Character Creation

Hey there!

When I made my rough outline of my story, the way I showed you yesterday, I didn’t include names. All I thought about was the story. When I talked about my main character, I just capitalized ‘She’ and ‘Her’, so I’d know.

But you do need to know who your story is about.

So here are 6 questions that are necessary for your character creation.

Question 1:

What is my character’s name?

Question 2:

What is my character’s hair color?

Question 3:

What is my character’s eye color?

Question 4:

What is my character’s greatest fear, and why?

Question 5:

What does my character want more than anything, and why?

Question 6:

How can I prevent them from getting what they want?

There are reasons for each question; let me explain each of them.

Question 1 is obvious. You need to know your character’s name! (Unless it’s some sort of nameless ghost.)

Question 2 and 3 are simply just so that you can help paint a picture of what your character looks like in your reader’s head. Hair and eyes are probably the two most prominent features they’ll remember (at least, that’s how I always find it when I read) and so those are the two you want to be figured out.

Question 4 can determine how your character acts. A way to create conflict and tension in the story is to force your character to face their greatest fear!

Question 5 and 6 are probably the two most important questions you can ask about your story. During the story, they should be going for what they want, reaching for it. By the end of the story, they either will have it or die trying. (Maybe not literally, but you get the idea)

These are questions you should ask about your main character, villain, and side kick[s]-at the least. Asking those questions for a secondary character won’t be necessary. (For example, who care what the baker’s greatest fear is if he’s only in the story when your character is buying some bread?)

The villain and the hero’s wants should tie together. This is important to remember. Only one of them can have what they want by the end of the story. A great analogy for this is two boats. These are your main character and your villain’s wants. There is no tension, and no conflict if the boats can simply sail past each other. They need to be on a collision course. Only one of them can have what they want!

After asking those 6 questions, you can ask as many more as you would like; these are just the 6 that must be done. Unless a character is an animal, of course. Then you can ignore the thing about hair.