How to Flesh Out Flat Characters With Just 4 Questions

The minimum viable character questionnaire to develop all your side characters.How do you flesh out a flat character? Create a cast your readers will fall in love with? Make each character realistic, well-developed, and believable?There are tons of character development questionnaires and personality tests and character sketch templates out there.They’ll ask you everything from “What’s your character’s deepest fear?” to “What’s their hair color?” to “What toppings do they most hate on pizza?”But you don’t need all those questions in order to create a richly-developed character. Truly, you don’t.In this episode, I’m sharing the shortest possible character development exercise.I call it the Minimum Viable Character Development Questionnaire. (There are more words in that title than questions in the questionnaire.)You’ll learn:The 4 essential questions you need to answer to flesh out any characterThe most important element of characterizationHow to give a flat, unremarkable cast of side characters unique and memorable personalitiesAnd more!Links mentioned in the episode:Get the Character Arc Worksheet: alicesudlow.com/characterworksheetEp. 18: 2 Essential Questions to Craft a Compelling Character ArcEp. 21: How to Identify Your Protagonist's Want and Need (And Why Those Matter to Your Plot)Send me a Text Message!Support the showRate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts "I love Alice and Your Next Draft." If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more writers through the mess—and joy—of the editing process. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap the stars to rate, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode! Loving the show? Show your support with a monthly contribution »

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