What would your story be without characters? Good, strong characters, that is? Have you developed them in every possible way? Given them depth and maturity as needed and used descriptive narrative and dialogue effectively? What more can you do to strengthen your characters? Here are some suggestions. First of all, make lists. We writers live by our lists. I know I do. I make lists for just about anything and everything.

In particular, make a list of the characters’ flaws and changes. You can’t have all perfect characters; it’s too unrealistic. Remember, the most compelling characters will grow throughout your story. They’ll change, too, positively, negatively, even tragically. Take Romeo and Juliet as an example: both characters are family-bound in their opinions until they meet each other. Then love takes over and they choose dire means that are quite tragic to change their course of action.

Also, make a list of character skills and interests. Bring the characters alive, by making them alive outside and beyond the plot of your story. How? Consider their love of music, theater, or reading. Consider their favorite pastimes, like swimming, golfing, or hiking. Weave these things into the story. The characters in my Four Seasons novels are all classical musicians. They have a passion for their music and their instrument of choice. Yet, they still have a life outside of their music.

Make a list of different angles to weave in your story's theme. Consider these different angles and how they can explore the moral issues that dominate your story.

Make a list of possible goals for your story. Remember, if your character has a purpose and a strong goal, it’ll benefit the overall mapping of the plot. My Four Seasons novels include a bit of mystery – each brings out something unusual and mysterious behind the character’s instrument of choice. In Autumn, Martha Kapakatoak, a young Inuit girl, has inherited a piano that has a story of its own that follows the nineteenth-century passion to discover the elusive Northwest Passage. But there’s more to the mystery of the piano than its ride on an exploring vessel – there’s something hidden in the instrument and there are people, other than Martha, who want to recover what the instrument hides.

Make a list of possible motivations, something to drive the character forward to achieve their goal. It could be an emotion, like fear or guilt, love, determination, even passion. Romeo and Juliet had a motivation, not that it did them any good in the end, but it drove their story forward.

Make a list of possible purposes for your characters. Ask yourself what the characters add to the story. Do they create conflict? If not, what’s the point of your characters? What’s their purpose in the story?

Make a list of family background and anything relevant to the characters’ personal histories. Give them a history. Every character, every living person, has a history. Without this personal history, there is no meaning, no reality to a character’s existence.

Make a list of potential names. Make sure to choose one that suits, or doesn’t suit for a quirkier interpretation of the character. Names are important identifying factors for characters. I remember a childhood friend whose family added three boys, each of them named Stephen. I asked her how they could tell which Stephen they were talking to. She answered with a shrug: “They just know.” But did they? Can you imagine three brothers with the same name?

I keep reminding myself that, to bring my story alive, I must bring my characters alive in multiple different ways. Make them into real people, rather than mere characters in a story. Make them love, feel pain, suffer, fail, everything that real people must endure in real life. By making my characters stronger, I find that my story is also stronger. Readers will relate to these real characters more than they will the model-perfect wannabes.