Developing Your Characters

This is a short one:

First of all, pacing is everything in a story, especially if you're like me and write epic length novels.

How does pacing play into developing your characters? Simple. Don't get too involved in their backstory. Give some pertinent information into their past, absolutely, but don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time going into this and that. A) Most readers don't care, and B) You'll lose your readers. Do you want to lose your readers? I didn't think so.

The development of your character doesn't necessarily lie within their backstory anyhow. Sure, their past plays a part in who they are, but you don't need to get into their past right off the bat. In some stories this is critical, of course, but it adheres mostly to sci-fi stories and the like. If you're writing regular literature, the development of your character can be fulfilled as you tell the story in present tense. In addition, over time, your characters will reveal themselves in due course, and your readers can learn all about them based on their behavior or thoughts/thought processes, or how they interact with other characters. Those last two sentences are two of the most important things you need to know in terms of developing your characters. And even then, don't spend too much time in describing what they're all about. And again, you can use their development to your advantage by allowing their personalities to unfold as you tell your story.

One of my favorite reasons for writing from the 1st person POV, or even reading from the 1st person POV is because you are in the character's head. Whatever their thoughts are, they become your thoughts. There's nowhere for them to hide. When a writer writes from the 2nd person POV you still get a nice glimpse of who you are dealing with as you read, but often you must make some speculations, and that's not to say it's a bad thing, AT ALL!!! It's quite fine! It's only my opinion as to why I appreciate the 1st person perspective.