Writing Focus: Creating Compelling Characters

As a reader, our main contact or connection with a story is often through the main and secondary characters. If those characters are fleshed-out and realistic, it makes our connection with the story all the more real! This week’s Writing Focus article is all about creating characters.

How Can I Create a Compelling Character?

The easiest way to create a compelling character is to ensure that you know more than just the basics about their life, both before and during the story itself. Things like their previous family history, relationships past and present, and even the little quirks or annoyances they have can take a two-dimensional character and turn them into a dynamic, enjoyable character.

An easy way to do this is to think of your character as a good friend -- often, you’ll share everything with them and they’ll do the same. Make a list of all of the things that you’d know about a friend, and think about them from your character’s perspective. Think about the trivial things; what’s your character favourite television programme, or the one food they hate? These little details all add towards your character being well-rounded and will come across well during the story.

One of the easiest ways to document your character’s quirks and get to know them better is to search online for character templates. Templates such as this one and this one are substantial and ask a lot of questions about your character that you may not have thought about originally. As well as giving you more information about your character, keeping a character form in a document means you always have something to go back to when it comes to your character!

Prompts

Looking to test out character creating? Check out these prompts!

1. Using one of the above character charts, create a character for a new or already existing piece of work, ensuring that you answer every question.
2. Take a minor character from a book, television show or cartoon and flesh them out using the forms above. Remember to capture the little details!

Characters are integral to the plot of a story and as connection points for the reader, we should ensure we’re creating the best characters we can!

Special thanks to losing control. and silent hearts. for editing!