Creating a Character Study
When creating a character, whether it is for a short story or a novel, you want your characters to be believable. This is one of the most important elements in the short story or novel.
A character study (also referred to as a character profile) can help you achieve a sense of realism with your characters and flesh out their true being. This will help you to keep track of your character’s traits: everything from their name, what they look like, their personality, habits, etc. By doing so, you minimize the risk of creating a character that is wooden, stiff, and unbelievable. This is especially helpful in a novel.
Typically, a novel has several main characters, each with his or her own distinctive individuality and unique point of view. For instance, let’s say one of your main characters is a man named Chase Hawthorne. Chase is a womanizing commercial airline pilot who is arrogant, spoiled, and pretentious. Halfway through the novel, Chase exhibits characteristics completely opposite of this. Well, this isn’t true to his character. The character study will help organize your thoughts on Chase, and keep him true to form and maintain continuity in his actions.
Oh So Simpatico! believes in helping other writers reach their personal writing goals. By clicking on the Character Study link below, you will be taken to a form that you can download and use when creating your story’s characters. Feel free to save the form on your computer so you can use it again and again. While this character study isn’t all-inclusive of characteristics that you may need to keep track of for your character development, it may be a good starting point.
