Describing your characters will be much easier once you have developed a character sketch. Here are some tips on how to write a dossier.
By Lanee' Blunt
A character sketch seems like a waste of time to some new writer’s. They hate this step and want to skip it, and move on to writing the short story or novel. If you skip this step you will lose a part of characterization that helps you understand how they react in certain situations.
A character sketch can be used to help you get to know your character. You have to know your characters before you can write about them convincingly. You can refer to it when you feel lost, it makes writing easier, and sometimes it helps giving you insight into motivation.
What is a Sketch?
“A character sketch is a word outline, a preliminary study of a person, drawn from life experience, that you’d like to use in your novel,” according to Robert J. Ray, in his book, The Weekend Novelist. A character sketch should be written on all of your main characters, the protagonist, antagonist, and major characters.
There are Questions you must ask in the Sketch
For each of your major characters they should all have an outline. Start with the background where did they go to school? What is their early childhood experience, marital status, financial situation? What does your character want? What drives him? How does he handle obstacles? How did he spend the week before the story begins? These are some of the questions you can ask.
How Long Should the Sketch Be?
Some writers are very serious about this step and they have lengthy sketches. Some writer’s sketches go into the character’s closets, or what type of car they drive. Some writers just write a few pages of notes to themselves. It is up to you how long it should be.
Some Questions Lead to Plot
There are questions in the character’s sketch that will help you plot the story. What would her enemy’s reaction be? How far will she go to attain her goal? Will she lie? Will she kill? Will she betray a friend? What are her limitations? Does she see herself as honest, short tempered, aggressive, stingy? Does she have a love life? Does she have one night stands?
Sketch the Physical Details
New writers sometimes struggle to describe a character so they don’t describe at all, but it’s easier when you already know what she looks like. How old is your character? Describe her. How tall is she? Is she fat, skinny, or middle sized? What color are her eyes? How do people see her?
These are some of the questions that you can ask yourself when you are writing the sketch. Answer each question as if you are interviewing your character for an investigation. You will find that you will come up with some answers that might surprise you.
Reference:
Robert J. Ray; The Weekend Novelist; Dell
