Do You Love Your Characters? Do You Love Details? Then Give Them the Spotlight They Deserve

I think one of the most important part of any work of fiction is the characters. I bet most everybody who just read that sentence said "Duh."And I'm so glad that you did because that means you agree. But that's not my point. I'm not trying to convince you that deep, unique characters are quintessential in stories. I'm not here to persuade you of their importance. This is for the people who already agree with me. Who love their fictional characters as if they were real people. Or maybe they don't love their characters, but love creating them. Whatever, on to my point.

I'm so obsessed with character detail. I try to make my characters are realistic as possible. As detailed and unique as I can. And sometimes, it's a little challenging to get all of that information out in your story. How do you casually slide your characters favorite food into the plot? Or what their dream job is? Or their favorite childhood memory? Especially when you want to do this for all of your characters? Better yet, how do you make it seem like an important detail? How do you make someone remember it? That's all very difficult to accomplish simply by writing it directly into your story.

So instead of trying to sneak all of that info into your story, why not make something completely dedicated to the details of your character? Crazy idea, right?

There's two good ways to accomplish this and I'll tell you what they are.

1. Charahub.com

For example, here’s my Charahub.
Here's a character for example.

• This website is the absolute best for character info/development. Even if you don't have your character already planned out, Charahub will certainly help you with that. The pages are set up to look like an opened book. The left side has a character image (optional) and then their name / name pronunciation / age / webpage / short description.

• Then the right side is where all of the in-depth information is. The right side, instead of lumping everything all together has 4 tabs: bio / images / questions / links. Instead of thinking all the categories you want to use, Charahub already has categories for you. All you have to do is fill them in. However you like. They're also HTML editable. And if you don't have an answer, or care to have an answer, for a certain category, then you can leave it blank and it won't show up on the page. Or if you simply don't have an answer at the time, you can fill in all the categories you do have answers for and then come back later and fill the ones you left blank. There are enough categories that will help you really, really describe your character. But if that's not enough, then check out the questions tab.

• The questions tab is really cool because it helps to add personality to your character. It's not just about the basics like age, location, appearance, family members, etc. It's really about who they are as a person. And just like the bio tab, if you don't want to answer a question, you don't have to. Yet, you can always come back and fill anything left blank in.

• All in all, this is one of the most in-depth ways to create (or store) a character. And the easiest. Since you don't have to think of everything on your own.

2. Make a story blog

For example, here’s my story blog.

• There isn't that much difference between a story blog and Charahub when it comes to storing your characters. You can do everything you can on Charahub to describe your characters. On the down side, it won't be as neatly organized as Charachub will be. On a blog, all the information about your character will probably have to be condensed into one post. Which sucks because it's hard to cram all of the information into one post, have it look nice, and easy to follow/understand. However, a story blog isn't just a place for your characters. It's a place to put all of the information related to your story.

• Say you're writing a story that includes different kinds of supernatural species. You could create a bestiary page of sorts (Customize > Edit Theme > Add a page) where you'd list all the names of the creatures in your story, along with a link to the post (just create a regular Text Post from the Dashboard) where the description of that creature would be. Then after you've made the page, put a link to it either in your Description or a separate Links Page.

• You could also add pictures relevant to your story. Such as landscape of where the story takes place, the kind of car they drive, outfits they wear (Create those on Polyvore), jewelry, weapons, how their room looks, etc. And when describing things in your story you can directly link the blog post/picture relevant to the place/item/outfit/hairstyle you're talking about. Or you can add the link in the comments section below your story.

So, if you want to take your characters and stories to a whole other level of detail, I highly suggest you try these 2 things out! I also find it really helps with inspiration because it helps you to really get into your story and have everything wonderfully organized.