When I was a teenager, my friends and I would all go over to Joe’s house, head down into his basement, and become different characters for the evening. We played the popular role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In a role-playing game (RPG), each person takes on the persona of a character in the story: a fighter, a wizard, a thief, or whoever else he or she wants. Sitting around the big table on mismatched chairs, we each had a couple of things in front of us: a can of Jolt Cola or Mountain Dew, a bag full of strange dice, and a character sheet.
The character sheet is the important part. It told us everything we needed to know about our character in order to play them convincingly.
When a writer sits down to craft a short story or novel, one of the most important tasks is to be able to write their characters convincingly. In order to do this, a writer might want to take a cue from the teenage role-players. Use a character sheet.
The more you know about your character, the easier it will be to have them act, speak and respond in believable and appropriate ways in your story.
Character Basics
1. Full Name
2. Nicknames – who, what, and why?
3. Age
4. Physical description – height, weight, coloration
5. Career
6. Hobbies
7. Education level
8. Family, friends, and love interests
9. Style of clothing, accessories
10. Where do they live?
The Character’s Past
1. Family dynamics
2. What kind of grades did they get?
3. Were they teased, the teaser, or neither as a child?
4. Any significant trauma? (Accident, abuse)
5. Any emotional upheaval? (Divorce, death of a friend)
The Character’s Strengths and Weaknesses
By now, this should be easy to figure out. Your character’s strengths and weaknesses will depend largely on their history and their basic information. Basically, this asks you to describe HOW the character dealt with the things that happened in the past. It will, in turn, tell you how they will deal with them in the future.
For example: if Mary’s mother abandoned her and her brother when they were young, and then Mary’s husband left her unexpectedly, Mary would either become very strong, and stubbornly independent, or become weak and constantly seek love and commitment.
A great way to help you figure out your fiction character’s strengths and weaknesses, you can do a simple exercise. Keeping in mind your character’s past and present situation, you should answer each of the following questions in no more than five minutes each.
1. If you character was at the beach and saw someone struggling in the water, what would they do?
2. If someone who had been dating your character for one month said “I love you!” how would they react?
3. If your character’s prize possession was stolen, how would they feel?
Simply answering those three questions will give you a lot of insight into what drives your characters to be the way they are. That, in turn, will help you determine how they will react to things that happen in your story. This writing exercise is a part of your character sheet.
Filling out an extensive character sheet for your fiction characters will give you further insight into how they will act and react in your story. Knowing about a character’s past, family life, hobbies, and experiences will help you as a writer create fully realistic and sympathetic characters. When my friend Joe became the great Wizard Snograt, he knew that he would never turn anyone into a frog since his mother had been turned into a fly years ago. When a writer creates a character, he or she should be able to identify not only what a character will do, but
