Creative Writing Exercises: Create Your Own Character

Time for a creative writing exercise today, since we really have not had one of these for a long time. Today’s exercise finds it’s way into practically all creative writing textbooks, which only means that it is a great exercise and can really help you write more believable characters. Essentially this writing exercise deals with coming up with a list of, well…characteristics for your characters and relies on the writer answering a set of questions. This exercise is great for fleshing out characters that you have already written, but who lack depth, while it is also perfect for creating new fictional characters from scratch.

To make characters in a work of fiction convincing they need to have a life beyond the page, so to speak, beyond the confines of just the story that you are telling. They need to have a past, good and bad childhood memories, desires, wants, a favorite color, a favorite ice-cream flavor, and so on. In short they need to be “people.” Of course, not all of these details need to find their way onto the page, but it is important for the writer to know them and filling out the questionnaire below will definitely help you better create your own character of choice. For main characters it is especially important that all the aspects of their personality, their past and present, are well known to the writer, because it is only in this way that we are able to create truly multidimensional fictional characters, once that engage the reader immediately and stay with them long after the book is finished.

The instructions:

First take a story that you have already written, but one that needs a to have its characters fleshed out a little more (could be the main character or one of the side characters). Fill out the questionnaire below for each of the characters that need more life. Once you are satisfied that you know all there is to know about the characters, go back to your story and rewrite it, filling in this new information that you have gathered, as needed. Once you are done you should have characters that are much more “alive.” Alternatively, you can do this exercise by just coming up with a completely new characters and answering this set of questions for him or her, before you even begin to write their story. Either way you choose to do this, I guarantee you that the result will be wonderfully fleshed out characters.

The character questionnaire: (feel free to add to it and, of course, just substitute ‘he’ for ‘she’ as needed)

Physical traits

Gender:

Age:

Ethnicity:

Height:

Body type:

Hair color:

Eye color:

Facial characteristics:

Athleticism:

Sociological traits

Birthplace:

Parents:

Family:

Childhood:

Occupation:

Income:

Religion:

Politics:

Personality traits:

Best qualities:

Worst faults:

Favorite foods:

Favorite vacation destinations:

Favorite sports:

Favorite movies/TV shows:

Favorite book:

What makes him happy?

What makes him sad?

What makes him angry?

Who does he love most?

Who does he hate most?

What is he most proud of?

What is he most ashamed of?

What is his secret ambition?

What is his darkest secret?

What is his worst childhood memory?

What is his best childhood memory?

What is his hobby?

Does he have a plan for the future?

Stay creative!

Other creative exercises:

Creative Writing Exercises: Starting a Story

Creative Writing Exercises: The Differences of Style, Tone, Voice and So On

Inspired by (among others):

What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

Tagged as: Create Your Own Character, creative writing exercise, Creative Writing Exercises, Creative Writing Ideas, Creative Writing Prompts, Exercises for Writers Block, How to Overcome Writers Block, Journal Prompts, Writers Block, Writing Exercise, Writing Exercises