What a Character

Really good stories are not all PLOT. Their action and themes are closely bound to, if not driven by, complex and believable characters. The aim of the following questions and exercises is to help you make one of your characters more ROUND, 3-dimensional, fully human and real. They may help you to improve a figure who has already appeared in your writing, or to help you just get started on a story. (Note: I suspect most fiction writers discover their characters as they write their stories, and that their characters may even remain somewhat mysterious to their authors, but the following questions might be of some help regardless—or if you feel stuck.)

1) Write out a one-paragraph, descriptive sketch of your main character, focusing primarily on how this person is DIFFERENT from other people.

2) Answer at least 3 of the following question-groups. Your responses should be well-developed, believable, and consistent.

• Where is this character from, and when was he or she born? What is the economic and religious background of the character's relatives?  How large is the family, and does this person have brothers and sisters?  What is some of the family's history, significant events, problems?
• What is this character's build?  The color and style of his or her hair?  What clothes does he or she wear on formal and on casual occasions?  How would you describe the character's voice?  What are some of his or her physical habits—blushing, frowning, tugging on hair, resting chin on fist, wiggling foot when seated, etc.  How does this person walk?
• What are some of this character's favorite activities?  What does he or she do for excitement, for relaxation, for money?  Who are this person's friends?  How does this person relate to authority figures?  To strangers?  How gregarious is this person?  Any special skills?  Any special flaws or failings?
• What is the character's name?
• What are this person's greatest fears?  Greatest hopes?  What does he or she daydream about?  How well does the character understand him or herself?  What are this character's primary childhood memories?  What contradictions exist in this person's actions, self-image, world-view?  What does this person value most in life, and least?
• What are some of the most important events in the character's life?  Which ones especially contributed to how this person thinks and acts?  What significant choices has the person made?
• What is the most frightening dream this person ever had?  Describe it in detail.
• What other information can you add about this character?  Feel free to mention here general attributes as well as particularities.

3) Choose 2 or 3 of the tasks below and write out a detailed response.

• Consider some recent national or international news.  Describe in detail how your character would respond to the event.
• Describe this character through the eyes of another character, either real or imaginary: your mother, your best friend, the character's husband, the character's boss, etc.
• Imagine situations that would reveal something essential about your character, that would put him or her to a test, or that would dramatize his or her most interesting attributes.  Make a list of possible situations, with some exposition following each. (List at least three.)
• Write a detailed paragraph describing, through an objective third person narrator, an uneventful, relatively dull day in the life of your character, starting with the moment of waking.
• Repeat the "dull day" idea above, but this time use the first-person point of view.
• Write a diary entry, last will and testament, and job resume for the character (first-person point-of-view, of course).
• Describe your character twenty years from now.