Tools of the Trade: Empathy

When writers think about the tools of our trade, our thoughts might understandably go to craft: words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choice. Characters, plot, setting, tense. Point of view, goal/motivation/conflict, dialogue, pace. And yes – all these things all need to be taken into account, all these things and more.

But I’d like to add to the list something that I consider to be an essential character development tool: empathy.

Dictionary.com defines...