- "Character development may refer to: Characterization, how characters are represented and given detail in a narrative."
The process of creating realistic and complex characters that are relatable and drive the plot of the play.
Core traits: Identifying the key personality traits of a character, such as their strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and vulnerabilities.
Backstory: Creating a detailed history for a character, including experiences, relationships, and key events that shape who they are.
Motivation: Understanding what drives a character, including their goals, desires, and values.
Conflict: Generating conflict through the clash of characters' motivations, values, and goals.
Archetypes: Recognizing common character archetypes, and using them as a foundation for creating unique and distinct characters.
Dialogue: Crafting dialogue that is true to each character's voice and reveals their personality, desires, and motivations.
Relationships: Building relationships between characters that are realistic and engaging, and that fuel character development.
Growth: Showing characters changing and growing over the course of the story, as they face and overcome challenges.
Physicality: Bringing characters to life through physical details, including appearance, gestures, and movement.
Symbolism: Using symbolism to convey the deeper, more universal themes and meanings of a character's journey.
Point of View: Developing characters through the lenses of different points of view, including first-person, third-person, and omniscient narration.
Setting: Creating characters that are rooted in and responsive to their environment, and that contribute to the richness and complexity of setting.
Plot: Crafting characters that drive the plot forward, as they react to and affect the events of the story.
Emotion: Creating characters that are emotionally compelling and that elicit empathy, sympathy, or emotional resonance from the audience.
Foil: Using foil characters to enhance the development of main characters, by contrasting and highlighting their differences.
Arc Development: Characters that undergo a significant change over the course of the play is considered arc development. They might begin as one type of person or approach a situation in a certain manner, but over time, the story influences their behavior, driving them to change.
Backstory Development: Backstory refers to a character's past experiences, which form the circumstances of the play. Backstory development is when the backstory becomes the focal point of the play and drives the characters and their actions.
Inner Conflict Development: Inner conflict development involves a character's inner turmoil and struggle with their desires, values, or conscience. It delves into their internal struggles and explores how they react when confronted with a difficult choice.
Relationship Development: The development of relationships between characters that grow and evolve throughout the play is known as relationship development. It could be the relationship between friends, lovers or enemies where the story explores the dynamics of the relationships.
Journey Development: Journey development is about the physical and emotional journeys characters embark on throughout the play. They might set out to find something or to complete a task, but inevitably, their experiences will have an impact on their character.
Introspection Development: By creating moments of silence or stillness, playwriting can develop a character's introspection, allowing the audience insight into their thoughts and fears.
Action and Reaction development: An action and reaction development creates a clear-cut structure in which a character's actions create a consequence or effect which in turn demands a response.
Cliché Development: Cliché development works with characters already based on established archetypes aided by a familiarity with their background and experiences.
Comedy Development: Focuses on humor, typically generated by the ridiculous and absurd things that happen in the play.
Tragic Development: Leads to the demise of the main character, as they face consequences flowing from a tragic flaw while the audience identifies with their internal struggles.
- "Character arc, the change in characterization of a dynamic character over the course of a narrative."
- "Character creation, especially for games."
- "Experience point (character advancement), increase in scores and other changes of a game character; for example, in role-playing video games."
- "Moral character, a term used in many educational systems to indicate a strategy for the maturation of individual students."
- "Characterization, how characters are represented and given detail in a narrative."
- "Character arc, the change in characterization of a dynamic character over the course of a narrative."
- "Character creation, especially for games."
- "Increase in scores and other changes of a game character."
- "Experience point (character advancement), increase in scores and other changes of a game character; for example, in role-playing video games."
- "Moral character, a term used in many educational systems to indicate a strategy for the maturation of individual students."
- "Characterization, how characters are represented and given detail in a narrative."
- "Character arc, the change in characterization of a dynamic character over the course of a narrative."
- "Character creation, especially for games."
- "Experience point (character advancement), increase in scores and other changes of a game character; for example, in role-playing video games."
- "Moral character, a term used in many educational systems to indicate a strategy for the maturation of individual students."
- "Characterization, how characters are represented and given detail in a narrative."
- "Character arc, the change in characterization of a dynamic character over the course of a narrative."
- "Character creation, especially for games."
- "Experience point (character advancement), increase in scores and other changes of a game character; for example, in role-playing video games."