Lazy Characters

Character development is important to a story. You want good characters with depth, characters your readers can identify with and feel for. Whether it’s love or hatred, you want them to feel something for your characters. It’s always better to have a smaller cast of well-developed characters than to throw a truckload of shallow lifeless characters in the book simply for the sake of having them there. If the character does not influence the story they aren’t needed. Take the character out, does the story progress without them? If that’s a yes then you don’t need them.

There is never an excuse for lazy character development. 

There was a book that I read recently where the protagonist worked with a set of twins and had been working with them for several years, yet she decided they looked too much alike to tell apart and referred to them simply as twin one and twin two because she had also forgotten their names. A situation comes up several chapters later where she now needs to know their names so she asks and they tell her. After being told their names this one time, she can now suddenly tell them apart and remember their names, despite the last three years or so of not bothering with it. 

This is an example of lazy character development. If you know any twins then you know they each have a distinct personality and I’ve yet to meet a set of twins who act the same. There are always ways to tell them apart, either by the way they act or small physical differences, even with identical twins. If the author was insistent on using the ‘twin one’ and ‘twin two’ names she could have reserved it for when the protagonist was upset with them or maybe teasing them. There were many different things she could have done to separate the twins instead of making them flat, lifeless characters. They could have had distinctly different personalities. One could have a tattoo or different hair color. Piercings. A love/hate for a particular food. All of these things would have put a small amount of separation between the two so it’s easier for not only the protagonist to tell them apart but the readers as well. Instead, she made them rather boring carbon copies and there’s nothing to care about, despite the fact they are tied closely to the protagonist’s world in the story she made them throwaway characters. 

Your characters need quirks and reasons for doing those things and being who they are. You also want to avoid unrealistic reactions, like the main character suddenly remember something they couldn’t for years after being reminded about it one time. 

All of your characters need several things for them to become real to the readers. 

✒ They need a personality they need characteristics that make it easy to identify them. Whether it’s a flaw, a habit, or a little quirk, they need those things to be a normal human being with a personality. 

✒ A description readers need to know what your characters look like to form an image of them in their mind 

✒ A backstory if you don't know their history, how will your readers? If you want readers to feel for your character they need to know about their lives. Your characters need a life filled with experiences, both good and bad. 

✒ A reason for being (and not 'they were born to fulfill a prophecy') They need a reason for the way they have developed. That event (or events) in their life that made them who they are (realistic events). Are they a distant loner, the friend who strives to care for everyone, a cruel sadistic tyrant? It is events in your life that make you who you are and develop your habits and personality. Remember that characters need that as well. 

✒ A life yes, a life. They need to do more than sit around drinking beer or watching Real Housewives on TV. They need a job, friends, family, social activity, maybe a pet. Things people have in the real world. 

How exciting would Harry Potter be if we didn't know his backstory? If you never knew where his scar came from? If no one was told Voldemort was the one who killed his parents? You wouldn't feel for him because the tragedy of his past was left out of the story. What if we began the story from when he arrives at Hogwarts and you never knew how his aunt and uncle treated him? You'd have no idea about the events that made him who he is. Harry doesn't see himself as a hero because he's been told all his life he's nothing and he doesn’t matter. He wasn't even important enough for them to give him his own room. If you don't get to know him, know his past you don't feel it and you'll never understand the events that made him who he is. 

If your characters aren’t as real as they can be then there’s no reason to read about them. Think long and hard about them, their lives, and their personality when developing them. Because short of resorting to dark magic, they aren’t coming to life and telling you about themselves. If they aren’t important enough for you to give them a life then they probably don’t belong in the story.