The ability to create believable characters in your writing is essential to set your work apart from others. Nothing can jar a reader out of your story faster than terrible or unrealistic characters. And having an excellent understanding of your characters can help drive the plot of your stories along.
My brother gave me a Masterclass.com subscription this year and it has been a fantastic gift. There have actually been quite a few tips I’ve learned through these classes that can help with character building. Take for instance the class given by Natalie Portman.
Her class is actually on acting. If anyone needs to thoroughly understand a character it’s definitely an actor. Portman has a lesson around understanding your character. One of the things she does is she starts exploring how her character views herself.
She starts to further attempt to look through her character’s eyes and asks additional questions. How does your character view others? What does the character know about how others view them? How does their point of view change in different parts of the story? What does your character actually want? What keeps them awake at night?
Taking time to answer these questions can really help you develop your characters. You might uncover some hidden motivations you didn’t know before.