Template: The Secret Tool for Creating Unforgettable Characters

A character sheet template can be the difference between a character who feels real on the page and one who...

Photo of a heroic statue suggesting the hero archetype in a myth context

The Hero Archetype: Building a Character Worth Following 

One of the oldest and most enduring patterns in storytelling is the Hero archetype.  All stories require a main perspective...

The Creator Archetype: Writing the Character Who Builds, Breaks, and Burns 

The Creator archetype is someone driven by their imagination, vision, and a need to bring something new into existence. Think...

A series of characters that are meant to be used as tattoos demonstrate the idea of character ideas

Character Ideas

The best character ideas do not arrive fully formed. They arrive as a series of questions. Who is this person?...

Sage archetype visualized here by a swami with a book in hand, statue, portrayal of ethos

The Sage Archetype: The Gift and Burden of Knowing 

We’ve all read stories with a mentor figure The elderly woman who lives at the outskirts of the village and...

Hands developing film as a visual metaphor for character development

Character Development

Audiences love a great plot twist, a thrilling action sequence, or a quiet revelation, but without real character development they...

A woman, incognito, has a computer in hand outside by a staircase to suggest character vs. technology conflict

Character vs. Technology Conflict

Every tool we build changes the hand that holds it, and Character vs. Technology tells the story of that change...