Likable and believable

[FangedSmile]

When creating characters there are a few rules. They're important if you want likable characters. The first rule is not to Mary-Jane your character. No one is perfect and you'll find that more human characters are easier to relate to.For example:

Waking up to the jeering voice on the radio, eighteen-year-old Broddy Johnson stretched and stepped out of bed. Being a morning person, he showered, dressed, and headed downstairs. He was greeted by his mom, smiling warmly as she set a plate of pancakes down in front of his seat at the breakfast table. Broddy said a quick thank you and dug in.

"Hurry," his mother warned, tapping her watch.

Broddy nodded and headed to his car to begin the trip to school. Once there, Broddy caught his reflection in the door. Thanking God that it was another pimple-less day. He stood, a towering six-foot-one giant of a man, peering over the sea of heads. He knew today would be a good day because it was a game day and he was, as always, the star. With his letterman jacket pulled snugly against his muscular arms, he strode the halls and girls fell at his feet, dreaming of wearing the jacket and being held in his powerful arms. His head held high with pride, Broddy lifted his arm and waved jauntily at his many friends.

Below his world of grace and perfection, however, was a slight boy with a shock of brown hair who was on his knees as he clutched his backpack. His hands shot out, snatching up his books at every available moment while he struggled not to get crushed or trampled. Life for Skyler Warren was not one filled with tragedies at home. He just found it hard to connect with the world. Everyone else seemed to be fish swimming in a delicate pattern, and he was an amoeba, stuck on the ocean floor.

He gazed upon that world with hopeful eyes, though to look upon them would wrench at your heart, for they held longing without hope. Still, those who did look his way quickly recovered because he would look nervously away, not use to social graces. He saw Broddy's shoes and felt a sharp twinge in his chest. He had tried out for every team, and had been told he wasn't good enough. Story of his life, it seemed, was that he was never good enough.


Who do you like more? Also, do not Sob-Story your characters. Take the plot into consideration. If you want pity for your characters, make them innocent and THEN do something to them. The readers will awww and feel bad more than they would with a long sob-story. If you want a sad past then simply make the character average, and overlooked like the second character in the above story.

The character simply cannot connect to others. This will work very well if your story is set in high school, even college. Maybe your character has been kicked to the curb by the world and something amazing happens and it's up to that person to save it. Well, that makes a conflict as your character may decide it's not worth saving. Ah, drama. I think you all get my point so I'll move on.

Take what happens to your character into consideration and look up traits. Do not just have your character loose their parents and cry about it. Instead look up different personality traits depending on age. Research, research, research.

Now, for all my characters, after the research is done, i make profiles. They look like this.

Name:
Age:
Birth date:
Zodiac Sign:
Blood Type:
Height:
Allergies:
Hobby:
(Twist): (The twist is something the reader finds out later. Like say your twenty-three year old man's-man athlete named Bob. Used to be a girl named Kimberly.)

Basic Description:


-------------------
Current Information
-------------------
>family background

>birth place

>history, background

>home

>Possessions, make-up, jewelry, etc.

>Pets


--------------------
Physical Description
--------------------
>hair style (Mullet? Bowl cut? French twist?)

>eyes

>body (Fat, skinny, muscular, awkward)

>Physical condition

>marks,scar,tattooing

>clothing (Drab, or fab?)


------------
Personality
------------
>likes

>dislikes

>fears

>goals

>hobbies

>occupation

>favorite food

>least favorite food

>most prized possession (important or emotional value)

>vernacular (way of speaking)

>Psychological condition

>character behavior

>aptitude

>social and other pressure, problems

>relationships (with who and what kind)

>beliefs, superstition, moral value

>Positive characteristics

>negatives characteristics

>Personality

>Quirks, Habits

------------
Abilities
------------
>Physical

>magical

>other


For supporting characters i add how they met the main character, what their role is, if they help or hurt the main character and how. That's it. It takes some planning and sometimes i recommend role-playing as the character first as you may type out habits you normally wouldn't think of.

[FangedSmile]

So you know i'm not full of it. Here is another support for creating profiles.

Using Character Sheets


Writing fiction is a bit like baking a cake. You need the right ingredients in the right amounts or it will turn out awful. For fiction you need the right combination of plot, action, description and character development to bring your story to life for your reader.

Character development can be one of the most important things about writing fiction. You want to create a realistic group of characters to move your plot along and to do that you need to know them. But how much do you really have to know about them before you start writing?

Well, that depends on the kind of story you are writing. The length of your tale will dictate the amount of character information you will need to make them come to life. For simplicity's sake, I've broken my character sheet down into what I use for each type of writing. Your character sheets may vary.

Flash Fiction

Writing flash fiction is one of the hardest types of writing. You have to create a story with only a bare minimum of words and it has to make sense. For most flash fiction, you only need the most basic character information.

Name:
Age:
Height:
Weight:
Hair color and style:
Eye color:
Complexion and skin tone:
Character's body build:

These should be enough to create a flash fiction character.

Short Stories

Short stories have a higher word count, so the characters in those should be more developed. You have more leeway with your character's descriptions and can even give background information, which will make them more real for your readers. Use the above information, then add the following:

Identifying marks:
Facial features:
Hand features:
Scent:
Mannerisms or gestures:
Character back story:


Novellas and Novels

Novellas and novels require the most detailed characters because they are as much character driven stories as plot driven. Character sheets with more detailed physical description, personality traits, and an extensive background will go a long way to making your story one that pulls a reader in and keeps them reader from beginning to end. Use all of the above plus the following:

Strongest personality traits:
Weakest personality traits:
Needs of the character:
Ambitions:
Father's name:
Age:
Physical appearance:
Mother's name:
Age:
Physical appearance:
Sibling's names and descriptions:
Favorite sayings:
Interests and hobbies:
Favorite foods:
Favorite colors:
Pets:
Education:
Religion:
Financial situation:
Future plans:
Possessions this character values most:
What drives your character:
How does your character handle conflict:
What is standing in your character's way:
What is their favorite room and why?
What vehicle do they drive:
Favorite sport(s):
What are your character's prejudices:
How does your character feel about love:
About crime:
What is their neighborhood like:
What is your character's philosophy on life:
What is your character's family life like:

You should also have a rough background and timeline for this character, from childhood through the start of the story. Break it down into 5 year spans, unless your character is fairly old, then go with 10 year spans. Finally, have a profile summary, taking everything you have for the character and write up a one or two paragraph summary. It is a good way to focus your character's information, and could be used in your story.

Book Series

When writing a series of books about the same characters, it is important to keep some kind of record of their traits. Do not rely on your memory when it comes to writing each book. As an avid reader of series books, it is amazing the number of times a character's eyes have been dark blue in one book and dark brown in another then back to blue. While most casual readers won't catch that kind of mistake, your dedicated readers will. It costs you nothing to keep a notebook with your character sheets and reference it when writing the next book in your series. It will go a long way to keep the continuity of your books intact.

A note on describing clothing. Unless the clothing change is crucial to your story's plot, limit your fashion descriptions. You do not need to tell every single piece of clothing your character is wearing. A basic idea of their attire is enough for most readers.

Your characters are as important to your story as your plot. Developing them will help bring your tale to life, but taking the time to plan them out prior to writing is a great way to make them real to you and your reader.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Happy Writing!

Demon Squirrel of Doom

[B. B. Wolf]

Just a couple of questions on this. When you write down some of these descriptions, like the hair color and style for example, how do you do it? Would you just say brown, french twist? Or do you put it down here as you would in the story? I only ask because while I have no trouble visualizing what I see, it's sometimes hard to convey that into words with out putting too much effort into it.

[FangedSmile]

These really matter with the length of your story and to get you to really think abolut who the character is. If you can see them in your head but don't know how you would write their appearance in a story then you can write: brown, frenchtwist. As you write them you'll learn more about them and find a way to introduce them and a bit of their personality in the same paragraph. For example, if your character looks like snookie you won't talk about hair style or skin tone, you'll just say an oompa loompa with long hair and a duck face downing a jagerbomb.

[B. B. Wolf]

Lol, I'll keep that in mind! And thanks for the advice, I think I have a couple of ideas now. The only other question I have on these character profiles is, when writing these out, how do I put the character down. For instance, I have this story where the main protagonist starts off in this world, but ends up in another within the first chapter. So would it be better to fill this out as he is in Earth and then add/make changes to it as the story progresses, or just make him as he will be when he enters the new world?

[FangedSmile]

Characters change through the story as you get to know them better. If you know how your character will change then you can write that down. Bacisally these sheets are to help you get down character ideas. You know how sometimes TV shows really only get good during the second season when the actors have figured out their roles and the writers really know who they're writing? Well, with books and movies you don't always have a long saga to use while developing the characters, so it's good to have them in your head before you start.

What I've been trying recently is picking a scene that has little to do with my story, such as a trip to the grocery store, or a ride on a bus, and inserting my character into the scene. If they seem too cliche or blend directly into the background then I know the reader won't be engaged. Once I get the characters to basicaly tell the scene for me (being interesting and sort of taking command of the scene) I'll write them out in the profile.

If the idea of the story is that the character changes, then think about who you want your character to become, and then thing about the bad traits of that. For example, you could start out with the hero- the guy who would never leave a coworker in a burning building and will actively rush into danger to save people. That's great for TV, but in the real world those people get firefighters killed. If they had ran outside the buildign and told firefighters who was still inside and where, then the firefighters are well informed and only need to rescue one person instead of two. But you start out wit the hero complex and let it develop into level-headed bravery as the story goes on. If you want a character who is a rich, smart lawyer, have him start out as an overpriviledged asshole who causes a car accident that puts him in a wheelchair, and gives him no one to blame but himself. So when you write the profile you think about who your character SHOULD BE, how they can become that way, and who they start out as. Don't let it influence your story too much though, because part of writign is lettign the story develop on its own.