Sunday, August 27, 2017

Creating A Fictional Character


I am in the process of building a bible for my WIP. Since this is the first book in what will be a series, I am starting small - the main character, two ancillary characters, and a bit of background. What I would like to discuss today is how I am defining my characters - what information I feel that  I need to know about them, so that they will come across as real/believable.

Some of the information that I include is:

1. Character's full name and birth date.
2. Physical description of the character.
3. Physical location of the character.
4. Physical description of their home.
5. Background information: Where they were born, where they went to school, where they have worked, who their parents are, who their siblings are.
6.  What are their goals - what is important to them?
7. What is their moral compass?
8. What are their strong points?
9. What are their weak points?
10. What is this character's relationship with the other characters in the story?

When we are building our characters, we need to keep in mind whether they are meant to be a: protagonist, antagonist, background person, background person that moves the story along.

Above all - know the purpose of your character to your story. Without purpose, the character will be ill defined, and your story will flounder.

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(c) August 2017 Bonnie Cehovet
Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.




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