--- title: Character Development description: This subject focuses on the techniques actors and writers use to build complex, multidimensional characters. Learners will understand how to analyze scripts, establish character motivations, and physically and vocally embody a role. category: music-audio subcategory: theater-and-acting difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/character-development --- # Character Development This subject focuses on the techniques actors and writers use to build complex, multidimensional characters. Learners will understand how to analyze scripts, establish character motivations, and physically and vocally embody a role. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 3 Courses • 3 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Helping Writers Become Authors K.M. Weiland's website of long-form articles and worksheets on story structure and character arcs; covers arc types such as positive, flat, and negative change, backstory wounds and lies, and step-by-step methods for outlining believable character growth. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/character-arcs/ **Tags:** character development, story structure, creative writing, novel writing ### 2. acting-studio.com Acting-studio.com bundles tutorials and courses focused on core acting techniques—Method, Meisner, and Stanislavski. It features technique explanations, practical exercises, scene work guides, and audition tips to help actors apply these approaches. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://acting-studio.com **Tags:** websites, music-performing-arts, theater-acting ### 3. writersdigest.com WritersDigest.com is a comprehensive resource for writers, featuring craft articles, writing prompts, market guides, contests, and publishing tips to help aspiring and established authors improve their craft and get published. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://writersdigest.com **Tags:** websites, personal-development, communication ## Courses ### 1. BYU Creative Writing Lectures Learn character development from Brandon Sanderson's BYU creative writing lectures! Master crafting compelling characters. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ **Tags:** creative writing, character development, worldbuilding, fiction writing ### 2. Fundamentals of Acting Learn acting fundamentals from Samuel L. Jackson! Master acting basics and elevate your performance in this online course. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.masterclass.com/classes/samuel-l-jackson-teaches-acting **Tags:** acting, screen acting, character work, auditioning, masterclass ### 3. Creative Writing: The Craft of Character At the center of a good story are the characters in it. In this course aspiring writers will discover how to build and bring to life complex, vivid and unforgettable characters. We will study the choices a writer makes to bring all characters to life on the page, and we will perform written exercises in order to develop a variety of writing and pre-writing techniques, in order to create a variety of characters. We will learn how to use our own life experiences, and the people we know (and how not to!). We will develop inner (thoughts and feelings) and outer (appearance, habits, behavior) lives for our characters and see how that can lead us to richer and more interesting stories. We will breathe life into our characters and let them surprise us. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 4 weeks of study, 2-4 hours/week | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/craft-of-character **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing ## Books ### 1. Creating Character Arcs **Author:** K.M. Weiland A craft guide showing how to structure a protagonist's positive, flat, or negative change arc so it integrates with three-act plot structure, with chapter-by-chapter worksheets for planning growth across a novel. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944936041?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing ### 2. The Art of Character **Author:** David Corbett A fiction-writing craft book that draws on psychology, drama, and film to teach writers how to build vivid, emotionally complex characters through backstory, motivation, dialogue, and moral conflict. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/014312157X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing ### 3. Characters and Viewpoint **Author:** Orson Scott Card Part of the Elements of Fiction Writing series, this guide covers how to construct characters and choose a narrative viewpoint and distance, comparing first-, second-, and third-person and various levels of narrative intimacy. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898799279?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/character-development