Thread:JeloElducal/@comment-31727837-20181105173619/@comment-26888167-20181109035529

Let's see:

1 - Interactions are gold. Use any occasion your characters can interact with others to make them say something that establishes their personality. How many times have you seen Red Fork talk about his appetite? Have you noticed that Dark Shadow's tendency to be cold, distant and indifferent can be noted by his lines? Take advantage of interactions to establish a character's personality.

2 - Before you make a character say something, ask yourself: "Does this sound like something this character would say?"

3 - Plan out story arcs for your characters. Perhaps one of your characters has a great weakness, but will learn to overcome that weakness throughout the series. For example, Orange Cookie is terrified of humans, and basically anyone who would eat her. How about turning that into her story arc?

4 - Try to see the world from everyone's eyes. Try the following exercise. Write a scene where two of your characters interact, antagonize each other, but neither of them is truely right or wrong. Try writing the scene from one character's point of view. What does this character think of the other character's actions? What does this character think of the situation? Now write the exact same scene, but from the point of view of the second character. How does this character see the situation? Does the situation seem different now? Ideally, each character should have their own mindset, their own way to see the world around them. That's key to well-developed, three-dimensional characters.

5 - Everyone is the protagonist of their own story. Even minor characters are protagonists in the story of their own lives. To develop them better, try figuring out more about their lives. Write scenes about their lives, let them be the protagonists now. That way it'll be much easier to see what your character thinks, what he/she likes and dislikes. You'll be able to see how this character sees the world.

6 - Everyone must grow! Every character, specially protagonists, need to have a character arc in which they develop themselves. Compare your characters now to how they were two seasons ago, and ask yourself: how has this character evolved? If you're not sure, then you need to give this character some kind of story arc to himself/herself. Maybe the character has to overcome a weakness? Maybe the character is growing in strength and at the same time is becoming more mature? Perhaps the character has to deal with some kind of emotional injury from the past. All of those and more are valid ideas for interesting story arcs that can develop your characters. Jsut remember: No character should grow entirely in a single episode. You need to expand the story arc across many episodes. Some story arcs can last half a season, an entire season, or even several seasons. You choose.