harmonyinkpress:

• Know where they’re coming from.

• A character profile can help define influences,
  values, motivation.
• Background history shapes the character’s
  present and future actions.
• Three-dimensional characters have both strengths
  and flaws.
• What is the character’s core problem or desire?

• Get readers to care about the character.

• Show them struggling with issues and tough
  choices readers can relate to.
• Show the effect their actions (positive or
  negative) have on the character.

• What is the character’s motivation?
• Tie in to their background and what’s important
  to them.
• Use cause and effect to make the character’s
  growth realistic and believable.

• Let them face both internal and external
  obstacles.
• External:
  fired from their dream job
• Internal: Longs
  for revenge on the evil boss who fired them.
• Internal challenges can be more important than
  external ones.
• You can’t control your environment, only how you
  react to it.

• Development happens over time.
• Avoid last-minute, deathbed conversions that
  come out of nowhere.
• Change often isn’t linear—one step forward, two
  steps back