Character development checklist — for crafting memorable characters

1. Start with strong character foundations

Character foundations are the core pieces that shape their actions. It’s these details that make characters believable and relatable to readers.

To create your character’s foundations, start here:

• Define your character’s goals and motivations: What is it that drives and motivates them?

• Consider their backstory and personality: a rich history and strong personality traits will influence their decisions and actions throughout your story.

• Decide on their flaws and strengths: flaws are what make characters relatable and strengths give them heroic qualities.

Tip: You can use a character questionnaire to fully explore your character’s background, beliefs, and goals. Questions might include things like: "What is your character’s biggest fear?" or "What would they never forgive?"

2. Create realistic relationships

Relationships with other characters are important for the protagonist's development. Relationships create opportunities for conflict, growth and reveal deeper aspects of the character’s personality through their interactions.

How to create realistic relationships between characters:

• Develop a shared history: Give characters backstories that strengthens their bond or creates tension.

• Use dialogue: By incorporating imperfect or interrupted conversations, conversations can feel more natural.

• Show mutual growth: Allow relationships to evolve through challenges, trust-building and conflict.

• Include small, meaningful gestures: Focus on nonverbal cues like a knowing look or comforting touch.

• Incorporate flaws and disagreements: No relationship is perfect, so include arguments and misunderstandings.

• Show the reality of complex emotions: Characters can feel more than one emotion toward each other at the same time.

Tip: Try creating a visual mind map of your character’s relationships, desires and internal conflicts to see how they all connect to the overall story.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

Reveal your character's thoughts, emotions, motivations and growth without explicitly telling the reader. This makes for a more engaging and interesting story.

How to reveal information without telling:

• Use dialogue, specifically tone and vocabulary to show the character’s individuality.   

• Share their internal monologue to show more of their personality and worldview.   



• Reveal through their actions. How characters act under pressure says a lot about them.

Tip: Use a character journal to develop your character further. Write a journal entry as if you were your character to help you understand the thoughts and feelings they might be experiencing.

4. Create characters readers care about

You can create characters your readers actually care about by making them relatable and vulnerable, and showing their personal growth over time.

How to build an emotional connection:

• Give characters relatable struggles, flaws and vulnerabilities that readers can identify with.

• Show their humanity through moments of self-doubt, perseverance or moral dilemmas that reveal their depth.

• Allow them to grow over time, learning from mistakes or overcoming hardships, as this personal journey resonates with readers.



• Use shared emotions, like grief, love or fear, to create connections between the character and the audience

Tip: Think about the characters in your favourite books, what is it about them that you like so much?

5. Developing antagonists and supporting characters

Antagonists and supporting characters are crucial for the character development of protagonists. They provide conflict and challenges that force the protagonist to confront their weaknesses and ultimately evolve throughout the story.

When creating supporting characters remember:

• Give antagonists their own motivations rather than making them a one-dimensional bad guy. By fleshing out the antagonist’s perspective, the story becomes richer, as their actions are driven by more than just the desire to cause harm – they have purpose, which makes their conflict with the protagonist more impactful.

• Give side characters their own engaging story arcs. Side characters with distinct personalities, backstories and desires enrich the protagonist’s journey, while standing out as individuals within the story.

Tip: Try a role reversal exercise. Put your character in a completely different role or situation (e.g. a villain instead of a hero) to see how they would react.

Have further character development questions?

If you’re feeling stuck with your characters and unsure how to move your story forward, you may benefit from book coaching.

When you’re so invested in your story and familiar with the material, it’s difficult to have an objective perspective. That’s where I can help!

With my book coaching clients, I’m able to give personalised support to help them refine their novel and bring their characters to life.

As your book coach, I’ll be your biggest cheerleader, collaborator and sounding board for all your ideas. I’ll encourage you every step of the way to help you achieve your writing goals. You can click here to learn more about book coaching.