gail, i'm having a lot of trouble developing some of my main characters. do you know of any exercises or have any advice for really fully developing a character including little things about them? i'm really desperate here.

Okay. My guess is, you are not spending enough time observing. 

Seriously, if you create characters like you build Lego figures, you might get some interesting end results…you put a bit of childhood trauma here, you put a bit of fear of intimacy there, whatever.

But it’s not very human. And humanity is what makes characters relatable.

So what you do is, you observe.  Read books, speak with strangers, people watch, watch great actors. Look at the tics, the movements, the behaviors, the desires. Big details are where the drama comes from, but little details sail the ship, they are what make you care, what make you believe.

Look at the behaviors of people you know, or characters you are moved by, look at those traits. Add them to your character but put a spin on them, change them up, reverse them, shift them into a different gear. Do NOT photocopy…rather, you should interpret.

An artist draws an apple fifty times to learn how to draw an apple properly, maybe a hundred more to learn how to do it properly from memory. 

It’s the same for writers.

Observe, observe, observe.