Category Archives: Character Developement

Author, Book, Character Developement, Characters, Creating Real Life Characters, Creative Writing, Emotions

Check List for Creating Characters

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Creating Writing Characters Plus Check List Guide

These are my notes from week 7 of my Character Development class.

Some tips to tell how to create characters in your story. A good story has characters that are unique.

-Give names to your characters-each of them need a name and personality so one’s readers can identify with them.

-Picture how your characters look- Imagine how your character look by appearance. It could be about the clothes they wear or even the devices they use. For me I went through magazines to find my characters that said HELLO and matched what I had envision they would be if I came across them on the street.

-Create problems for your characters- Remember your characters need problems or conflicts, so it will add more meaning to your story. Show, don’t tell your reader about the threat the characters are facing or problems they may have.

-Good guys and bad guys- Protagonist/Antagonist, Hero/Villain. A good story is one that tells about the good and bad. In this way, your readers will learn about each character and it will make them want to read more of your story.

-Make your characters have friends and enemies- Your characters need both. It is in this way to make your readers feel that your character is real.

Create characters- A creative writer knows how to create characters. Each character must be unique and make readers care about them. To create good characters, you can look at your friends, anyone around or animals and nature.

-Decide your story’s viewpoint- Before you start your story, you need to decide whether you want to tell the reader everything related to your characters at once or if you want to reveal it in st ages. That is your call.

Make power words- Powerful words are very important in story-telling. Using powerful words is like having a magic wand. So think and write vividly as much as you can think of.

-Make characters speak- Make your character speak to each other or think. This will help your readers hear your characters talking and get to know them.

-Edit your story- After you finish your first story, give yourself time to rest before starting to edit. So it is easy to find mistakes in one’s story. And find out all the errors including spelling and grammar errors.

Author, Blog, Books, Character Developement, Creative Writing, Writing, Writing Advice

Character Development

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My class “ Character Development” started Monday night. The class was amazing and I have six more to go. Learning how to make our characters strong, believable, lovable, loathed, and focused is something we all should strive for as writers. For as an avid reader, I want to fall in love with my character or hate them so badly I want to see how the book ends. Most times I follow through with the liking of a character. There are some books by the time it ends I wish the one I fell for would just go away as my alliances has shifted to the villain who is suddenly amazing.

If we just stick to the physical aspect of what our characters look like ,while we may describe them so well our readers can image them in their minds, you can only go so far with looks. Well that is what they say right? So invest in your characters, go to the root of what makes them who they are, what they are and why I should as a reader get so invested in this one person. For if you don’t chances are the book will not be read

So the instructor asked how strong were our characters in our book? Do they make the reader get invested in them relatively soon or does it drag on? The format my professor suggested was very simple and something I am sure most of you are all aware of.

Who? Where? What? How? When? Why?

Simple enough but then break it down even further. Who did what where and how did they do it and why? Or you can say how did it happen to this other character that is in the book? The possibilities are endless depending how big your cast is in the book.

So in my mind I mentally went through the two books I am trying to get published and did the math so to speak to see if the characters in those books matched up to the rigor of those six questions.

Fortunately they did, and I did not even know I was doing it correctly. I was happily surprised. For in those two books the main characters I broke down to the core. Not just the physical aspects of what they looked liked. But I talked about their character: weakness, likes, fears, hopes,goals,strengths and so on. I started each character from birth and worked my way up. By doing that you give your person the best chance of working whether it is to be loved or hated. Without that, for me as a reader, the book no matter how well written, will be either read and honestly reviewed or just not read at all.

Each class I will share what I have learned, in hopes I can pass on some insight to others so we can all somehow improve our craft.