[Porkchop]

If anyone has read Robert McKee, you'll know in a minute that I've been heavily influenced by him. I think he's the foremost expert on this subject.

When most people talk about "character development", they're often referring to things like knowing what the character does for a living, where he lives, what he eats for breakfast, etc. etc. This is not character; it is characterization. Two people can both work the same job, live in the same neighbourhood, and eat the same cereal, and yet still be completely different characters.

A character is defined not by where he's from or what his job is, but by how he acts under pressure. If those same two people above both witness a drowning man, one might leap in to save him while the other might panic or run for the police. That is when their true character comes out.

Michael Corleone, used as an example by Rogue above, is a perfect illustration of this. In the beginning he's saying he wants to be different from his family; but when his father is attacked and the pressure is on for him to take over, the real depths of his character come out.

Rogue is also right about dialogue being the worst method of character development. A character who knows himself completely and can flatly state his personality problems out loud is no kind of character at all. If, however, he says it out loud and then proves through action that he's completely wrong and his personality actually goes in another direction entirely, then that can be a rich character.