This is not a post about character as in a person's character. It's about charaters, as in books and movies. Keep reading if you want to find out how I create characters.
First off, create a sort of form/character sheet. I gernerally use this one.
Full name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Personality:
Crush:
GF/BF:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Talents:
Description:
Other:
History:
Now, that seems like a bunch of random things. Here's the same form, but with a breif explanation of each word.
Full name: The full name of your character. Such as Lucy Rae McFly
Nickname: Any nicknames your character might have. Include deragatory/harmful nicknames.
Gender: This is pretty obvious, right?
Age: Pretty obvious?
Personality: Use a series of words to describe your character. Such as 'helpful, mistrusting, angrey, loving, silly, bubbly, fun, annoying' and any other adjectives you might come up with.
Crush: Who your character has a crush on.
GF/BF: Your character's boyfriend or girlfriend, if they have one.
Likes: A list of likes. Could be anything from apples to swimming to hand grenades. Both things your character likes to do, eat, see, and what types of people they like.
Dislikes: The opposite of above.
Strengths: This is different from likes. While your character may like some things, they may not be good at them, or the thing may not be able to be a strength. (like apples... how could that be a strength??)
Weaknesses: Opposite of above. Also things your characer doesn't like doing (such as telling lies)
Talents: Choose a few strengths (or even weaknesses, since telling convincing lies is a talent, albeit one we don't really want) and list them here. This is what your character is really good at.
Description: Describe how your character looks. Don't just find a picture and say 'that's it', take time to describe how your character looks. Let's face it, this is great practice for describing things when you're writing as well.
Other: Anything else not covered by the other topics you wnat to include.
History: This is where you write a bit about your character's past. Try to have a decent sized paragraph on this. You don't have to go in depth, just try to have their life outlined in simple sentances.
Now I shall show you a character I've created with this form. In the story this character is in, he is stranded on an island with the rest of his school class.
Full name: Markus James McKethe
Nickname: Mark
Gender: M
Age: 18
Personality: Kind, honest, loyal, stubbon, a little loud, funny, has ocasional bouts of moodiness, can be serious when needed to be.
Crush: It will most likely end up Rebecca
GF/BF: None
Likes: Jokes, honey, coffee, climbing, soccer and football, frisbees.
Dislikes: Losing, not having coffee, people who can't take a joke.
Strengths: Climbing, finding honey and coffee plants, identifying plants, general althleticism, endurance.
Weaknesses: Sprinting for much more than 25-ish yards, making things that stand up to a stiff breeze, math, art of any kind (he's horrible at it).
Talents: Finding and identifying plants, finding honey, climbing, endurance.
Description: Markus is slightly above average height, at 6 feet tall. He is pretty muscular since he has been working out for four years. He has reddish brown hair and green eyes. He has huge feet that he constantly trips over.
Other: He is very clumsy, klutzy would be a beter discription.
History: Markus was born to a 17 year-old girl who made a huge mistake. She knew she wasn't ready for taking care of an infant, so she put him up for adoption. Almost right away he was adopted. Markus grew up in a loving family. He has seven siblings, two sisters who were born naturaly to his parents after they adopted him, one brother who was also 'natural' child, an adopted brother/sister set of twins, and two more adopted brothers, both older than him. He learned how to make himself heard by having that lot for a family. His older brothers are both married. The oldest has two kids already and the younger of them has one child. Markus had a best friend named Rob when he was 13. One day Rob dissapeared and was never found. Markus has always felt guilty about that. He feels as if he could have stopped it.
And there you have it! That is my way of creating a character. Of course, any character that's created has a great chance of growing into something you weren't planning one, so don't worry if that happens and ride the tides of your imagination!
ba-dee ba-dee ba-dee, That's all folks!
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