selective. By the end of this step, you’ll be an expert on your own characters and world. What you reveal in the actual books to readers will be a percentage of what you know, but the depth of detail will automatically be in place as you’re writing.
With any novel or series, you’ll begin with a rough concept that you’ll expand and refine. The initial idea can come from a variety of sources. In my case, I had a set of short stories where I liked the characters and wanted to do more with them. I’ve known other writers that had one clearly visualized scene but nothing else. Since series are character-driven, I put most of my energy there first. Your setting can be treated similar to a character according to your genre, and there is an element to how your setting will affect your characters and vice-versa. To build up initial details quickly, I used templates as prompts. I’ve included both my character and setting templates as examples in the following sections.
Thoughts on Character Creation and Development
Put simply, your characters will make or break your story. Most of us have tried to sit through movies or get through books where there’s no emotional attachment for the characters, and it becomes a painful process. If a reader isn’t motivated to care about your characters, other elements like a great setting and plot usually can’t compensate. This is why you sometimes have to allot more time to this stage, especially if the plot or setting was the source of your original concept idea.
My templates are very detailed, but I don’t want them to seem overwhelming . I’ve added and changed them over the course of several years, and when you start out you don’t have to fill in every single category for every single character. Focus on what you need first then add more over time.
When you fill out a template for a character, keep in mind a quote from Aristotle: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” All of the traits and details of characters are meant to help you bring them to life in your imagination—your creativity adding to the equation and making them behave in your mind similar to actual people. When you write a character long enough, the original reference material is needed less and less.
Whenever possible, brainstorm ways to reveal character traits through action and behavior (show) rather than directly leaking description to the reader (tell). For example, one of my main characters smirks to the point it’s his usual smile—and over time his actions reveal he can be a mischievous person.
Another thing to watch is revealing background information through dialogue—making sure that the information fits the situation from a reader standpoint and isn’t just a device to sneak in information. In some situations this can be borderline, but the main thing is to avoid dialogue that sounds stiff, long-winded, or out-of-place when read out loud.
Once you’ve created template files for all of your major characters, a great warm-up exercise is to create short stories and scenes with multiple characters interacting. These may or may not be used in your actual novels, but it will give you a sense of relationships and help you establish the habits needed to write on a regular basis. These also make great marketing material and extras when you later promote your series, so nothing is wasted.
Fictional Character Development Template
(Originally Published in 2009 in How to Create Fictional Characters ; Revised 2013)
Name
Is the character’s name significant?
What is its origin?
Who named the character?
Does the character like it or hate it?
Does the character also have any aliases or nicknames?
Birthday
Even if this never gets mentioned, this helps keep track of a character’s
With any novel or series, you’ll begin with a rough concept that you’ll expand and refine. The initial idea can come from a variety of sources. In my case, I had a set of short stories where I liked the characters and wanted to do more with them. I’ve known other writers that had one clearly visualized scene but nothing else. Since series are character-driven, I put most of my energy there first. Your setting can be treated similar to a character according to your genre, and there is an element to how your setting will affect your characters and vice-versa. To build up initial details quickly, I used templates as prompts. I’ve included both my character and setting templates as examples in the following sections.
Thoughts on Character Creation and Development
Put simply, your characters will make or break your story. Most of us have tried to sit through movies or get through books where there’s no emotional attachment for the characters, and it becomes a painful process. If a reader isn’t motivated to care about your characters, other elements like a great setting and plot usually can’t compensate. This is why you sometimes have to allot more time to this stage, especially if the plot or setting was the source of your original concept idea.
My templates are very detailed, but I don’t want them to seem overwhelming . I’ve added and changed them over the course of several years, and when you start out you don’t have to fill in every single category for every single character. Focus on what you need first then add more over time.
When you fill out a template for a character, keep in mind a quote from Aristotle: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” All of the traits and details of characters are meant to help you bring them to life in your imagination—your creativity adding to the equation and making them behave in your mind similar to actual people. When you write a character long enough, the original reference material is needed less and less.
Whenever possible, brainstorm ways to reveal character traits through action and behavior (show) rather than directly leaking description to the reader (tell). For example, one of my main characters smirks to the point it’s his usual smile—and over time his actions reveal he can be a mischievous person.
Another thing to watch is revealing background information through dialogue—making sure that the information fits the situation from a reader standpoint and isn’t just a device to sneak in information. In some situations this can be borderline, but the main thing is to avoid dialogue that sounds stiff, long-winded, or out-of-place when read out loud.
Once you’ve created template files for all of your major characters, a great warm-up exercise is to create short stories and scenes with multiple characters interacting. These may or may not be used in your actual novels, but it will give you a sense of relationships and help you establish the habits needed to write on a regular basis. These also make great marketing material and extras when you later promote your series, so nothing is wasted.
Fictional Character Development Template
(Originally Published in 2009 in How to Create Fictional Characters ; Revised 2013)
Name
Is the character’s name significant?
What is its origin?
Who named the character?
Does the character like it or hate it?
Does the character also have any aliases or nicknames?
Birthday
Even if this never gets mentioned, this helps keep track of a character’s
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