Creating Extraordinary Characters––Wrap-Up
It’s been a L-O-N-G series, but I wanted to especially focus in on different tools you can use to identify your characters’ personality types, by looking at least a couple different tools. I won’t get into the four types of Personality Plus; you can look those up yourself. They were created by Florence Littauer, especially to help the common person understand why there are the way they are. #amwriting #characters
Today, I’m wrapping this series up with an encouragement to delve into personality types, characteristics, emotions, conflict, and motivations.
Tom Sawyer’s book Fiction Writing Demystified, has a long chapter on creating vivid, memorable, and engaging characters. We looked at a bit of that last week.
I’ll just list a few things to think about as you’re creating your characters.
- Write their backstory, which is their biography. Where and when were they born? Family background? What were the circumstances surrounding their birth? Click to Tweet
- What is their emotional makeup? The personalities will help you figure out how your character is wired.
- What does each character want? How far are they willing to go to get what they want?
- How will you work in conflict between characters that drives the story and fuels the plot?
- What are the opinions of the characters? How can you use those to create conflict? Click to Tweet
- How can you make your protagonist the kind of character that everyone can root for? Likeable, strong, catalystic, yet identifiable, while still being larger-than-life?
These are just a few of the questions to ask yourself in beginning to creating extraordinary characters. #amwriting #characters Thank you and next week, we’ll start something totally new and different. How do you create a character and their biography? Leave a comment and let me know.
Donna L.H. Smith 