Character Creation Tips

Creating believable characters that readers can relate to is challenging for many writers. Good characters have depth, just like real people. They are neither entirely evil nor perfect and will have different motives for their behaviours, thoughts, and speech patterns.

So, how do you create such characters?

The trick is to get to know your characters well as if they were an actual person. You can try setting up an interview situation. Write out questions you could ask any person, and then write the answers from your character’s perspective. How would your character respond to the question: What’s your most outstanding achievement in life? You can pretend you are the character in different situations and think about how you would respond as the character.

Another excellent technique for creating in-depth characters is to build character notes on a document. You can use one of these templates or design your own, but each character has all the information like a biography, date of birth, major life events that have formed their character, and details about why they act they do. Referring to these character sheets as you write will keep you focused on keeping the character consistent in thought, word, and deed.