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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10131
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am working on a book for fun and have thought a lot about character development. Is character development as important as the actual dialog of the story?

For example, I was reading a book this weekend that was written by one of the biggest legal thriller writers at the moment. The main character is in prison and then at the end moves to some place in South America and finds himself wealthy.

I thought that the story was good and the characters seem well described. But is the character development of the person needed before the story really gets going? Should the first chapters develop the character in the mind of the reader or can it build and add new items through the course of the story?

I have heard people say that some authors spend too much time describing a character or a scene and not enough on dialog. To me I like a good story but I had an English teacher tell me that you have to have the character developed in the beginning of the story rather than develop them throughout the course of the book.

Original score: 4