When it comes to character development in fiction, there’s no denying that it can make or break the success of your work.

Think of all the popular stories you know and love — Naruto, Attack on Titans, Jujutsu Kaisen in anime and manga; The Lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Disney’s Lion King, Titanic in movies; God of War, Resident Evil, and World of Warcraft in games.

Asides from a captivating plot, you find that what really drew you in, kept you interested, and made the plot seem worthwhile were the characters you came to care about.

After watching The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power my first thought when reflecting on it was the beautiful character development.

It was so well done that you are already fascinated by many characters.

Using this series as a case study, I want to show you 5 character development tips you could use when writing your story too.

First, what is character development?

Character development is simply how your character evolves throughout your story.

TIP 1 - Establish your characters’ goals and aspirations

Your characters’ goal (especially the mc — main character) is woven around your plot itself. It’s the biggest reason your story exists. In The Rings of Power, we were quickly introduced to the goals and aspirations of each important character.

Galadriel our story guardian and leading mc wanted to defeat Sauron once and for all. She wanted revenge, and that goal fueled the plot that Sauron wasn’t dead. It led her to meet and engage with other characters with goals of their own.

Halbrand seemed to want to redeem himself (other than his actual goal of creating the rings of power); Adar wanted to create a home for orcs (how fascinating it was to see how much he cared about the orcs); Queen Muriel wanted to preserve her people and protect them from the vision of destruction she saw; Isildur was on a path of self-discovery and making his father proud, and so on.

TIP 2 - Make your characters relatable

I cannot stress this enough. Perfect characters don't attract anyone. For people to love a character they need to be able to relate to that character. So now more than ever a layered, humanly-flawed character is the standard of success.

Your characters might be fictional, but we must be able to feel their emotions and even see ourselves in them. In The Rings of Power, this was done to perfection. From the internal conflict the characters faced, to their flaws, and real struggles.

Galadriel struggled with the fear of being consumed by her revenge. Somewhere in her mind, she wondered if she was any better than Sauron. Her brother was her guiding light. Halbrand struggled with forgiving himself and becoming the leader his people needed — even though it was all an act.

Nori Brandyfoot struggled with forging her own path and going against the Harfoot way. Some of us have been there too.

Meteor-man, aka Sauron-prime-suspect-until-proven-innocent, struggled with remembering who he was. He had a power he couldn’t control. And hurt those he cared about.

Poppy struggled with enabling her friend because I think she knew that Nori’s ways would one day lead her away from her people.

And dear Eldron, who probably struggled the most; had to decide about betraying his friend, and his people, pleasing his king, living up to his family name, protecting Galadriel from herself, and helping Celebrimbor.

TIP 3 - Build a backstory for main characters

The audience needs to know their background. Where did these characters come from? Who are they? What past drives them?

Galadriel had always been a fighter for what she believed in. Remember the very first scenes of the series where she made a boat and the other kids tried to sink it?

She fought back when they attacked what she cared about. And her brother, her guiding light, who wanted to make sure she would always fight on the side of good, taught her how to choose her battles.

There was also Sauron’s backstory and Adar’s too. The backstory tells us what drives your character’s decisions.

TIP 4 - Use mystery to build interest in a character

This is one tip you won’t see going around. Some characters need the air of mystery; the intriguing kind used where necessary.

It can be hard to apply this if you’re not an experienced writer, but learning about it now is a good start. And just so you know, the best stories use this all the time.

Galadriel did have an air of mystery around her in the sense that we couldn’t say for sure if she was going to lose her way and be swallowed by the darkness. That was a subtle play on mystery.

In the case of meteor man, it wasn’t subtle for good reason.

There’s also the character Isildur who for the life of me I don’t understand what he wants, probably because he’s going through an identity crisis.

Mystery can be used simply by obscuring the character’s goal, or identity, or deepening their internal conflict.

TIP 5 - Show your character’s areas of strength

While character development for your fiction writing involves adding some flaws to make it more realistic, never forget the characters need strengths too.

For characters to be believable, they must have both strengths and weaknesses.

So answer the question — What are they good at?

Do it for both main characters and secondary story characters. We know Elrond was smart and loyal. Galadriel was a badass fighter and stubborn in a good way. Nori Brandyfoot was brave, curious, and dedicated to her family. Poppy was a cautious, loyal friend.

What are your character’s strengths?

Fiction writing character development can be an adventure in itself.

Be flexible with it, then be intentional about the details. In all you do when character-building for your story, make sure it’s believable and balanced.

Talking about balance is a bonus tip.

BONUS TIP

There’s one thing most anime fans dislike — an overpowered character with no reason. We dislike it the same way we dislike a nerfed character. These things happen because of a lack of balance.

Balance will make your fantasy story, fiction story, comic book, novel, movie, or any storywriting at all a true work of art.

If you're working on a story and need to develop captivating fictional characters, I recommend you get my in-depth Character Development guide and workbook.