You know your main character inside and out, you know their backstory, their childhood, their fears, their quirks, and maybe even how they take their coffee.

And yet somehow, when they hit the page, whether that's in your outline or your first draft, they still feel kind of flat.

So maybe you do what most writers do and you add more, more backstory, more personality, and more detail.

Or maybe you just focus on making

them more likable. But either way, none of it really solves the problem. Well, in this

episode, I'm going to show you why that happens, and I'm going to help you figure out which

specific piece of character development is actually missing, also that you can strengthen the

character you already have instead of piling

on more details or scrapping your draft.

Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help

you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be

overwhelming. So each week,

I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can

implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned

author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get

started. So today we're talking about what to do when your

protagonist feels flat on the page, even if you feel like you know them really well. And this is

such a common problem because most writers assume that flatness means they need more character

information, more backstory, more quirks, more personality,

or even more likability. But in my experience, that's usually not the real issue. The problem is

usually that one of the key pieces that helps the character function inside your story is

either missing, vague, or underdeveloped. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you

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