Tips and Truths with A.A.C. - Creating Characters

By Melissa Cobb

 

This week's random truth is about hit singer Bruno Mars.

Before you begin writing a story, it is helpful to write down important information about your main character or characters. This will give you some grounding in your story. Here are some tips to get started.

1. Start with basic information. Is your main character human? If yes, specify the gender, be it male, female, or somewhere in between. Write down your character’s age, whether he or she is in school (specify whether elementary, middle, etc.) or has a job. Make note of what the job is, if your character has one. Include family members and whether or not your character is married, single, or in some kind of romantic relationship.


2. Next, think about your character's physical appearance. Tall and lanky? Short and fat? Tall and fat? Short and skinny? What color hair? Brown? Red? Black? You get the idea. However, if your character is not human, come up with a name for the type of living organism your character is and attributes of it. What does it look like? Where does it live? How does it typically behave? How does it reproduce? Does it have any special powers? Any enemies or predators?


3. Next, describe your character’s personality. Is he or she witty, kind, or selfish? What are his or her fears? How does this character deal with authority?


4. Finally, describe your character’s likes, dislikes, and quirks. What is your character’s favorite color(s)? Movie(s)? Book(s)? TV show(s)? With quirks, make them as specific as possible. This makes your character feel more real. For instance, does your character only eat green M&Ms? Have a favorite pair of sneakers/flip-flops/sandals that he or she must wear everyday, no matter what the weather is like? The sky is the limit as long as you are specific.


5. Now, knowing all of this, you are ready to put your character into the context of your story. To do this, put your character in a situation out of his or her status quo and write down how your character would deal with this situation. A good way to think about this is that your character wants something badly but is having a hard time getting it.


6. As you write your story, keep your notes you made about your character with you so you can refer to them and make changes, if needed. The most important thing to remember when creating characters is to be as specific as possible. The more specific you are, the more authentic and real your characters become.

Happy Writing!

Random Truth of the Week: Bruno Mars was one of the songwriters for Cee-Lo Green’s hit song “Forget You.”