Character Questions 3...

   Sorry for the delay readers but I am finally getting to finish the character questions for you :) Here, I will be focusing on appearance and their futures, hopefully covering a lot on what you should do to help get to know your character completely.

Appearance:

Skin Colour:
Eye Colour:
Hair description: (long, short, brown, ginger etc.)
Build:
Height:
Face: (Thin, round etc.)
Do they resemble anyone?
Clothing Style:
Scars/birthmarks:

Present and Future:

   The character's present and future is just as important as their past. We'd have no story if you didn't look forward as well as at the now! ;)

Biggest Fear:
What they want most in the world:
Biggest lesson to learn in their life:
Personal Dreams:
Team Dreams (If they don't work alone):
Most important goal of their life's journey:
Hopes for the future:
Any secrets to keep?
Any secrets to be broken?
Friends/Enemies to be made:
Friends/Enemies to be lost:

   So, here are what I think are the most important questions to ask your characters to make them believable and develop through your story. Hopefully it'll be better than going through thousands of questions and prompts when all you want is the essentials :)


~White Ravens~

Character Questions 2...

   More questions for your character to answer. As I said before that personality is key in characters. Now we've got the basics down, we can carry on and get this character flowing.

Personality:

3 Best Traits:
3 Worst Traits:
Gifts/Talents (Music? Maths? Magic?):
Self-esteem rating:  /10
Confidence rating:  /10
Optimism rating:  /10
One thing they like about themselves:
One thing they hate about themselves:
How would they change themselves?
What is it that makes them a hero?
What is it that makes them a villain?
Favourite Past-times/hobbies:
Addictions:

Their Past:

 

   A character can't go forward as believable if they don't have a past. They can't develop without history, but you don't need to spend ages writing an extremely detailed biography. So, here are more quick questions on the past for them:


Biggest success:
Biggest failure:
One experience wish avoided:
Biggest lesson learned:
Education level and schooling:
Earliest Memory/Favourite memory:
Big Family/Friend fall outs:
Longest secret kept:
Any secrets broken?
Past relationships/friendships:
Childhood memories:
Any memorabilia collected?
Special training/skills gained:
Inheritance (In appearance or objects):

~White Ravens~

Character Trait Tips Part 3...

   Part 3 on tips for character building :)

   Showing and not telling is very important to keep your audience reading, but another thing you need to remember is that your character's personality is more important then their looks. You don't really need to go on about how the hero's love has a perfect muscular body, perfect fiery orange hair, perfect tanned skin blah blah blah... Just let their quirks come through.

   Use actions and dialogue to define your character not their looks. Where are they from? Do they have an accent? Can they not pronounce certain words? I know I couldn't say diagonally when I was younger and thought chimney was chimley ;) Does your character walk with a limb (or 'swag' ;D)?
Does he twitch his head when he smells something awful? Does he blink too often?

    All of this will make the character unique and appear real. Of course it's good to describe a little about the looks of characters, but only in small doses like 'I pulled a strand of blonde hair from my face' or 'My nose always seemed to get in the way of my sight' and stuff like that :)

   I hope that was interesting :) I've read lots of stories, including my own, that state a lot of things outright, resulting in a huge information overload on the reader. So, when re-reading that old draft, try showing and not telling every little detail and don't forget to let your character's quirks have the spotlight. :)

  Talking of back-stories, does your character have one? How about asking them some questions? Stay logged in for the next post on 'Character Questions' to help you :)

~White Ravens~

Character Questions 1...

   This, again, follows on from character trait tips, hopefully it will help your character develop though the whole story by creating a lot more to them then just a personality. :)

  Just like your reader, you need to get to know your characters. You have names, you have traits but you're missing something quite important. Your actual character.

   

     I find answering questions on the character helpful, but whenever I search for them on the internet, they all seem very long-winded and take more time to answer then writing the actual story! 

   Here is a small stack of what I feel are the most important questions that you will answer yourself through the eyes of your character, kind of like a profile or interview. These will help your character develop in their story as well as develop into someone real; someone you will love to write about.

    With these questions, you can learn everything you need to know about your character. Of course some aspects may change as your plot twists and turns, but it's good to get down a few ideas and answers to get you going. You don't want to be in full flow and then not have certain key information down that stops you.

   Here are the basic questions to start you off that should all be answered by the main character. If you want to answer them for some supporting characters too, then answer all or perhaps you might just want to answer only a few of the important questions. There is no need to answer any for background characters if you don't want to. ;) I've highlighted ones in bold which I think are the most important, but answer which ever ones you want of course. :)

Basic Questions:

Full Name:
Nickname:
Age:
Gender:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Where they live now:
Family:
Ethnic Background:
Religious Background:
Social Class Background: (Upper, Middle, Working...)
Race: (Are they human or a mythical creature)
Mannerisms (A habit):
Health Problems:
Way of Life/Occupation:
Close Friendships/Relationships:

  More questions on personality and appearance to follow. :)

~White Ravens~

Character Trait Tips Part 2...

  Here's the second part leading on from the traits you picked. It could also help with the whole story and not just characters :)

   Show and don't tell!

   Every writer must tell the reader something but many (including me) find it extremely difficult at times not to go into full-on describing mode. You must fight off the temptation to list all of your traits and back story.

   'Fred moans a lot and he is very clever and adventurous, but he was very stuck-up too.'

  Quite boring to read, yes? Let's try again showing and not telling:

   '"No. The Mathers' Waterfall was discovered on the 24th June 1292 by Henry Mathers not on the 25th." Fred moaned to Jo, looking down his nose at her. "I've climbed up there myself quite a few times on our family holidays. We could never stay here for longer than a month without going crazy."
Jo rolled her eyes as her mind started to drift.
"Oh please listen to me once in a while." He moaned again.'

  There; Fred has moaned a lot at Jo, talked about his adventures on holiday, shown off his cleverness and his dialogue and actions have shown how stuck-up he can be. Much more interesting! :)

   Short but sweet I hope :) More to come later.

   Remember, actions speak louder than words :)

~White Ravens~

Character Trait Tips Part 1...

  Hello again :) To carry on from my character naming, you can see that personality can influence the name a lot. Struggling to think of traits to make your character come to life? Well, look no further :)

 Here, I have put a list together of 100 traits for your characters (hopefully I haven't put some twice...). All you need to do is pick three numbers from 1 to 50 for 'good' traits and 51 to 100 for 'bad traits'. This will balance out your character and give them a varied personality. Obviously, you can add more traits for your character but, if you stick to these three, others will bloom as your character achieves more depth as the story progresses :)

   It's best to try and balance out 'good' and 'bad' traits within every one of your characters, otherwise you end up with a hero who's so bland and a great story pulled down by it's lead.

   You could take a trait and turn it into something that could be seen as 'good' or 'bad'. Like being too forgiving or too lively. Some traits could also fit into both categories, like being serious would be good in a work situation but not if they're at a party.

   Also, if you end up getting a 'good' trait as patient and then a 'bad' trait as impatient, you will have to choose another number since they will contradict each other. Unless you're character has a shifting personality due to eating something awful from another planet... (Carrots are best left alone...)

   I've left some open ended, such as flexible, which could be in mind or in body. Enjoy :)

  So, the 'good' traits:

1. Adventurous
2. Ambitious
3. Attentive
4. Brave
5. Calm
6. Caring
7. Cheerful
8. Confident
9. Creative
10. Curious
11. Determined
12. Devoted
13. Easy-going
14. Enthusiastic
15. Excitable
16. Flexible
17. Forgiving
18. Good leader
19. Good listener
20. Grateful
21. Hard-working
22. Honest
23. Hopeful
24. Intelligent
25. Kind
26. Lively
27. Loving
28. Loyal
29. Lucky
30. Mature
31. Obedient
32. Open-minded
33. Optimistic
34. Passionate
35. Patient
36. Peaceful
37. Polite
38. Protective
39. Quick
40. Resourceful
41. Responsible
42. Romantic
43. Sensitive
44. Sociable
45. Spirited
46. Studious
47. Thoughtful
48. Understanding
49. Wise
50. Witty

 

And the 'bad' traits: 

51. Aggressive
52. Angry
53. Argumentative
54. Bossy
55. Careless
56. Cautious
57. Childish
58. Close-minded
59. Clumsy
60. Confused
61. Coward
62. Crazy
63. Cruel
64. Daunting
65. Dishonest
66. Doubtful
67. Fierce
68. Foolish
69. Gives up easily
70. Gloomy
71. Greedy
72. Green
73. Guilty
74. Hateful
75. Hopeless
76. Indecisive
77. Jealous
78. Lazy
79. Lonely
80. Loud-mouth
81. Mean
82. Messy
83. Mischievous
84. Moans a lot
85. Nosey
86. Over-protective
87. Pessimistic
88. Rough
89. Self-centred
90. Selfish
91. Shy
92. Sly
93. Sore-loser
94. Stubborn
95. Stuck-up
96. Stupid
97. Thoughtless
98. Unforgiving
99. Unsocial
100. Workaholic

   I hope there's enough for you and a variation :) They're might be a couple of strange one's in there since I was writing this late, but they will certainly make your character very unique. Have fun


 ~White Ravens~

P.S. Another post will follow on from this one on how to get these traits across in your writing :)