Creating Fictional Characters—Part 5: Developing Background and Traits Using a Character Chart, Bio, Diary, or Interview
July 12, 2009 by Lillie
Table of contents for Creating Fictional Characters
In previous installments in this series, we’ve talked about what the author needs to know about her characters. You should know things about your characters that you don’t necessarily reveal directly to readers—things that cause the character to behave the way he does. In some cases, you will show, not tell, your readers. In some cases, you will use the information to know what the character will do and to understand why.
Some important elements the writer needs to know about main characters that won’t always be told to readers (in no particular order):
- Appearance
- Lifestyle/Possessions
- Self-concept
- Relationships
- Habits
- Beliefs
- Traits
- Memories and feelings
- Motivation and goals
Writers use a variety of methods to define characters. Some of the most popular include:
- Character chart: a chart that lists important information about the character, ranging from physical appearance to defining moments in the character’s life. Examples of character charts can be found at
- Inspiration for Writers
- Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
- Charlotte Dillon
- The Epiguide.com Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
- Read Write Think Character Perspective Chart
- My character chart (in Word format that you may freely use and distribute) and a character chart-in-progress for Act of Faith, my work-in-progress
- Bio: a narrative of past including every important year and event or a variation, a slice of life, as a typical day. For examples, see
- Poewar—10 Days of Character Building: Biography
- Building a Character Biography
- Poewar—10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life
- Diary: the character’s own thoughts. For ideas on using diary/journal entries to create characters, see
- Interview: ask questions of your character and/or the people around them.
- For ideas, read
- Sample questions to ask your character
- What one thing in your childhood made the biggest impression on your or influenced you the most?
- Who was the most important person in your life in your childhood? Who is the most important person in your life now?
- What is your favorite color, TV show, book, leisure-time activity, possession, music, food…?
- What is your job and how did you come to do that?
- What is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? The best?
- Do you have a religious faith? If so, how important is it to you? What is your attitude toward religion?
- What do you do best? What would like to do well that you can’t?
- What is your earliest memory from your childhood?
- How would you describe your family and childhood? Your present relationships? Previous relationships?
- If you could do anything you wanted for the next month, what would you do? Who would you do it with?
- Where did you go to school? How far did you go in school? How did you feel about school?
- What are your hobbies? How did these come about?
- If you could change 3 things in your life or about yourself, what would they be?
- Sample questions to ask other characters about your character
- How would you describe Character in one sentence?
- What do you like best about this person? Least? Admire most? Least?
- What is his strongest character trait? Weakest?
- Act the part: This idea came from a comment on an earlier post in this series. David at Birmingham Accountant wrote:
I’m a bit of a ‘method actor’ when I’m creating characters. I’ll step into their world for a day or so and try to behave, react and speak just like my character. Really helps me get under their skin to see how they’d behave in a variety of situations.
How do you get to know your characters? Do you use a character chart, bio, interview, or diary? Do you put yourself in the role of character?
Amazing tips, like always. Characters are building in my head just by reading this instructions
. Didn’t know (till i imagined it) it could be so interesting to try to act like one of your characters. It’s a bit like playing god without real life consequences 
.
Andrej,
The acting idea was new to me as well. David mentioned it a comment on a previous post, an excellent example of how I learn from my readers!
Don’t you love when the characters build in your head. Sometimes it’s a shame to see the movie as the characters in your own mind are much better played and cast.
Melbourne recently posted..The sound of a tree
Melbourne,
That’s why I love reading—you can let your imagination have free rein.
Fantastic tips! Some of them them I already knew…but many were quite an eyeopener to me. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..How to make gratuitous profits with CommentLuv longterm – Part 1 =-.
Barbara,
As I mentioned, I learned a new tip from a reader. David’s suggestion of acting the character’s role was something I hadn’t heard of before.
“# What one thing in your childhood made the biggest impression on your or influenced you the most?
# Who was the most important person in your life in your childhood? Who is the most important person in your life now?”
Hard questions, this takes time to think about
Pocket (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
Those are hard questions and maybe some we should ask ourselves as well as our characters.
Do you recommend building characters without the context of a story? I have often spent hours just writing character’s traits and never using the character anywhere.
Most of the times I only write fan-fic so I get pre-built set of characters. What about writing a background story for the character? Thanks for the ‘interview questions’ they will make the ‘fictional’ characters more real.
jim,
No, I don’t recommend creating characters outside the context of story. I only create detailed character charts for the main characters. For secondary characters, I might have a short bio or just note some basic facts, depending on how they important they are in the story. I wouldn’t spend time developing a character until I was confident they were going to play a major role in the plot.
It is so great if you understand more about your characters then your readers do because you have the inside picture, like habits, appearance, and traits.
C,
The better we know the characters, the more real they can make their actions and dialogue.
ha. I like the idea of interviewing your character. I’m definitely going to do that with the story I’m currently writing. It’ll be a fun experience and give me good information in the meantime.
I just hope nobody watches while I do it because I’ll be laughing and looking like a crazy person
.-= S.Miracle@Inspirational Speakers´s last blog ..Relationship Between Law and Morality =-.
S.,
A lot of things writers do would make people think we’re crazy if they saw us. And for mystery writers researching poisons or weapons … people may think they’re dangerous.
Lillie,
I like the point you make about how not all of the traits of the character need to be revealed in an explicit manner to the reader.
As each of us goes about our business in real life, we generally pick up or become aware of some of the background and character traits of those with whom we interact at various levels. But rarely if ever do we learn everything there is to know about them. Nor would we need to or want to, since there are some character traits about those with whom we interact that are simply not relevant to us.
Given this, along with a desire to portray characters in a manner which is realistic and relatable to our readership, not to mention the goal of keeping readers focused on the main plat, I would certainly understand why it would not be either necessary or desirable for authors to reveal every detail about the background of each of their characters.
That said, I can certainly understand the need for authors themselves to understand their own characters (or, at least, the main characters) at a deeper level since this would help the author to maintain a consistent and realistic portrayal of the character throughout the story.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..June contributors =-.
Andrew,
You have an excellent understanding. Are you writing fiction? If not, maybe you should be!
Thanks Lillie,
My only fictional effort in recent times was first blogging effort, Another Ten Cents, I attempted to chronicle, in a humorous manner, a typical day in the life of an unsuccessful office worker.
Although that story was loosely based largely on my own personal experience, the narrator was a fictional character.
Apart from that, I have not really attempted any form of fictional writing in recent times.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..June contributors =-.
Andrew,
You might want to try writing fiction again, though I know now isn’t the time for you to take on anything else. After you’re back in Australia, maybe give it a try.
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I’ve taken some good advice from this series of posts. However, I still find it difficult to get my imagination going. Do you have any tips? Writing isn’t my strongest skill yet it’s something I like to do, do you think its possible to be a good writer without the artist flare that is associated with it?
Darren,
Writing, especially fiction, is a creative endeavor, so every writer needs to be creative. However, often times people have a better imagination than they give themselves credit for.
Good fiction writers tend to make up stories in their heads all the time and to ask the question “what if.” If you like to people watch and wonder what the lives of the people you see are like, you’re creative. If you read something in the paper, and wonder “what if” something else happened next, you have an active imagination.
Most of my clients are people who are great storytellers but not necessarily good writers. Anyone can learn the mechanics of writing, but I think there needs to be a spark of creativity to be a storyteller.
If writing is something you like to do, then write. You may be quite surprised at how creative you turn out to be. Once you allow yourself to write freely, your imagination may become more active.
And there are writing prompts and creativity exercises to help you get started thinking. The best thing to do is just start writing, and if you need a jumpstart, look for some writing prompts. You can search online for “writing prompts” or you can come up with your own. Find a picture that intrigues you and write about it. You can create an entire story from one image. Or read a newspaper story and asked “what if …?” What if the story ended differently? What if the life of someone in the story had taken a different turn (good or bad)?
And remember, what you write doesn’t have to (and in fact won’t be) a masterpiece. Just write for your own enjoyment, and the more write, the better you will write.
I think the most important thing,for me, is to keep the character consistent. You don’t want confusing inconsistencies in a character, it’s annoying and indicates a lazy writer. I like the idea of asking the character questions too, for more indepth character building.
carol,
Yes, you want consistency in your characters up to a point. Real people have inconsistencies and characters should, too. But the inconsistencies should be consistent.
In other words, a character can have two traits that are sometimes in conflict. She may be punctual and dependable but also be a very attentive mother. Her punctuality may become inconsistent because she spends more time taking care of her baby in the morning and ends up late for work. Does that make sense?
This post is just amazing! A sincere thank you coming your way. Actually the whole site is amazing, I have been checking it out and all the other great posts you have made.
I have wanted to write fictional stories for sometime now and really have been struggling to find inspiration to carry me forward with it. When reading great pre 20th century literature such as Hardy and Dickens their characters are so vivid in my mind…even the names kind of go with their personality if you know what I mean?
This has given me more than enough to work through and get some great ideas from, I am actually anticipating reading the printout of it later for a heavy brainstorming session.
I feel like it is my lucky day!
Daryl,
Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad you found the post helpful, and I hope you find much more useful information.
I must be getting jaded from getting so much spam. Your first paragraph sounded very much like some of the spam comments I get. I’m glad I read far enough to see you were making a relevant comment about the topic of the post rather than just a generic “this site is amazing” comment. I was delighted to find a legitimate comment that is so complimentary.
Great tips.This really gave me more ideas.
Thanks for posting.These are really good ideas.
Cathy,
I’m happy to know the post helped you.
Great article. I have always had trouble making my characters have much.. substance. Will give the character chart a go and work on it.
Nice resources for writers, I really struggle with the creativity involved however:-)
John,
Glad this has been helpful. There are many things we can do to improve our writing, but creativity has to come from our imaginations.
Oh! Great tips in creating fictional characters it is cool! I actually have no interest in creating fictional characters for myself but I’ll get interested to try it out since I read your blog, it is great!
Natalie,
If you’re not interested in writing fiction, look around my blog. I’m sure you’ll find other topics more aligned with your interests.
Lillie, do you like the idea fo using diaries to portray the characters thoughts?
It’s not something I’ve ever tried
Adam@writeascript recently posted..Learn to Write A Script
Adam,
I have not used this technique myself. I think it can be effective in certain circumstances, but only if keeping a diary fit the character’s personality and possibly if the diary had something to do with the storyline.
Hi Lillie,
Great tips. I have been looking for some tips like this for a long time now, thanks Lillie your work is much appreciated.
Joey,
What kind of fiction do you write?
Lillie,
Writing is only something I do on my free time. I am only a beginner on writing, mainly everyday living, nothing serious.
Good luck with your writing. Hope you find useful information here on my blog.
Thank you Lillie,
I will definitely place your website into my favourite bar and check it in the future again.
Joey,
I look forward to seeing you here often.
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