Asking your main character questions is integral to the character development process. It helps you get to know your character deeper, understand their motivations and actions, and make them more believable and relatable to readers.

Asking your main character questions can also help you flesh out their backstory and personality, as well as their goals, values, and relationships. This can give your story more depth and complexity and help you create a more well-rounded and realistic character.

In addition, asking your main character questions can help you identify any inconsistencies or plot holes in your story and give you a better sense of how they will react in different situations. This can make your writing more cohesive and believable.

Overall, asking your main character questions helps build and refine your story and characters. It can help you create a more engaging and satisfying story for your readers.

1. What is the primary objective of your character? This could be a long-term objective or a more pressing want. Understanding the desires of your primary character can help you better comprehend their motives and how they will behave in certain circumstances.
2. What frightens your main character? Understanding your main character’s worries may help you develop and enhance their personality since fear is a potent motivator.
3. What principles guide your main character? What are they committed to? What do their moral convictions say? Making your primary character more genuine and accessible requires understanding their core principles.
4. What is the history of your main character? What prior experiences contributed to who they are today? Knowing the background of your primary character might help you develop and deepen their personality.
5. How does the main character develop throughout the narrative? What difficulties do they encounter, and how do they overcome them to advance? You may develop a compelling character arc for your primary character by being aware of how they evolve.
6. What is your main character’s personality like? Are they introverted or extroverted? Do they have a sense of humor? How do they react to different situations?
7. What does your main character look like? What is their physical appearance? How do they present themselves to the world? How do others perceive them based on their appearance?
8. What is your main character’s occupation? What do they do for a living? How do they feel about their job? How does it impact their daily life?
9. What are your main character’s relationships like? Who are the essential people in their life? How do they get along with them? How do they communicate and interact with others?
10. What are your main character’s hobbies and interests? What do they like to do in their free time? How do these activities shape their identity?
11. What are your main character’s flaws and weaknesses? No one is perfect, and giving your main character flaws and imperfections will make them more relatable and believable.
12. What are your main character’s goals and aspirations? Do they have long-term dreams and ambitions? How do they plan on achieving them?
13. What is your main character’s role in the story? How do they fit into the larger narrative? How do their actions and choices affect the plot?
14. What is your main character’s worldview? What are their beliefs and values? How do these shape their actions and decisions? How do they perceive the world around them?
15. How does your main character handle conflict and adversity? How do they react to challenges and setbacks? Do they tend to face them head-on or try to avoid them?
16. What are your main character’s strengths and skills? What are they particularly good at? How do they utilize these strengths in different situations?
17. How does your main character handle emotions? Are they good at expressing and managing their emotions? How do they cope with negative emotions like anger and sadness?
18. What is your main character’s sense of self? How do they perceive themselves in relation to others? Do they have a strong sense of self-identity?
19. What is your main character’s relationship with their past? Do they have any unresolved issues or traumas from their past? How do these affect their present actions and choices?
20. What is your main character’s relationship with the future? Do they have long-term goals and plans? How do they envision their future? How do they prepare for it?

What do you hope to learn about your main character through these questions? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Happy Writing!

⁣So instead of coming up with a word for the new year, I have set a purpose or plan that I aim to accomplish. My intention this year is to be more intentional. I want to deliberately spend more time with the Lord, my husband, children, family and friends, and less on social media. I want to live in the moment and be with them taking the time to have deep, meaningful conversations, one on one time getting to know them better, and have more experiences than things.⁣⁣
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⁣⁣Have you come up with a word or intention for the new year? I’d love to hear it, drop a comment below!

As a writer, I have these thoughts often, am I good enough? Will I ever be good enough? There are amazing writers, I will never be that good. First, I need to stop striving to be someone that I am not and second; they didn’t get there overnight. Practice makes progress, not perfect because none of us will ever be perfect. God has me on the path I am on and I need to stop listening to the voices around me telling me otherwise. 

“Do you need someone to make you a paper badge with the word ‘WRITER’ on it before you can believe you are one?”

–Stephen King

All writers, I have realized, have these same thoughts running through their minds. We all feel as if someone will find out what a fraud we are and our “fake it until you make it” attitude will be exposed for what it truly is. The truth of the matter is we aren’t fake at all. We love the craft of writing and forming words into sentences and pages and books.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

–Ernest Hemingway

Fiction writing is subjective. It’s based upon our thoughts and the things WE imagine and come up with. No one else can delve into your brain and write what you do. We need your voice in the Christian community, your ideas, your thoughts. Don’t hide that creative spark and passion that the Lord gave you.

“Bad writers tend to have self-confidence, while the good ones tend to have self-doubt.”

-Charles Bukowski

I went back the other day and read over my first novel that I wrote; it was awful, and I am not being hard on myself- it was awful. Now I look at my recent work and can see the improvements over the years and areas that still need work. So we work on those areas and we do our best! I’m in a large critique group as a member of the ACFW and it was difficult getting back that first critique from my WIP, but you do not understand how helpful their advice was. I want to put something out into the world that I did my best at, something that I can be proud of. There will be people that don’t like it and I am ok with that because I didn’t write my novel for them. 

As a mom of three littles and a homeschooler on top of it things get chaotic and busy. My writing life is in the evening when the kids have gone to bed, but that’s also the time that I spend with my husband, clean the house, you get where I am going with this.I’ve been pondering the reasons I haven’t finished my novel yet. One of those being, I haven’t treated my work as a job. To me, it was more like a hobby, something I did in my spare time. 

Balancing life between raising my littles and working on my writing is difficult. Can I do the thing I love and desire without sacrificing my children, husband and relationship with the Lord? Looking at my schedule and the season of life I am in my husband and I have come up with something that works for our family! It will look different for everyone but there is no right way or wrong way to do this. We’ll start small and go from there, one day a week I will either go out or lock myself in the bedroom and write. Once I come home, or downstairs, my computer goes off and I spend my time with my family. It’s a simple change, but it’s a move toward making this more than a hobby.

I’ve learned to bring my laptop with me wherever I go and when I have a moment, I will write. I use the voice recorder on my apple watch to remember things when I am driving, the note app on my phone catches everything else, and my journal goes more into depth about the ins and outs of my day. This helps when I sit to write I can quickly scan my notes and begin writing. All of that to say, I don’t want to waste time when I should be writing. 

What does your writing schedule look like? How do you balance writing with littles?