By Steffanie Costigan

Feb. 28, 2024

Whether or not you are reading or watching a movie. A character’s personality, choices, actions, and development can make or break a story especially when it comes to a series. Just as plot holes can be irritating to a reader so can holes in the character development. 

There are times in some stories when it is too obvious a character made a choice or took an action that went out of the personality of the character to convenience the story to move along. This is why in character development it is important to plan out your character’s personality before deciding on the plot. Your character’s personality will be a crucial part of developing a story’s plot. 

I have been writing and planning out my novel Land of the Dragon since I was 12 years old, and I have had to backtrack so many times changing and re-strategizing my plot because in order to move things along the character would have to do something out of their personality. 

That is when I realized there was a much easier and more strategic way to go about blossoming my character’s development in the fullest and importantly keeping the character’s choices throughout the story consistent with their personality. 

I started to research personality types. My favourite place to research personality types was the 16-personality test that gave great detailed descriptions on varying personality types it broke the different types down explaining personalities love life, relationships, weakness, strengths, career paths, etc. 

This was a great guiding tool that aided me greatly when developing not only my character’s personality but also, the role each character would play within my story and keeping them within their character. 

Another tool I used to paint a clear picture of my character’s feelings was music. Finding the right music to help me focus on their feeling in varying situations really gave me a taste of what the character was feeling during a particular moment. 

This may sound silly to some but a great tool actors use in getting in character is costumes. Mainly in my teen years as a writer I would dress up as a character and write in their perspective. Visual art is important to be able to see your characters in somewhat of a physical form helps to fine-tune the details of your character. 

At one point I had a whole cast of around 100 different friend’s voice acting my whole book out which also really brought to life the characters and story. There are so many creative ways to ensure your character is blossomed to their fullest potential the next step is to keep them in each series to the level they were last at. Keep the growth and expand your character more, be careful not to bring them back to the start of where they were at. 

“In order to write about something, you need to take the time to experience it, to feel it, to surround yourself in the moment.” ~ Steffanie Costigan

Sometimes the best way to colourfully share your character is to find opportunities and moments to put yourself in their shoes. Land of the Dragon has a lot of raining scenes. Every time I saw an opportunity when it would rain, I would go outside sit in the rain close my eyes and just take in that moment to observe the feelings of the moist touch of each rain drop I felt running down my skin. The fresh cleansing smell we sometimes in the rush of life forget to enjoy.

When I took the time and opportunity to put myself as closely as I could in the shoes of my character, I grew and new understanding and could detail my characters’ feelings and surroundings in the story bringing the reader the illusion they are right there next to my character.