How I Develop Characters (with bonus short story!)

When you start writing a story, it’s important to have a sense of who your characters are, especially your main characters. Who they are, what they want, what their voice sounds like: all of these are important qualities that can make or break a story if you don’t have answers for those sorts of questions.
My process is…well, honestly, it’s a bit all over the place. Since I tend to start my stories with a focus on plot, the characters tend to come second. At that point, it’s more a matter of finding the right characters to fit the plot – what type of a person could go through these events and make it out okay? Sometimes the character is the plot, which makes things a lot more interesting. At a basic level, however, I start with this one question:

How is this character going to grow?

To me, a main character must grow over the course of a story. Some of your side characters can remain completely static, but a main character must be dynamic, evolving. Otherwise they just become this boring blob that never really does anything.
So I start by examining how I intend for them to grow. Sometimes that’s really really easy: if the plot involves heavy character development, then I pretty much already know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it isn’t easy: maybe I’ve just had a vague idea of the character, and I don’t really know how they’ll grow or change over the course of things.

Take, for example, Letti Lunetti. This was very much a story about plot first, character second. I knew that I wanted her to be youthful and inquisitive, but I didn’t know where I wanted her to end by the first story. Would she become hardened after undergoing so much trauma in such a short time? Or would she still maintain her cheerful positivity and believe in the good of everyone?

To process this, a lot of times I write short stories with the characters of them at their beginning and them at their end – it isn’t the same as what’s in the final story, but rather an add-on. I might get the first chapter written to get a sense of where I want them to be at the very beginning, but then I might write a quick story that happens after the ending. This helps to give me a clear sense of not only who they are at the start, but who they will be. Even if the character isn’t in that exact state of mind at the end, it gives me a sense of direction.

For an example, here’s a short story I wrote about the main character for the story I’m presently querying, Legend of Samantha Torres. My thinking was that this took place far beyond the end of her story, so we see a character who is not only more confident, but also better at reasoning through problems and utilizing her powers, even whilst being a bit cocky. Take a look!

Bad Guys Never Learn, Do They?

I woke to darkness and the feeling of leather. Despite the darkness being all-consuming and surrounding me like some sort of vile cloak, the leather was most definitely beneath my hands and feet. Suddenly aware of the fact that I was lying face-down (which is extra-painful, I might add), the soreness of my entire body overwhelmed every other sensation. In pain, annoyed, and mildly concerned, I opened my eyes and tried to adjust to the shadows.

I was standing on what could best be described as a platform of books, melted together to form a solid rock-like surface. I knelt down and tried to read some of the writing, but it was not in any language I had ever seen before.

The platform itself sat in the middle of a dark, tempestuous ocean, with murky-green waters swirling violently around. The sky, too, was violent, with massive holes ripping through the washed-out clouds and swirling into a wretched abyss, from which massive black tentacles reached out and swung lazily through the air. Wide pillars of stone stabbed out of the ocean and stretched high, some even leaning into the holes in the sky. Small black squares of mist rose lazily from the ocean.

I sighed. Great. Another ocean adventure. Only this one seemed a bit less fun than the last, if that were possible.

I checked my insulin pump. By a stroke of luck, I happened to have replaced my insulin the day before – I wouldn’t have to worry about that for a while. My blood sugars were maintaining fairly steady for now, too, which bode well for the things to come. Knowing my luck, however, things were bound to go south.

Though I could see everything around me, and it certainly looked like there was sunlight, I felt as if I were shrouded in darkness, as if the sunlight was not really sunlight but instead a void, sucking all light into it. It was cold, and it was frustrating.

First things first: see if there was a way off this rock. The platform seemed to be gliding along the water, so at the very least I was going somewhere. But I’m not exactly the type of person who likes being directed places, so I immediately began searching for a way to forge my own path.

The platform was moving towards one of the rocky pillars, slow enough that I wasn’t falling over but fast enough that I could see ripples in the water from the platform’s path. Curious, I decided to step close to the edge, thinking I could maybe grab the pillar or climb to the top…

SNAP!

A black tentacle, like those from the sky, darted up from the ocean and cracked like a whip against the edge of the platform. I stepped back and fell flat on my back in the middle of the platform.

Great. Something wanted to keep me here.

I sat for a moment and took stock of my situation. Here I was, Samantha Torres, stuck again in the middle of an ocean. Only this time, there were a bunch of freaky tentacles that didn’t seem to appreciate my existence. Sure, I had my gravity-bending superpowers and could deal some damage, but since doing so would mess with my blood sugars and I was running on limited insulin, would it really be worth it?

Ultimately, I decided to wait it out and pout.

The platform was moving toward another of those large pillars. The pillar itself didn’t seem especially large – maybe ten feet across. Like the platform, it was made of petrified books, melted together to form a sort of rocky formation. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Maybe whichever weird bad guy wanted me dead this time was really into reading?

The platform rammed into the pillar, and a section of it crumbled away and splashed into the grim waters. To my surprise, the pillar was hollow, and considering how the platform had now stopped in its tracks at its edge, I decided to hop inside.

The interior was strange. Sure, the outside of the pillar had been maybe ten feet in diameter, but the inside? Seemingly endless. Some real Doctor Who-type stuff. Tentatively, I entered the threshold, shivering from a chill as I was swallowed up in the darkness.

The hole behind me immediately filled in with more of the stony books. Whatever wanted me here was doing a great job of trapping me. I tried to remain calm. Panicking would not help the situation, if only in part because it could make my blood sugars rise. I needed to conserve as much insulin as possible if I was to get out of here alive.

A scream pierced the air, getting closer as it grew louder and louder and louder until suddenly it was silent again. I closed my eyes and counted to three.

One.

Two.

Three.

I felt my body relax a little. I was okay, for now. Best course of action was to try and find the source of that scream. If someone else was here and in danger, the least I could do was try to help them.

I fumbled through the darkness, unsure of my way. Everything felt cold: the air, the floor, the walls. I shuddered, running my hands along the walls to keep myself from getting too lost. It was in my best interest to try and find whoever had screamed. It had sounded feminine: maybe this bad guy was kidnapping girls in the hopes they would be all cute and helpless?

Boy would he be in for a surprise when he met me.

Suddenly there was a light ahead, stabbing through the darkness like a blade. It took the shape of some sort of orb – the light was dim, but enough to see that I had entered a maze of corridors. I raced towards it, desperately hoping that now my luck might be changing-

Something rammed against me and sent me flying into a wall. I sat still a moment before getting up, dazed, just in time to see some sort of giant monstrous form standing over me. It rose an arm – a tentacle, like those from outside – and sent it slamming down. I rolled to the side and narrowly avoided it, then hopped back up to my feet and ran to the glowing orb. It was hovering a few feet off the ground, but didn’t seem to mind me snatching it and running forward like an Olympic gymnast. The monster was close behind, its roar causing the air to actually vibrate with the force of it.

An idea popped into my head, and I spun around and chucked the orb with all my might at the behemoth, catching a glimpse of a square jaw filled with large teeth. The orb bounced harmlessly off the beast’s head…crap.

Yet all the same, the beast recoiled, retreating away from the light with a hesitant snarl.

I paused to catch my breath, though I couldn’t help a small grin. Now if I encountered more of the bastards, I had a way to fight-

Something struck me from behind, and I was knocked several feet through the air, landing right next to the orb. It took me a bit longer to get up this time; it had really knocked the wind out of me. I groaned. I needed to get up. I had to fight. I had to do…well, something that wasn’t getting my butt handed to me on a consistent basis.

When I was finally able to stand up, my limbs shaking with the effort, I found that I was surrounded. Not just one, not two, but three of the strange behemoths circled around her in the shadows, none of them stepping foot within the radius of the light. They were really weird: their giant square jaw took up most of their body, with four short stubby legs supporting them and two tentacle-arms dragging along the ground. They didn’t seem to have any kind of eyeball, which made their aversion to the light an odd quality.

“Well, well, well,” an old, monotonous voice that spelled this is the villain said. “This one’s a fighter.” The voice was strange, otherworldly; every word was drawn out like a rope, extended for emphasis. I immediately hated it.

“Oh yeah?” I said. “Maybe if you bothered to show yourself, you can find out how much of a fighter I really am.” The mark on my hand flashed a little in defiance. I was ready to kick some ass.

Something stepped into the light. It was…me. A mirror-image of myself stepped just into view. The average build, the athletic swagger, the stunning (if I say so myself) fashion choice…it was all exactly the same. Even right down to the small ankh hanging from a necklace. I did notice, however, that this doppelganger did not seem to have my insulin pump clipped to her waist like I did. Curious.

“My name is unimportant,” the mirror image replied, still maintaining a strangely male voice that creeped me out coming from my mouth. “What is important is that you follow me. Come along.” The other-me turned around and began walking down the hallway, skipping past all the tentacle-beasts as if they were nothing. She paused. “You can take that light with you, if it makes you feel better. It won’t save you.”

Tentatively, I followed, picking up the little orb and following my captor. Truthfully, I was more curious than afraid at this point. If they had wanted to kill me, they could have done so easily. What was the play here?

We entered a large chamber the size of a football field. The path we tread was like a pier, jutting out over a lake of sloshing black water. In the center of the room, at the end of the pier, was what almost appeared to be a portal of some sort, a large stone gateway which opened up into one of the wretched abysses I had seen outside, a swirling tunnel of energy with black tentacles climbing out of it. My doppelganger walked up to it and stopped, turning around and patiently waiting for me to catch up.

“So…what’s all this about?” I asked. I intentionally stopped about midway down the pier, just far enough so that one of those giant tentacles couldn’t get me.

The doppelganger sighed, moving a strand of hair out of her face in exactly the same manner I always did. “I suppose it no longer matters,” she said, her voice now actually sounding the same as mine. It was arguably worse than the weird man-voice from before. “You are here to serve as a sacrifice to the great Nergal. You should be honored. He only chooses young girls with very powerful essences.”

“So he’s a pervert?” I suggested.

She glared at me. “Let’s get on with it before he gets angry. Trust me when I say that it’s better for everyone that he not be forced to do this himself.” Behind her, the swirling abyss rumbled as if in agreement.

I wasn’t particularly willing to just let some dumb creepy god have his way with me, so I stalled some more. “So, what, you just stab me with some big knife, let this Nergal guy drink my innards, and call it a day?” I leaned on my hips and dropped the orb, crossing my arms dramatically. “Sheesh, at least take me out on a date first.”

My doppelganger was not amused. “Don’t be so childish. We throw you into the abyss and let him handle all of that himself.” She flicked her wrist, and the tentacle-beasts began marching menacingly in my direction.

I looked around. It was a pretty wide-open space. Plenty of room to move around. “So, this is an alternate dimension, right?”

“Yes…”

I checked my insulin pump and made sure to bolus a bunch. It was going to be necessary.

“Why do you ask?”

I turned back to the doppelganger, a wry smile on my lips. “I’m guessing y’all don’t get much cable news or anything? The name Samantha Torres, badass diabetic champion, probably doesn’t ring any bells?”

There was just enough time to hear the doppelganger swear profusely in some unknown language before I pumped my fists and two glowing gauntlets of light popped into existence. I grinned. Show time.

The nearest beastie didn’t know what hit it. One moment it was charging towards me, jaw wide open; the next, it was flying through the air, landing with a wet squish into the dark waters. The other two paused, but that didn’t save them; two more punches, and waves of gravity sent them flying off the pier into the waters below. All of them squealed as they sank into the lake. I wondered if they could even swim, and felt a pang of regret.

It lasted only a moment. I spun around to find my doppelganger wielding two Gravity Gauntlets of her own, looking furious at the turn of events. “You dare defy Nergal?” she screamed. “You dare to defy the Dark Lord?”

“Um…yeah.” I shrugged. “If someone goes around calling themselves ‘The Dark Lord,’ I’m gonna defy them.” I sent a gravity blast her way.

She narrowly dodged it, sliding backwards only slightly as the edge of the wave hit her foot. “You insolent little-” She punched forward, and a ripple of energy erupted toward me.

I’ll admit, I hadn’t entirely expected her to actually be able to replicate my powers. The attack caught me off guard, and I slid back a few feet. No matter. Now that I knew she could replicate my powers, it was time for me to have some fun.

I brought my fists together, slamming the gauntlets into each other. The resulting wave of energy sent me soaring up fifty feet into the air, high above the platform. “C’mon!” I called. “You’re gonna have to do better than that if you want to beat me!”

The doppelganger grimaced and attempted to do the same. It was a feeble attempt at best – I am an expert when it comes to these powers, after all – and so she could only manage to fling herself a dozen feet or so above the platform. She also didn’t seem to have figured out how to hover – while I kept my fists clenched, my powers sustaining my position so high up – she just plummeted back to the ground.

That was when I discovered she wasn’t entirely like me. Upon crashing back down on the pier, she sort of became…liquid. For a split second, the legs that looked exactly like mine simply melted, and her torso landed on the surface softly. Then she sprung back up, the legs reforming and looking just as solid as before.

Okay. So this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

She sent herself rocketing up towards me again, this time having figured out how to propel herself up high enough. I quickly stuck out my left index finger and jet slightly to my right. She flew past me, and I half-expected her to just keep going and going into the creepy sky. But, no, nothing could ever be simple; she landed atop the edge of the surrounding wall.

“You shall regret this resistance!” she shouted at me. “You will suffer a million pains for defying the great and terrible Nergal!”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, tell me something new.” I fake-yawned. An angry villain I could deal with – I was used to making people ticked off.

She howled with rage and flung herself at me again. This time, partly out of curiosity, I decided to stay in position, holding out my Gauntlets to meet hers as they came flying in my direction. In my head, I was strong enough and had a better grasp of my powers, and thus she would just, I dunno, melt from the impact?

It’s possible that I was a little overconfident in this instance. As our fists met, it turned out that the force of her propulsion sent both of us flying down towards the murky surface of the lake. Panicked, I spun out of her grasp just a few feet above the waters. Her eyes went wide, and she managed to stop herself only inches from the dark liquid.

I had to hand it to her, she was getting better.

She turned back to me and hissed, firing off a blast of gravity. I avoided it pretty easily, but what I then didn’t expect was to collide full-force with something big, thick, and wet.

A tentacle.

A whole host of tentacles had come bursting up from the water, only to start snapping down at me. No, not just at me. At both of us.

I managed to propel myself higher and out of reach, but the doppelganger was having a harder time of it. The tentacles really wanted to hit something, and she just wasn’t as attuned to the gravity powers as I was. She kept getting flung this way and that – one second she would almost make it out, only to ram against the edge of a tentacle and go spinning out of control. On the one hand, I was glad; she seemed like a right little jerk. On the other hand, she looked identical to me, and it was a little painful watching myself get so beat up.

While I waited for her to maybe escape the oncoming hentai nightmare, I glanced at my insulin pump. Yep, still going strong. I felt a little winded, but the pump had managed to keep my blood sugars in check for the time being.

The doppelganger finally escaped the tentacles, landing on the platform in front of the portal. “Took you long enough!” I shouted helpfully.

Something was starting to happen with the portal – the tentacles that had been coming out of it, swaying as if there was a gentle wind, were now lashing out violently at seemingly nothing, snapping against the air. The swirling abyss, too, seemed to be moving extra-angrily, and a vague shape of something humanoid could be seen. I hazarded a guess that this was that Nergal guy the doppelganger kept going on about. I would need to end this quickly.

I glanced at her. She was standing upright, but just barely. Sweat poured down her body. She could hardly lift her fists up into a fighting position. “You’re not looking so good!” I called over to her, landing gently on the pier.

She glanced down at her fists, where her copy of the Gravity Gauntlets kept flickering in and out like a lightbulb that hadn’t been plugged in all the way. “Wha-what’s happening to me?” She glared up at me. “What’s wrong with you?”

I chuckled and held up my insulin pump. “So I’m gonna go on a hunch here and say that when you copied me, you went ahead and copied all of me. Am I right? In which case, you just inherited a fantastic chronic illness known as Type 1 diabetes! Congratulations!” I gave her a cheeky thumbs up. “Normally this wouldn’t be an issue so quickly, but you know those superpowered badass Gravity Gauntlets that let us fly around there for a moment? Well, those just happen to spike my blood sugars. And unfortunately for you, it doesn’t look like you were able to replicate this bad boy.” I held up the insulin pump again. “So…you’re just slowly dying, dearie. Sucks to be you.”

My doppelganger fell to the ground, moaning. “No! I can’t-I won’t…fail…”

I glanced at the portal. Whatever was coming through was getting bigger. “Hey, you said that the good ol’ Dark Lord likes girls with powerful essences, right?”

Her eyes opened wide. “No…”

“Sorry.” I jabbed forward. A blast of gravity grabbed the fake-me and lifted her up a few inches off the ground, just before launching her into the abyss of the portal.

She vanished from sight, her wailing cry ringing out. The portal seemed to chill out then, the tentacles retreating and waving gently in the nonexistence breeze, the shadowy form in that had been taking shape disappearing in an instant. It was…normal.

I looked around. Everything in this hellish world seemed to have chilled out. At least, as much as a freaky demonic dimension could. Now there was just one problem.

How the hell do I get out of here?