Need Help: Character Development

[MiaJuliana]

I began writing what I hoped would turn out to be a novel last year. This year I took a writing class:) and learned a lot. However, I learned something that I have been doing wrong the entire book. I have been so wrapped up in making the plot good, and it is, that I did not spend enough time on character development. All of my main characters, there are two main and two minor, have not anywhere near as much character development as they should. The reader has only a surface-level relationship with all of them. And that's not good, because no matter how great the plot is, I cannot have characters that no one cares about!

I wrote forty pages into it, making this mistake. Once I realized what I was doing, I tried to fix it as I went along, without any avail. I hate to go back and rewrite it, because as I said, I have been working on this for quite a long time. Is there any way to fix this without doing so?

A little about the book (if this is important): It's a science-fiction story with two main characters, Dara and Jude. In the climax, which I have already written, Jude betrays Dara. She joins forces with the two minor characters, a brother and sister team, named Monica and Jason. [Sorry, I am kind of overly paranoid about saying much about the plot because, no offense, I don't want anyone to take the idea.]

Help please?

[Iridescence]

To be honest, hon, I don't think there's any way you can fix the character development as you go along without rewriting it. Character development is the sort of thing that essentially is the story, if you get what I mean, even more so than plot. It's woven into the events of the story. If you just go back through, adding internal thoughts and little blocks of character tidbits, it'll seem like a patchwork, very forced and tagged-on, you know?

Even though it sucks that you've written so much (well, it doesn't suck - in fact, it's great, so props!), I think you'll have to rework it. But the good thing is that you've got the events so ingrained deep into your mind by writing the skeletal events that it should be fairly easy and even (do I dare say it?) fun to rewrite it, this time inserting your characters more fully into the story and allowing them to breathe and expand to fill the plot you've so painstakingly framed. You don't have to start from scratch, though - all your great ideas and moments and scenes are right there for you to pry apart and make even better, adding them to the story and weaving them in. In a way, this is a good thing. Now you can experience your story through the eyes of your characters instead of your own. This is how you should look at your novel from now on. Since you've got the events downpat, this part should be easier. I say go for it, but you'll have to work hard.

Of course, someone else could tell you otherwise. That's just my input. :P I hope this helps, and ask if you need anything.