The minimum viable character questionnaire to develop all your side characters.How do you flesh out a flat character? Create a cast your readers will fall in love with? Make each character realistic, well-developed, and believable?There are tons of character development questionnaires and personality tests and character sketch templates out there.They’ll ask you everything from “What’s your character’s deepest fear?” to “What’s their hair color?” to “What toppings do they most hate on pizza?”But you don’t need all those questions in order to create a richly-developed character. Truly, you don’t.In this episode, I’m sharing the shortest possible character development exercise.I call it the Minimum Viable Character Development Questionnaire. (There are more words in that title than questions in the questionnaire.)You’ll learn:The 4 essential questions you need to answer to flesh out any characterThe most important element of characterizationHow to give a flat, unremarkable cast of side characters unique and memorable personalitiesAnd more!Links mentioned in the episode:Get the Character Arc Worksheet: alicesudlow.com/characterworksheetEp. 18: 2 Essential Questions to Craft a Compelling Character ArcEp. 21: How to Identify Your Protagonist's Want and Need (And Why Those Matter to Your Plot)What are your questions about the 6 Elements of Story?I'm gathering questions for a Listener Mail episode of Your Next Draft all about the 6 Elements of Story.What are you struggling with? What's confusing to you? Where are you stuck in story structure? I want to know!Send me an email at alice@alicesudlow.com with your story structure question.I might answer it live on the podcast!Support the showWant more editing tips and resources? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook.And if you're enjoying the podcast, would you mind leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts? That helps more writers find these editing resources. And it helps me know what's helpful to you so I can create more episodes you'll love!Loving the show? Show your support with a monthly contribution »