Quote

I start with an idea or a problem or a conflict, or even a situation that might be pertinent to the lives of young people, then the characters grow from that point. I try to make strong characters that change and develop and learn from their mistakes.

If you change a character too much, the audience falls out of love with the character, but characters need to evolve and grow over the years.

And almost always there has to be change, change in the characters is the journey - it's the story.

I think everybody goes through changes, and the same should be said for fictional characters, especially ones that you follow on television.

Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to a place, or things alter around them, that's the point to step back and fill in the details of their world.

Novels demand a certain complexity of narrative and scope, so it's necessary for the characters to change.

I'm drawn particularly to stories that evolve out of the character of the protagonist.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

I am a big proponent of character arcs that show us how people change over time.

Character development is conflict.