Developing Characters for your Novel

By Lanee’ Blunt

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 the notebook about your characters. Describe each of your characters a character sketch. 

Name all of your characters.  Give your protagonist and the antagonist a name.  What do they look like? Where did they go to school?   How does the protagonist dress, and where does she live? Take each character separately and pick them apart.  Is the character an only child, or does he have siblings.  What are the names of the siblings? You will find yourself understanding the novel much better than you did with just an outline.

For each of your major characters they should all have an outline or summary.  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.

Don’t worry about getting your sentences perfect or if you have used the right grammar.  The sketch is a place for your imagination.  Think about your character as a real person and imagine what they are like.  What kind of student was she?  What are her early childhood experiences?  What is her occupation? What year was she born?  Background information leads to motivation because early experiences may have forced her to do what she is doing.

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How to Create a Character for a Novel

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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How to Write a Short Story: Build Your Characters

By Lanee’ Blunt

Building your characters is very important when writing a short story.  You have to know your characters before you can write about them convincingly.  When character development is done correctly it adds depth to characterization, and it makes readers understand the characters and not feel cheated when the story has ended. 

 “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 must be written on all of your main characters, the protagonist, antagonist, and major characters it doesn’t have to be long it can be a few paragraphs just enough to feel confident that you understand your character. 

What does your character want?  What will she do to get it?  What is she willing to give up keeping her secret? Motivation is what makes us have empathy with the character and helps us care about what happens to them.  According to Orson Card’s book, Characters and Viewpoint, “The most important tool that will help your audience believe in your characters is elaboration of motive.”

Is she honest? Is she stingy, generous, or what?  Is she happily married or does she cheat on her husband?  Is she a professional woman?   Your answers don’t have to be long they can be short.  What would he like to change about himself? What is his greatest weakness? How tall is she?  How old? What color is her hair? What does she look like?

Reference:

Orson S Card; Characters and Viewpoint; Writer’s Digest

Robert J Ray; The Weekend Novelist; Dell

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Creating a Character Sketch

By Lanee’ Blunt

Write a character sketch--
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Character development is important when writing a short story.  You must know your characters to make your story convincing. Writing a character sketch will help you, but most new writers hate this preliminary work.  They want to dive right in and start writing the story, which is fine, but having the character sketch saves you from feeling lost and not knowing how your character will react in a certain situation.

When a character sketch is done correctly it helps you understand your characters by digging into their background, you’ll feel that you know them better than you do your own friends.  According to Robert J. Ray’s book, The Weekend Novelist, “You do character sketches to practice pulling useful traits from the real world onto the page, where you combine them with character qualities from your reading experience.

What is Included in a Character Sketch

A character sketch is an outline on each of your major characters.  You ask questions and answer them.  What does your character want?  What drives him? How does he handle the obstacles in his path?  When he has a problem how does he handle it?  What does he do too much of?  How did he spend last week before the story opened? This seems silly at first, but you will be surprised just how this will lead you into character development.

Background Information Leads to Motivation

Don’t worry about getting your sentences perfect or if you have used the right grammar.  The sketch is a place for your imagination.  Think about your character as a real person where did she go to school?  What kind of student was she?  What are her early childhood experiences?  What is her occupation? What year was she born?  Background information leads to motivation because early experiences may have forced her to do what she is doing.

Sketch the Personality

Is she honest? Is she stingy, generous, or what?  Is she happily married or does she cheat on her husband?  Is she a flirt?   Your answers don’t have to be long they can be short.  For example, Robert Jones never wanted to be married so when he was forced into marriage, by Joanna getting pregnant, it made him a bitter man.

Sketch the Physical

Describe the characters physical appearance in the character sketch, so when you are ready to write the story you already know what she looks like.  How tall is she?  How old? What color is her hair? What does she look like?

When writing a character sketch you don’t have to write the answers like you are writing an essay.  Just a few notes; in outline form, will be fine.

Reference:

Robert J. Ray; The Weekend Novelist; Dell

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How to Write Back Story for Character Development

Back story is crucial for your story, but new writers find it hard to weave it into the short story.  Here are some tips for character development.

By Lanee' Blunt

Back story is important in a short story, because it helps the reader imagine the ongoing story, so when they read your story, they come to it with the purpose of enjoying the story life and caring about your characters.  You do not want the reader to think about, “Now why did the author write that”.  Sometimes new writers write too much information and too much back story.

When back story is done correctly it adds depth to characterization, and it makes readers understand the characters better than they do their friends.  Sometimes back story leads to motive.

Back Story Takes Time to Create

Back story is part of character development, and can be done in the character sketch.  You must ask the right question, for example, what important childhood experience affects him right now?  What would he like to change about himself? What is his greatest weakness? You must ask the questions but also come up with the right answers for that particular story that is not out of character for him.

Back Story is Important

Your back story has to go someplace, for instance it can’t just be filler.  It has to be relevant to the story that you are telling, and must be interesting.

Back Story Has to Be Planned

If you have information that you want to put into your story, what is so important about it that the reader must know?  Will this information help the reader understand the story better?  Does the back story help to define your character?  These questions have to be answered before you begin the story; if not then you may have to stop writing the first draft and answer the questions.

Avoid the Back Story at the Beginning of the Story

“The point of departure from the present into a flashback must be carefully chosen,” according to Leonard Bishop’s book, Dare to be a Great Writer.   The back story cannot be added at the beginning of the story because you must start the story off strong when the action is happening. Let your character breathe then add back story.

Back story Can Be Done in a Scene or Exposition

If you have a lot of information, you may not want to add it to the story in exposition.  This can be done by having the character to think back to the flashback, and write a full scene.

A short piece of information can be added as exposition in the character’s point of view, with a few sentences or paragraphs filling information that the reader has to know so that they can understand the story.

Back story can be easy to master with a little thought and practice.

Reference:

Leonard Bishop; Dare to be a Great Writer; Writer’s Digest

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How to Develop Believable Vivid Characters

Building believable characters for your short stories starts with a character sketch. Create great characters for your fiction.

By Lanee' Blunt

Most new writers hate the preliminary work that it takes to write a good short story.  They want to dive right into writing the story thinking that it is a waste of time to put so much work in before you write the short story.  This may be fine, up to a point, but the writer has no choice but to come back to the preliminary stage when feeling lost or blocked.

Tips for Developing Characters

What’s in a name?  Give your protagonist and the antagonist a name.  What do they look like?  How does the protagonist dress, and where does she live? Take each character separately and pick them apart.  Where did they go to school?  Is the character an only child, or does he have siblings.  What are the names of the siblings? You will find yourself understanding the story much better than you did with just an outline.

Character Motivations are Important

New fiction writers should always know the motivation of their 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.  Motivation is what makes us have empathy with the character and helps us to care about what happens to them.  According to Orson Card’s book, Characters and Viewpoint, “The most important tool that will help your audience believe in your characters is elaboration of motive.” What does your character want?  What will she do to get it?  What is she willing to give up keeping her secret?

Write a Back-story for Important Characters

When you write a back-story for your character’s it helps you to understand who they are.  First you have to know your characters before you can write about them convincingly. I usually write a back-story for my protagonist.  Maybe something has happened to her that shaped her life, a good experience or a bad one.  “Secrets lurk in the past and influence how people behave in the present,” according Robert Ray’s book, The Weekend Novelist.

Ask Questions about the Characters and Answer Them

There are a lot of questions that you can ask in the preliminary stage that will lead to good characterization.  What is your character’s weakness, what are their strengths?  Who is stopping the character from getting what she wants.  Does she have an enemy? What is her greatest accomplishment or greatest failure?  These are just some of the questions that you can ask for your character sketch. 

Writing a character sketch helps you to understand who your characters are and what makes them tick.

Sources:

Orson S Card; Characters and Viewpoint; Writer’s Digest

Robert J Ray; The Weekend Novelist; Dell

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Developing Characters: How to Write a Character Sketch

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

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