The Character Workshop -- Designing A Life© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
I've designed this little workshop to help you sneak up on character
development. Answer the questions in order, and take your time.
Allow yourself as much space as you need to answer each one -- some
only require one-word answers, but some require a fair amount of
page space to be answered completely. A word of warning -- this
isn't a complete character checklist; it's a workshop designed to
break through stubborn preconceptions you might have had about characters
you write and character design. Because of that, you will not have
a complete character if you only answer the questions I've given
you. And some of the questions are a little odd. Answer them anyway
. . . at least the first time.
- Choose a gender.
- Choose a place of birth.
- Choose a hobby.
- Choose a past job.
- Choose a present job.
- Choose a past love interest.
- Choose an enemy.
- Choose a pet.
- Why is your character not working at the old job?
- Why is your character not with the old love interest?
- Why does your character not make the hobby a profession?
- How did your character make the enemy?
- How did the pet once save the character's life?
- What is the one thing in the world your character would do
anything to avoid? Why? What has he already done to avoid this?
What do you see him doing in the future to avoid it?
- What is the one thing in the world your character would do
anything in the world to have? Why? What has he already done to
try to obtain it? What does he hope to try in the future?
- What is your character's name? What is your character's age,
and physical description.
- Write everything else you know about your character, right
now.
And that's it. You should have several handwritten pages of information
on your new character, and plenty of ideas about the story he could
be in, and the role he could play in it. Good luck with this. I
hope you've found it useful.
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