Here you'll get lots of tips, motivation and experience to finally write your novel |
Every novel has and needs them: characters. Learn how to invent them, develop them, and "make them real" with the help of this article. CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRES There are quite a few on the Internet. You can use some combined, fill in only one or two character sheets, or design your own character sheets. Below are four of the best I could find & use: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/the-character-questionnaire-you-need-to-complete/... https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/character-questionnaire https://azure.wgp-cdn.co.uk/app-writers-online/posts/CharacterProfileTemplate.pd... http://www.kkitts.net/downloads/files/CharacterWorksheetKK.pdf The last two are rather shorter. I suggest combining them. THESE ARE THE TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO When creating characters, you definitely need to pay attention to two things. BELIEVABILITY Every character needs a handful of weaknesses, a past, desires and goals. In short: he must be like a human being. How does your character become believable? I'll tell you: through depth. Through details. He must be different from others and still seem human. A character MUST: be afraid of something have more than one bad habit (e.g. procrastination, apologizing too much, etc.) have a past -> include some flashbacks! have an inner conflict have a goal, a wish and a dream etc. One more thing: please don't describe a character's appearance with just "he had brown eyes and street-kid blond hair". Also mention in the character sheet and (best casually) in the story, the shape of the nose and eyes, the shape of the face, the color of the skin, the build and so on. That's why I can only urge everyone to develop the characters extensively. The (sample) readers will thank you for it. PURPOSE Don't randomly invent minor characters whose names no one can remember! If possible, try to "merge" or "cut out" minor characters. In any case, don't let them die so you don't have to take them out! |