A story is nothing without interesting characters. Even the most action-intense story will hold no appeal to a reader unless he/she can engage with the characters. They need to visualise them, empathise with them, feel what they feel. Basically you need to create characters that the reader genuinely cares about. Whether they are classed as a good guy or a bad guy, they all need to be realistic. You need to consider that every person has some flaws and perhaps even your nastiest bad guy may have some small redeeming quality to still make him human. You also need to consider how each of the characters relate to the other characters in the story (friends, family, enemy, stranger, work colleague, passing acquaintance in Starbucks on a morning).

So how do you do that? Well, there’s no hard and fast rule as to where to start, but there is a rule as to what you finish with. Detail. You need to be observant in every day life – notice the people around you for starters. This is invaluable to helping you create every small aspect of the character. There are 4 main areas of characterisation – Physical, mental (personality), mannerisms (biting nails, nervous twitch) and background (job, family, friends, interests).

This is called building up a character profile. Creating a character profile for each of your main characters is very important for the character itself, but also for the continuity of the story. Continuity is where if you say your hero has blond hair then later on in the story when you mention the hair again you have to make sure that it is still blond!

 

Note - you don’t necessarily have to reveal everything in a character profile to the reader, but it is important for you to know it to get a well-rounded feel for the character.

 

What should be included in a character profile?

 

Name

PHYSICAL
Sex – male or female
Age – important that you know the exact age even if its never mentioned
Hair – colour, style, length, bald
Eyes – colour, glasses, contacts, blind
Height
Body – thin, fat, stocky, athletic
Distinguishing marks – scars, squint, scruffy
Clothes plus significant items carried – be specific – blue jeans, grey fitted t-shirt, Nike trainers, NY baseball cap. Important items – does he have a mobile phone? Wallet? Pair of scissors? A compass? Whatever may be important to the story.

BACKGROUND

Occupation – Is he an astronaught? A bike salesman? A mild mannered reporter?
Family
Friends
Where he grew up
Hobbies

MENTAL

Personality? Is he quiet? Is he funny? Is he optimistic or pessimistic? Ambitious? Devious? Paranoid?
Like and dislikes

MANNERISMS

Have a bad habit like biting his nails?
Accent? Talk with a squeaky voice?
Does he talk with his hands?
Does he have a limp from an old war wound?