Character Development Using Mindmapping Software

Essentially, the characters you create are your story.  Whatever happens in your story, happens to your characters, and more often than not your story is told through the voice of one or more of your characters.  You can see then, that character development is arguably the most important aspect in fiction writing.  An excellent approach to take when starting a new story is to begin with character development.  If you’re characters are well developed and have a history of their own, your story will often begin to tell itself.

As a writer you get stuck for days or more because you can’t find a name for your character that you really like.  Don’t fall into this trap!  Start off with your character’s history, and build up from there.  When you’re creating the life for this person in your mind you will often form an image of what he or she looks like without even realizing that you are doing so.  And afterward, when this person is fully formed in your mind, chances are you will already have a name that just seems to fit.  If not, you can then take the time to come up with one that you feel suits the character.

Mindmapping software is an excellent aid for writers, particularly if you are experiencing a bit of a writing block.  Character development becomes much easier when you can lay out all aspects of the person you are creating in front of you.  The attached mind map will provide you with some ideas on how to start mapping out your characters. 

Start off with your character’s history, and include anything that you can think of.  Imagine the character as a real person, as someone you might know.  Think about all of the little things in his or her life that have come together to make this person who he or she is today.  Does she play sports?  How did she do in school?  What was his relationship with his parents like?  How did he grow up?  Even if you don’t plan on using him much in your story, spending some time on character development will pay off in the end by making your character more believable and lifelike when he does appear. 

Next, take a look at the current personality of your character.  Consider how his history and background might contribute to his behaviour and thoughts.  Put yourself in the shoes of your character and imagine what it would be like if you had shared the same history.  Would you be shy?  Would you be outspoken?  How would others perceive you?  Don’t be afraid to include anything that comes to mind; the beauty of mindmapping software is that you can always touch up your mind map later on.

Finally, you’ll need to record the physical attributes of your character, or what she looks like.  It’s likely by now that you already have a pretty clear image of this person in your mind.  Start by mapping out the aspects that you can already see, like hair and eye colour, height, and weight.  Afterward, move onto the less obvious aspects that you might not have considered yet.  Think about the small details that would make this person unique, such as birthmarks, freckles, scars, hair and skin texture, or body shape.  Once again, the more detail you can map out the more lifelike your character will appear in your story.

Once you’ve finished your mind map, you should have a detailed description of your character.  Review the information and make sure that everything feels right and seems to fit with your idea of the character, and add or take away anything that you think needs to be changed.  Now you’re ready to move on to your next character!  When you’re finished, you can use mindmapping software to lay out the relationships between each of your characters.