Character Worksheets

April 2010
Vol. 1, Issue 4

3D Character and Question MarkYes, we make things up as we go along when writing a fiction novel, but the trick of it is to make the characters round, believable, complete with little quirks and idiosyncrasies. It's easy when it's just one character, but fill a room with three, four, maybe a whole lot more characters that move the story along and sometimes things get a bit lost in the shuffle. Knowing general things, such as hair and eye color, height, and weight is good, but read it again. It sounds like a BOLO (Be On Look Out) for, well, just about anyone. So how do we create a character that our readers will not just relate to (heaven sakes, some of them we don't want anyone to relate to!), but more importantly believe in?

Ruth S. Alderson, a member of the Chico Writers Group and well-versed in editing - definitely a source you want to refer to when it comes time to clean up your manuscript and send it out - reminds us frequently that while certain pieces of information might never make it onto paper, it's important for you, the author, to know intimate details about your character, place, setting, and so on.

For some of us, that means sitting down and spending some time with our characters, getting to know them better, understanding what motivates them, what irritates them, confuses them, sends their head into a whirlwind.

Herein are several online resources with character worksheets and Q & A pages to help you create a memorable, believable, round character:

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2 comments:

Stormy said...

Great resource. Thanks!

Apr 3, 2010, 6:50:00 PM
dolorah said...

This will definitely come in handy. Thanks for the resources.

......dhole

Apr 4, 2010, 12:14:00 AM

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