Character Creation

Back Feathers © photograph by L.M.H.

Where to begin?

Creating characters can be daunting for any kind of storytelling. Sometimes it is best to focus on one character at a time instead of overwhelming your plot creating every character at once.

Writing a backstory for each is a good way to map out the motivating factors of the character.

Before writing the details within the backstory, I suggest filling out a questionnaire about each character. This starting point builds how the character looks, behaves, and makes distinctions between other characters within the story. This allows for you as the author to play reporter and write the details in an interview format. This method is able to help you visualize the character as a real person instead of a flat character whose only existence is on the page.

Once the interviews for the main characters are created, backstories on the most important characters commences. The details about the characters can serve as clues about who each person is in the story. These details about each characters’ backstory should focus on specific moments or events in their life that impacted their mindset and future choices in the written narrative.

Backstories do not need to be long, but should cover integral parts of the characters within a page each. Writing the stories help ground characters in the world of your story. Sometimes creating a backstory is a good way to move passed writer’s block, which drives you as the author into other ideas and plots to be explored in the story.