: Re: Problems with character development? I'm 1/4 through my first novel, with a pretty solid 12 page outline of the whole thing. After years of reading books about story structure, I think I have

@Fox6458700

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Finish the book, then go back and look at the characters again.

When I start writing my characters are fairly generic, flat, and frankly cardboard. Character is my weakness, I love plots and ideas.
The crucial thing is that in the second draft, I then go back and add in bits of the colour, life and uniqueness which the characters have only accumulated by the last chapter.
Sometimes this will require changes to the plot (I'll realise that Rachel shouldn't have done that in Chapter 2, it doesn't fit with a part of her character I only realised in Chapter 7), but overall I find this a much more organic and natural process than trying to specify everything about a character before I know them, and as such the results tend to be much more convincing and compelling.

Your mileage may vary, but I think if you're a quarter of the way through without your characters having sparked yet, you're probably more similar to me in this respect than most!

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