Character development is the process and execution of building a fully formed, complex, and lifelike character inside your fictional work with the goal of engrossing readers in their lives or journeys. Consider character growth to be the book's paper. The more layers you add to it, the more developed the character becomes. Layers can be added through adding more detail or changing an aspect about the character. The purpose of this lesson is two-fold: first, to help students understand that character development is important for writing fiction; second, to give them examples of different types of details that can be used to build characters. Here are some specifics about character development: Characters need to be believable. This means that they should seem real and alive to the reader. You cannot write about characters who behave irrationally or without reason if you want your story to make sense. Therefore, it is important that you understand their personality type so you can write about them accurately. Characters also need to grow as the story progresses. This means that they should change over time due to events that happen in the narrative. For example, if a character starts out as evil then he/she should gradually become good over time. This allows the reader to understand why things happen the way they do even though this may not be apparent at first glance.