By Lanee’ Blunt
Writing a novel is
complicated. A character sketch seems like a waste of time to some new writer’s
and they want to skip this step and move on to writing the novel. A novel is made from many parts and if you
look at it like that it is easier to create your characters. Start with a
notebook and write down everything in your notebook about your character.
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.
Character Motivations are Important
Know the motivation of your
characters. If you have read a story
before and felt like you didn’t care or understand a character, the writer has
failed to give a clear motivation. This
makes you feel cheated when reading the novel. Avoid this by sketching your
character’s motivation before writing the novel. Motivation is what makes us
have empathy with the character and helps us to care about what happens to
them.
Background
Ask yourself questions about
your characters background. What happened to him in his childhood that shaped
him today? Did he have a difficult past?
Has he been married before? Where was she born? How many siblings does she
have? Where did she go to school? Background information leads to motivation
because early experiences may have forced her to do what she is doing.
Reference:
Robert J. Ray; The Weekend
Novelist; Dell
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