Character Blogging for Better Character Development

Have you seen them around? You know, blogs that are geared around a single fictional character? These characters can be from shows, movies, and novels, and often speak to readers through their own written voices.

Well, Steve Rubel - who blogs more on the side of marketing and business related stuff - doesn’t seem to think they’re good for anything (entertainment or not – such a killjoy). He claims they are useless and a waste of time. While I like his straightforward attitude, I believe he may have missed a very good point to fictional character blogs. And that is the fact that developing a character blog could prove to be beneficial to writers and their development of characters.

Why do I believe this? Imagine what it would take to create a character with such life-like attributes (like personality), and being able to blog in his or her voice? It would be the ultimate exercise to “get into your character’s head”. I can only assume that by doing this for long enough, that your character development skills would lead to developing some incredibly real and believable characters (full of personality and emotion).

Unfortunately, while I might believe this, and while I’ve given it some thought about doing it myself, I have yet to see a version where someone created a character blog, prior to using them in a story. I’ve seen it the other way around, though, like Lee Goldberg’s character, Natalie.

If you happen to know an example of a writer who has done this, please let me know via comment or email. I’d be very grateful!