Well Developed Character

Someone who I can see from all angles. Someone with flaws and perfections and beauty and ugliness. Someone who is not afraid of showing me they are human...but also that they are able to rise above the imperfections of humanity. Someone who can grow by learning more about themselves and the other characters around them. I need to know their past without being hit in the face with it. I need to know their motivation for a future. And I like to know if they have a grossly misshapen birthmark on their ass.

KTC said:

Someone who I can see from all angles. Someone with flaws and perfections and beauty and ugliness. Someone who is not afraid of showing me they are human...but also that they are able to rise above the imperfections of humanity. Someone who can grow by learning more about themselves and the other characters around them. I need to know their past without being hit in the face with it. I need to know their motivation for a future. And I like to know if they have a grossly misshapen birthmark on their ass.

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What he said...except for the, uh...ass mark.

Bob. Bob is well-developed. But he takes that pill, know what I mean?

The Bob with the bitch tits from Fight Club? It's testosterone, that pill he takes.

You're right, he is pretty developed. Those have got to be like 46DD's or something.

No, that Bob from the male enhancement commercials. THe one with the big grin.

Oh, THAT Bob. Well I guess they're both quite developed in different ways...

Someone who feels real. If they're no one special, I'd like to be able to feel that I could pass them in the street in the notice, but if they are special, that everyone would be looking.

Well-developed, in my opinion, is that there is a real person there, living within the text, not an author's sock puppet or soap box.

I think a well-developed character is one I wish I could hang out with in real life. If I'm wishing that, then the author has managed to make them real enough for me to totally believe in.

A well-developed character is simply one that is believable enough for me to care what happens to them.

I think characters that I wouldn't want to hang out with can be well developed, too. In that case, if I can detect (not necessarily agree with, mind you) motivation and humanity, I'd consider them well developed. And the best thing with villans is when I can even understand them a tiny bit.

To me, I have to be able to relate to the character in some way, even if it's just a tiny part, like the fact that the character is human.

I consider a well-developed character one that I can *see* without the author having ever described the details of physical appearance.

I'm not sure but I think a character needs goals to accomplish, even if it's a glass of water. He has to be natural and realistic for his age and time period. But there must be an obstacle or an opposing force attempting to stop this character from reaching his goal. He has to lose some battles, he shouldn't reach his goals or win battles too easily and he shouldn't be Mr. Perfect.

This character must have difficulty reaching his goals. He has to struggle, train and work hard to get what he wants. If he obtains the 'glass of water' without even trying, then that makes a sucky character.

A well-developed character needs backstory (we don't even need to see much of it, but it needs to be there), motivation, strengths, flaws, and goals. There are plenty of other things out there, of course, that can elevate him/her from the status of "well-developed" to "incredible," but that's mostly circumstantial.

honeycomb said:

Question: In your opinions, what is a well developed character?

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lol I actually have a hard time putting this one into words, other than when you can slowly see into their soul along the story line and get the real feel for them to the point you feel as if you met them personally.

Blah my mind keeps saying now, lol

BlueLucario said:

I'm not sure but I think a character needs goals to accomplish, even if it's a glass of water. He has to be natural and realistic for his age and time period. But there must be an obstacle or an opposing force attempting to stop this character from reaching his goal. He has to lose some battles, he shouldn't reach his goals or win battles too easily and he shouldn't be Mr. Perfect.

This character must have difficulty reaching his goals. He has to struggle, train and work hard to get what he wants. If he obtains the 'glass of water' without even trying, then that makes a sucky character.

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It's interesting you should post this, because it blurs the lines between character and plot--which are really one in the same. You're right, that character could be the most real, human character there ever was...but if he encounters no struggle, the plot's a dud, and that makes the story a dud, too.

Like other posters have said, a well-developed character is one with personal flaws and conflicts but also virtues, one I can see in my mind's eye, all disembodied and new-agey and everything. When I care about that character's outcome, when I'll cry about it--it's a well developed character.

But it's hard to cry over a character who overcomes the external barriers with ease, like Blue said. Of course, you can always use skilled manipulation of the external as a point of contrast for internal conflict--but the conflict has to be there for a character and for a story to mean much of anything.

ETA: Sometimes I don't want a sympathetic view of a deplorable character. Sometimes I just want to be fascinated, also disturbed and even pushed to deep thought, by their horribly different perspective. For me, that's the appeal of writing a [an incestuously] sex-crazed, self-obsessed, hedonistic bitch, for me. Because...I'd make a crappy nymphomaniac psychopath, you know?? And I think most readers would, too. That's why people like to read the perspectives of people like Hannibal Lector.

A well-developed character has a life before the story begins, and after (if he's not dead). One who makes you believe that he or she really exists.

A well developped character is a character the author, and the reader, can believe in.