Character Creation

Good characters are what keeps you interested in reading a book or even watching a movie. Characters need to have personality. In this writing class, we’ll be moving past the normal body type, hair, age descriptions of a character, and into what the character likes to do, eat, their personal history, and what motivates their actions. We’ll be using a doodle page for each character. Our focus on descriptive vocabulary is key. Having a dictionary and thesaurus handy will be helpful. 

The class will start off with a short lecture about why we should create a deeper understanding of our character. Next, we will create our notebook character doodles. Then the character development will start with the background so we can create some understanding about what motivates the character to do things. We’ll bring them to life with relatable things like what they enjoy eating, reading, their hobbies, and some ideas as to how they will speak in the story.  

At the end of this class, the student will have 1 very detailed description, possibly some dialog ideas, and history completed about the characters that they can use for any story they want to write.