Characters need goals, motivation and conflict.  What does your main character want?  Why does he/she want it?  What stands in his/her way?

Don’t just plug stick figures in to your story.  Develop realistic characters.  Make them live and breathe there on the page.

“Interview” your main character.  Ask questions about likes/dislikes, attitudes, fears, most embarrassing moment, greatest accomplishment, hopes/dreams etc. What does the character’s bedroom look like?  What does he/she have in his/her closet?  Ask questions that get to the core of the character. 

Remember…characters show who they are by the things they do and the things they say.  Are you, your mother and your best friend all exactly alike?  Or do each of you have distinct mannerisms, distinct speech patterns etc.  Not everyone reacts to a situation the same way.  What your character says and how he/she says it will affect what is said back in response.  What your character does will affect how the story comes out.

Think about your character’s past.  People are the sum total of their experiences.  Everything that happens to you helps you become the person you are today.

Characters DO things.  Make sure your character is doing things, taking action him/herself.  He/she should be acting, not reacting. 

 Thoughts and feelings are very important in character development.  What he/she thinks and what he/she says may be two different things.

Don’t make your characters too perfect.  Everyone has flaws.  Your main character should have flaws, too.

But don’t take that too far!  Your main character must be a person readers LIKE.  Readers won’t cheer for someone they don’t like.  Some might read a story about a character they don’t like just to see whether he/she gets what he/she deserves.  But most people want to read about someone they care about.  They want to see the character succeed.

A character should change throughout the course of the story, but that change must be believable.  It should follow logically from what has happened in the story.