Fiction Writer's Character Chart - EpiGuide.com If you're a fiction writer -- whether you're working on a novel, short story, screenplay, television series, play, web series, webserial, or blog-based fiction -- your characters should come alive for your reader or audience. The highly detailed chart below will help writers develop fictional characters who are believable, captivating, and unique. Print this page to complete the form for each main character you create. IMPORTANT: Note that all fields are optional and should be used simply as a guide; character charts should inspire you to think about your character in new ways, rather than constrain your writing. If this character chart is helpful, please let us know! Looking for more character questionnaires / charts?
Establishing the Right Point of View Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid "Stepping Out of Character" by Marg Gilks Return to Characters, Viewpoint, and Names · Print/Mobile-Friendly Version "Dalquist was shaking with rage, tears streaking down her face. Yikes! If you can see what's wrong with this excerpt, congratulations. What's wrong with the above excerpt? Paragraph one is ambiguous. Every scene should have only one POV character, and everything must be filtered through that POV character's perceptions. But, isn't it so much easier just to tell the reader what character X is thinking, rather than trying to show it in ways the POV character (and thus, the reader) can see and understand? Let's look at that again, and we'll see a hint: isn't it so much easier just to tell the reader what character X is thinking, rather than trying to show it in ways the POV character can see and understand? Yup: "show, don't tell." Yup: characterization. "Lexas didn't turn around. There's no confusion here. Find Out More...
Seven Common Character Types Seven Common Character Types by Terry W. Ervin II Fiction writers employ a variety of characters while weaving their tales. Beyond the standard definitions of protagonist (the main character in a literary work) and antagonist (the main character or force that opposes the protagonist in a literary work), recognizing the types of characters and the parts they play while reading an interesting story can add to the experience. In addition, a fuller understanding of the character types and their uses can increase a writer’s effectiveness in weaving his own fictional tales. Confidante- someone in whom the central character confides, thus revealing the main character’s personality, thoughts, and intentions. Example: In a story, Melvin Sanders is a detective on the trail of a serial killer. In this example Chops is a confidante. Dynamic Character - a character which changes during the course of a story or novel. In this example Ebenezer Scrooge is a dynamic character. Copyright © Terry W.
25 Things You Should Know About Character Previous iterations of the “25 Things” series: 25 Things Every Writer Should Know 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling And now… Here you’ll find the many things I believe — at this moment! 1. Without character, you have nothing. 2. A great character can be the line between narrative life and story death. 3. Don’t believe that all those other aspects are separate from the character. 4. The audience will do anything to spend time with a great character. 5. It is critical to know what a character wants from the start. 6. It doesn’t matter if we “like” your character, or in the parlance of junior high whether we even “like-like” your character. 7. It is critical to smack the audience in the crotchal region with an undeniable reason to give a fuck. 8. You must prove this thesis: “This character is worth the audience’s time.” 9. Don’t let the character be a dingleberry stuck to the ass of a toad as he floats downriver on a bumpy log. 10. 11. 12. 13. The law of threes. 15. 16. 17. 18.
CALLIHOO Writing Helps--Feelings Table Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad." Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings Writing Realistic Injuries Quick Contents Introduction General remarks What's normal?Reactions to injury - including emotional reactions, fainting and shock. Minor injuries - such as bruises, grazes and sprains Head injuries - from black eyes to severe concussions Broken bones Dislocated jointsCutting and Piercing - for various locations, including blood loss symptoms and figures. Introduction Characters climbing cliffs with broken arms or getting knocked out for an hour or so and then running around like nothing happened, bug me. I’m not any sort of medical expert - research for this article has come from a variety of sources from medical texts to personal experience – (I’m just a teeny bit accident prone…) I do historical reenactment and a large part of information here comes from the ‘traumatic injury’ (or ‘the nasty things that can happen to you in combat’ information we give the public and new members to make them go ‘urggh , I’m glad this isn’t for real’. Back to Quick Contents General Remarks What’s Normal…?
The 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character (revised) Quote from original Author(Beth):This list came about when, one day while struggling to develop a character for an upcoming Hunter game, my lovely roommate Nikki looked at me and said something like, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a list of questions you could go through and answer while you were making characters, so you'd make sure to consider all sorts of different elements in their personality?" I agreed, and that very evening we sat down over hot chocolate and ramen noodles to whip up a list of 100 appearance-, history-, and personality-related questions (which seemed like a nice even number) to answer as a relatively easy yet still in-depth character building exercise. Later on, we went through the list again, took out the questions that sucked (because there were a lot of them) and replaced them with better ones. What you see before you is the result of that second revision. Just don't email us specifically to tell us how much we suck. - Beth
Top Questions for Fictional Characters -- Questions to Help in Creating Characters Creating the more complex round characters takes time -- time spent thinking about how your characters look, where they're from, and what motivates them, for instance. The questions below provide structure to this all-important thought process. While the reader will not need to know all the details, it's important that you do. 1. Michael Adams ("Anniversaries in the Blood"), the novelist and writing professor, believes that setting is the most important element of any story. 2. In a similar vein, where did your character's life begin? 3. Though this might seem like an obvious question, it's important to make a clear decision about this before you begin writing -- otherwise, it's impossible to get the details right. 4. Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? 5. Is your character tall enough to see over the heads of a crowd at a bar or to notice the dust on the top of his girlfriend's refrigerator? 6. 7. 8. 9. Relationships -- how people interact with others -- reveal character.
Plot Diagram The Plot Diagram is an organizational tool focusing on a pyramid or triangular shape, which is used to map the events in a story. This mapping of plot structure allows readers and writers to visualize the key features of stories. The basic triangle-shaped plot structure, representing the beginning, middle, and end of a story, was described by Aristotle. Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson Happily Ever After? By exploring the decisions points in a tragedy, students consider how the plot of the story can change if the key characters make a different choice at the turning point. Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit Id, Ego, and Superego in Dr. Dr. Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan Exploring Satire with Shrek The movie Shrek introduces the satirical techniques of exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody. Analyzing Symbolism, Plot, and Theme in Death and the Miser Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization After exploring Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of H. Timeline
10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life This is Day 2 of 10 Days of Character Building The day in the life approach to developing a character is focused on describing a normal day in the character’s life before something important happens to change it. Most central characters begin a story in their normal world. The beauty of analyzing a character’s day is that there are always opportunities to delve as deeply into their actions as you want. As you assemble a person’s day you get a good idea of their traits and flaws. When approaching the daily routine, you can go a number of ways. Unique, Uncommon, Unusual Baby Names for Boys and Girls, (Male, Female, Meanings) Seven Keys To Unforgettable Characters | Bob Mayer's Blog Think of your favorite book. What the first thing that comes to mind when you bring it up in your brain? I’m willing to bet, it’s the characters. Most people relate to people, not things. Characters bring emotion to story, and emotion is what attaches readers to books. Here are some of the key lessons I’ve learned about character development over the years, which I’ll be covering in more detail next month in the Write It Forward on-line class on character: 1. 2. 3. What do you want? 4. What do you want? 5. Archetypes. 6. 7. These are just a few of the lessons I’ve learned about character over the years. Write It Forward! Like this: Like Loading... West Point Graduate, former Green Beret and NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer has had over 50 books published.