This post is in support of a MasterClass workshop I gave on Developing Character at the Kingston WritersFest, September 2018. (My apologies to those of you who are subscribed to my blog and got this post by accident.)

Books

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) by Lisa Cron

Believable Characters: Creating with Enneagrams by Laurie Schnebly

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler

The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws and The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes, both by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda N. Edelstein

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski

The Book of Costume by Millia Davenport

Working; People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkle

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

Online

Worthwhile Google searches: “writing about characters worksheet,” “character development,” etc.

Unsplash (an excellent database for looking for characters)

Astrology (my go-to astrology site)

Name generators (fun!)

Gotham Writers’ Workshop Character Profile Worksheet

Creating a believable character

The Ultimate Character Questionnaire (over 150 questions)

33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

Dynamic Character: How to Write a Compelling Protagonist (Note: most everything at reedsy.com is worthwhile.)

The Basic Anatomy of a Developed Character

Character sketch template

Writing a character sketch on Scrivener

A basic character sketch template

10 Tips for Creating Conflict

33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters

This Book will Change your Writing Life (about the book Story Genius)

Character mannerisms: Describing character quirks and tics

Creating character: How to make characters come alive

500 Character Quirks and Traits

Character flaw list: 30 intriguing character flaws

How to Create and Use a Character Bible for your Novel

8 Character Development Exercises to Help You Nail Your Character

The Ultimate Character Questionnaire

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

How to Write Flashback: 7 Key Steps

The 7 Tools of Dialogue

7 dialogue rules for writing fantastic conversations

The Perfect Way to Create Fictional Characters

When Your Characters Lack Depth, Interview Them

The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (highly recommended)

Your Ultimate Guide to Character Development: 9 Steps to Creating Memorable Heroes