Characters are the foundation of your story.
Creating them will be the most engaging task.
So much so that an author may get trapped into the character creation’s process.
The sole purpose of these articles is to purvey a simple 5 step process to create Characters, Environments & Scenario.
Now for the characters, you only need 4 personality traits & 1 goal.
Here are the 5 words you need:
- 1 Early Strength
- 1 Early Weakness
- 1 Strength to Hone
- 1 Hidden Weakness
- 1 Goal = 1 Name
1 Early Strength
A Strength you will display in chapter 1 to 3.
Since chapter 1 down to chapter 3 you want to make the reader understand she roots for a fierce human being.
Make the reader enjoy your character.
Allow her to become the character.
Some good examples of early strengths are Curious, Jovial or Affable.
Any of these will allow your reader to get comfortable with the character.
Since those are Desirable & Easy to acquire personality traits.
1 Early Weakness
A Weakness you will display in the 1st pages.
Your character is a human being.
A human being has shortcomings.
These shortcomings will become the leitmotiv of your humorous, dramatic, adventurous moments.
Make the reader Relate to your character.
Early weakness are tolerable faults, faults we can see in ourselves.
They are also faults that are easy to forgive.
Some good examples of early weaknesses are Clumsy, Hungry or Complaining.
These personality traits are Undesirable & Easy to acquire.
1 Strength to Hone
A Strength you will unfold from chapters 3 to 10.
This Strength will define your character’s evolution path.
The Main goal of your character may be the pursuit of this personality trait.
Make the reader root for your character.
Allow your reader to share your character’s triumph.
This strength is rare.
It will take the whole story to be obtained.
Patience & Perspective will be 2 main virtues of all characters succeeding on the obtention of this personality trait.
This strength will be hard to acquire & even more so to maintain.
Your character can still flinch & regress.
Think about it if you ever wish to write a sequel: You are allowed to create periods of stagnation & regression.
It will require multiple crisis to justify the evolution of this specific quality.
We recommend 3 crisis, 1 for each act.
Some good examples of strength to hone are Resilient, Dedicated or Pugnacious.
These personality traits are Desirable & Hard to acquire.
1 Hidden Weakness
A Weakness that will emerge after chapter 3 & amplify after chapter 6.
Chapter 3 & 6 are Crisis chapters.
6 will be harsher than 3.
Make the reader emphasize with your character.
Whatever weakness you chose to give your character, do not let her alone.
Let the reader see the character’s pain.
However odious your character becomes, do not let the reader abandon her.
Some good examples of hidden weaknesses are Violent, Denying, Regretful.
These personality traits are Undesirable & Hard to acquire or to live with.
The public will not emphasize with a Coward.
1 Goal = 1 Name
A Goal in the Name.
Name your character after the goal they intend to achieve.
It directly indicates how the character will/should develop.
If you name your character Prudence you know how the character will/should behave.
Generally she will be Prudent.
In relaxed situations she will be cool.
When a crisis occurs she ought to be phlegmatic.
Will she be?
You could also name you character directly after their function into the story, and hence how their role will unfold.
The only rule is Clarity.
Using Adjectives or common names is a simple way to find meaningful names.
You could also make it counter-intuitive.
If your character’s goal is to ‘find the truth’ or if she is an inspector/detective, name her Mystery or Mystique.
