I started taking story requests in 2014. Little did I know my skills would be called on for 400+ story sketches and short stories. (To say nothing of my own collection of over 100 stories.)
Working with members of the small creative community of Subeta was a great way for me to learn what people want from their characters. It also made me think about what’s essential for a basic character.
This guide is adapted from the intake form I’ve been using for years to help half-formed characters come to life. It will touch on other basic story elements but its primary focus is on building a character.
Name
Like any living, breathing person, your character is going to have a name that most people associate with them. If your character’s full name is Chester D. Longsnout, he might be Chessie to his girlfriend and Snoz to that particular bully he’d like to pop in the nose. To most people, he’ll be plain old Chester. I don’t recommend more than two or three nicknames for your main character. Too many names get confusing for the reader.
Setting
You need a basic idea of where your story is taking place. Characters react to their environment. An average day at the market is very different for a desert traveler than for an arctic nomad who goes to the nearest village once a month or an art student living in a busy metropolis.
Personality
Make a list of adjectives that best describe your character. How does each and every one of these play into the story? How they speak (sarcastic vs. professional), how they act (total clown vs. serious all the time) and what they choose to do (studying for five hours every night vs. playing beer pong) are all affected by personality.
Point of View (PoV)
Does your character do all the talking? Do they address your reader to lure them into the story? Or is a narrator telling this story? You’ll want to determine what point of view you’ll use right away and stick to it.
Physical Traits
You can give every detail down to your character’s shoe size but most readers won’t thank you for detail overload. Give details that are critical to the story (i.e. your character is the only redhead in a village of silver-haired scholars or your character’s facial scar is hugely important to their backstory). If you must give a heavy physical description, try to break it up within the first few chapters – even your die-hard fans won’t want to read three page-long paragraphs about your two main characters. Unless you’re Leo Tolstoy, I suppose.
If your story will be published digitally with art or your book will have detailed cover art, you’ll likely only need minimal physical description. A picture really is worth a thousand words, in these cases.
Likes/Dislikes
While I’m not a fan of heavy physical descriptions, I do highly recommend details that reveal more about who your character is as a person. Do they have a favorite food or a clothing item they wear until it falls apart? On the flip side, is there something they hate so much that the mere mention sends them into a rage? Let your character’s quirks speak through their likes and dislikes.
Relationships
Your character has to interact with somebody. Who is that somebody? What’s the relationship? It doesn’t have to be romantic. It can be a family member, a friend, a roommate, or a co-worker. It could be someone they met today while returning a library book. It could even be their pet or that third house plant they managed to kill this month. The possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
Know your character as you begin to write your story. By pinning down these basic elements, you can take your concept for a story from a half-baked idea to a fully formed, glorious character worthy of an attention-grabbing novel. (Or series!)