Developing the Characters within a Story

Develop your characters:

Your job, as a writer of short fiction--whatever your beliefs--is to put complex personalities on stage and let them strut and fret their brief hour. Perhaps the sound and fury they make will signify something that has more than passing value--that will, in Chekhov's words, "make [man] see what he is like." -Rick Demarnus

Write meaningful Dialogue

Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters lean forward, fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs. -Jerome Stern

Tips on developing your characters:

• Appearance.  Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.
• Action.  Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than simply listing adjectives.
• Speech. Develop the character as a person -- don't merely have your character announce important plot details.
• Thought.  Bring the reader into your character's mind, to show them your character's unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.

      Point of view is the narration of the story from the perspective of first, second, or third person. As a writer, you need to determine who is going to tell the story and how much information is available for the narrator to reveal in the short story. The narrator can be directly involved in the action subjectively, or the narrator might only report the action objectively.

Yourke on point of view:

• First Person.  "Unites narrator and reader through a series of secrets" when they enter one character's perceptions. However, it can "lead to telling" and limits readers connections to other characters in the short story.
• Second Person.  "Puts readers within the actual scene so that readers confront possibilities directly." However, it is important to place your characters "in a tangible environment" so you don't "omit the details readers need for clarity."
• Third Person Omniscient. Allows you to explore all of the characters' thoughts and motivations. Transitions are extremely important as you move from character to character.
• Third Person Limited.  "Offers the intimacy of one character's perceptions." However, the writer must "deal with character absence from particular scenes."

     On your growth chart help your story develop by adding the conflict from the first chapter that you have started writing and write some character characteristics. Like she cracks her knuckles when she is nervous, she likes espresso, she is fit and athletic...

Dialogue is what your characters say to each other (or to themselves).
Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph, and the paragraph includes whatever you wish to say about what the character is doing when speaking.

Write Meaningful Dialogue Labels
"John asked nervously" is an example of "telling." The author could write "John asked very nervously" or "John asked so nervously that his voice was shaking," and it still wouldn't make the story any more effective.
How can the author convey John's state of mind, without coming right out and tellinig the reader about it? By inference. That is, mention a detail that conjures up in the reader's mind the image of a nervous person.

John sat up. "Wh-- where are you going?"
"Where are you going?" John stammered, staring at his Keds.
Deep breath. Now or never. "Where are you going?"

Go back through your first chapter and edit any dialogue that explains too much and re-write it in a way that doesn't tell --but makes the reader feel the tension.

And contiue to wrtie your story because it will just keep getting better.  Start on the second Chapeter where the rising action begins developing.

The following is a video by one of America's most prolific writer's on "Writing Characters"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgJ809QKmas