The characters are one of the most essential parts of a novel, movie, song, or even a poem. They are the main parts of a story. You can't have a story without characters because then, you won't have a story to tell.
Creating a good character involves a few very important steps. These guidelines keep the information about the character(s) organized and easy to track.
The Character’s Role
The character's role is the very first thing you need to establish in a story. Is the character the protagonist (main character), antagonist (the “bad guy”), love interest, or even a side character?
The character’s role could be both simple and/or complex. Like Swiper from Dora the explorer. He’s the main antagonist because he tries to prevent Dora from reaching her end destination. But in the Shatter Me series, Warner was first the antagonist before he became the love interest. This is called character development, and we’ll explain this later on.
Backstory
Everyone has a backstory. That's what makes us human. Even if your character, say, is a potted plant, it still has a backstory. Like, the plant got planted, then grew up, and then got put on the market.
For your character’s backstory, it has to have detail and it has to shape and match your character’s personality. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe, your character is the sunshine of your whole book and yet they were abused pretty much half their life. But, what shaped them into the sunshine and rainbows? Or, who?
Physical Description
Physical description is the first thing you usually think of in a character, and that’s a good thing. But also, DONT DO STEREOTYPES, also known as static characters. For example, not all pick-me girls are blonde, like how not all goth girls are usually white. They can have all sorts of appearances because they all have different styles.
There are lots of things you need to keep track of in physical description. Like their natural traits like their skin color, hair color/texture, and even body build. But, people also have different styles. Like how some people wear baggy clothes and some where dresses to school every day.
Personality
Again, DO NOT WRITE STEREOTYPES. But also, not everyone is perfect! In fact, nobody is!
So give your characters weird habits, weird obsessions/passions, weird speech, weird everything (the weirder the more real (in this world)! It makes the characters funner, more relatable, and even more likable!
But, also don’t forget the good and bad traits/strengths and weaknesses. Cause an entirely weird person is… Weird…
So, the main keys to a person's personality are their weirdness/goofiness, strengths and weaknesses, and speech/slang/curses.
Goals, Motivations, and Drive
What drives your character? Where does it drive your character?
You need to think about what your character’s main goal is. What do they want to achieve in life? It doesn’t even need to be in life in general. It could be the goal for the span of the book. Like if she wants to be valedictorian.
Secondly, why does your character have that goal? Who or what inspired her to do so? What’s their drive? The girl wants to be a valedictorian because it was her dead mom’s last wish. This also helps you develop your character’s backstory.
Finally, what will your character do to achieve that goal? What are the steps to accomplishing that goal? Get multiple jobs? Study harder? What, in your character's mind, will help them accomplish their goal?
Relationships
Almost done you guys!
So next up on our list is the relationships the characters have. It can be friendships, partners, exes, family, enemies, or even just coworkers! Whoever the character has a bond with in one way or another counts as a relationship.
Even if the characters haven’t been talking to their family for a while, they are still bonded by blood.
Growth and change
How does your character change throughout the book? It can be physical and mental, for the good and the bad! This is because nobody stays the same for a long period of time.
Every organism changes in one way or another. They learn from each other and apply what they learn to their own lives. There are also sudden obsessions and curiosities everyone goes through.
Even nonloving objects change over time. They could crack, break, rust, or even get affected by other living things. Like how humans would change the settings of a house over time or how a spider would put webs in the corner of a non-living house!
Profile (Character Sheet)
To keep track of these kinds of things, you should put them all into a character sheet. Make one for each character so you can refer back to it later on!
I have one posted here. Feel free to copy and paste it onto your own doc!