Character creation, two words that for any writer or anyone who has ever role-played or played a roleplaying game (table top, LARP, or video game) is familiar with.   Without a character you can’t play the game, but what about writing?  Character creation is just as important to a writer as it is with a gamer.  You don’t have a story without characters.  Sure you can have an idea, a plot, setting and all the details that go with it, but without a protagonist or antagonist you have nothing to put all of that into play. Characters are like the actors in a movie, you can’t have a movie without them.  But how does one come up with characters?  the answer may seem simple, or complex.  Truth be told, there is no right or wrong way to creating characters.  Everyone, writer and gamer alike, has a method.

A common way to start creating characters is by starting with a character sheet.  It is a simple and effective way to figure out the basics about the character being created.  Name, race, gender, physical attributes (such as height, weight, eye color, etc.), skills, dexterity, charisma, wisdom, strength, and constitution.  These determine how wise or strong a character is.  From there it is up to the creator to determine the characters back story.  The back story is what develops the character and gives the creator a starting point to determine the story they write about.

While character sheets are a nice structured way of creating characters, they can be limiting.  It’s great for gaming as you need to know what you character can do, and over time they can learn more skills and the like.  But not everyone wants to pull out a sheet each time a new character is created.  Some people may not like them or they just don’t fit the story.

When I create characters I approach it in a couple different ways.  Sometimes it starts with an idea, and I create a character that can fill the role.  I figure out what their back story is, what they look like on basic terms (height, weight, eye and hair color) and go from there.  Sometimes I come up with a name right away for them, other times I have to look for a name that fits the character.  On occasion it’s the character themselves who tell me their name.  In order to keep them all organized I have a notebook.  It contains the basic information along with a summary of their background.  This way if I need to I can look back at the information and adjust it or make sure I am remaining consistent with my descriptions.

Sometimes characters play very minor roles, they are shopkeepers, policemen, etc. They appear now and again with little story behind them and their purpose is to help the main character along.  Supporting characters are important to any story, and most times, the location is part of the cast of characters.  But that doesn’t mean a minor character isn’t important or can’t be developed.

A few times when I struggled with determining a characters features, it had been suggested that I think of actors who might fit the character.  This can be good but at the same time there is a pitfall.  Describing the character in a way that creates the image of that actor then puts that actor’s image in the mind of the reader, and if the story comes to television or film, and that actor isnt cast in the role, readers may be disappointed. I try to avoid this as much as possible, mostly because it allows the reader to fill in the details of the character and have their own image.

One thing to remember when creating characters for stories – Ask lots of questions.  Asking questions is a great way to develop the character and flesh them out.  You get to know the characters this way which makes writing your story easier too because you know how the character will react to various situations.  At the same time you have the character’s back story which can be worked in from time to time to help the reader get to know them better.

Back to writing…