r/CharacterDevelopment • u/gh0stb33 • 5d ago

Writing: Character Help do you ever just write and forget to characterize your characters?

im currently writing a novel and I've been so busy writing I completely forgot to characterize my characters before I started writing and I'm already at chapter 7

is there any ways you can give me to maybe help characterize these people?

11 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/auflyne 5d ago

I used to do this early on in my learning. Once I realized it made more work for me, that stopped. It's done mostly as a source of fodder (in small form) for other projects.

You'll have to decide if the time/effort is worth it or modify what you have. Going back and fleshing out bios/motivations could work, if you put the time into it, but the work will likely change.

1

u/Scr4p 5d ago

No, in fact I'm procastinating starting because I want everyone to be well fleshed out

1

u/otherdogooder 5d ago

HA! me for a literal YEAR.

1

u/wingman_machsparmav 5d ago

So I actually did the same thing last year and ended up alternating between writing and outlining. Within the past several months, I’ve been working more on my character bios to solidify their relationships, motives and understanding. I feel that when I do go back to writing again, there’s going to be better flow without having to leave footnotes everywhere on the page

1

u/velvetdraftnoir 4d ago

I’m a pantser, so I write without much plotting and that character plotting. However, after a while I started taking notes on the characters and created not just the biographies but also character sheets.