Part 1, Section 7, Character Summary and Analysis

The inner life, motivations and experiences of a character are key to their full creation in writing. Anne uses another metaphor to illustrate full character development. A character should figuratively inhabit an acre of land. This acre provides a framework within which to round out the character's action.

Good things happen to bad characters and bad things happen to good characters. It is important to avoid becoming over protective of characters. Anne advises writers to let the story happen. This will occur over successive drafts and with purposeful experimentation. While on the one acre, one should allow a tragedy and explore what could and probably should happen.

In the story development a writer uncovers the stories told from the character's point of view. Heavy description can overwhelm a reader. Anne suggests taking the character through a variety...