Making a character is a lot of fun, but it can also be difficult to get started. I know this because I love creating characters for my stories, as well as my artwork. And that is why I’m going to teach you how to make a character for your dream story.
This blog post is perfect for people who want to create characters of their own, but they don’t know where to begin. You can even use this information toward making a comic, artwork, or even an animation video. As long as you’re using the power of storytelling.
Feel free to watch my video by clicking on the image below:
1. Review your story and storyline
Before we even get down to the nitty-gritty of making a character, the first thing to do is to review your story and your storyline.
If you’re having trouble creating a story, feel free to check out these blog posts for some cool tips:
The reason why reviewing your story should come first is because the character you want to make is determined by what kind of story you have.
When I created characters in my past experiences, I noticed a pattern that often occurred. I realized that characters are based on good stories that define them. Or at least from a good storyline.
Even if an idea for a cool character popped up in my mind first, I still needed a good story to act as a guide for developing my character. I’ve found it difficult to create a character if he or she does not have any clear purpose.
To me, it’s like sculpting a basic dummy out of clay without adding any color or features. I’ll have someone, but I don’t know how they move or what they even look like.
I’ll use an example from my how to write the story of your dreams blog post. For that particular story, I identified the storyline as this:
- Benji decides whether to win his ex-gf back or follow his heart.
This storyline I created basically describes the main character Benji, who is struggling with an ongoing conflict.
Should he go back to how things were and reconcile with his ex? Or should he follow his heart and perhaps take a new and unexpected path in his life?
Based on this information alone, I can already gather up clues that most likely describes Benji as a character.
- He had an ex-girlfriend, so he is into romance and craves relationships.
- Since he is faced with a decision to win his ex-girlfriend back, it means that he still cares about her. He has not accepted the breakup so easily and has not fully moved on in his life.
- However, he is also not opposed to possibly exploring another direction and closing the door to his past.
These details are the most important information that tells what the story is mainly about, as well as leading us to the next step in this process.
2. Identify the character’s role
The second thing to do is to identify the character’s role.
A character’s role basically means these two things:
- What part do they play in the story?
- What is their purpose?
You can just answer these two questions, and it will already give you a general idea of what your character’s role is.
Continuing on with my previous example, I answered the two questions as:
- Benji is the main character and the lead of the story.
- Benji’s purpose is to undergo an external and internal struggle throughout the story and to eventually make a heart-wrenching decision.
3. Flesh out the details
After we identified the character’s role, the third thing to do is to flesh out the details. This is where you truly develop your character down to their core.
There are many ways to do this. But in order to make it easier, let’s break this down into three categories. Feel free to add more along the way if you think of anything.
Basically I’ve broken it down into personality, relationships, and changes.
For your character’s personality, it’s self-explanatory. What kind of person are they?
Another way to look at this can be “How would you describe your friend if you had to write about their traits?”
- In my story, Benji is a committed person in general. He doesn’t easily give up and can easily get used to routines.
- He is committed to his relationship with Marnie and has been together with her for 5 years. Which is a good thing.
- But he is also committed to his basketball career and wants to play in the Pro Leagues.
- He is normally sensible and level-headed. But he forgets about everything and everyone else when he’s playing on the court. It’s like basketball is the only thing that matters to him at times.
- This has caused a lot of strain in his relationship with Marnie because his past actions have made her feel neglected and unimportant.
As for your relationships category, what is your character’s relationship to other characters?
I like to write the name of the other characters and jot down the relationship to the protagonist. In this case, the main character is obviously Benji.
- Marnie – Benji’s ex-girlfriend
- Lyra – Benji’s new friend and eventual love interest
- Rai – Benji’s basketball rival and Marnie’s new boyfriend
Last but not least, we have the changes category.
Does your character go through any changes? If the answer is yes, what are those changes? Not every character changes throughout the story, so it’s a good idea to check.
- Yes, Benji does go through major changes in the story.
- At first, Benji continues his routine of playing basketball for most of the day. Then he comes home to Marnie and makes awkward small talk with her. He loves her but they haven’t really been making meaningful conversations like they used to. All Benji usually talks about is basketball and how the pro leagues are coming up. Marnie feels like they’re drifting apart, but Benji is oblivious to how she is feeling.
- One day, Benji comes home to their apartment. He finds out that Marnie and all of her stuff is gone. He finds a note from her that says “I’m sorry but I can’t do this anymore.”
- Benji is heartbroken and confused. He knows that they haven’t been talking as much, but he didn’t think that Marnie was unhappy with him. At this point in the story, Benji is starting to be aware that his relationship has been falling apart for a while.
- Now Benji is going through a major development. Benji decides to take the time to reflect, and he puts in the effort to figure out what went wrong. He discovers that things need to change if he’s going to get Marnie back. Or if chooses not to get her back, his life would still need to change if he wants to move on.
Once you’ve gotten those three categories down, you should already have a basic character ready to head off on an adventure.
It does take time and perhaps some patience. But with the right mindset, follow this process and you’ll see how much fun it is to make a character for your dream story.
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post!
Feel free to comment down below on what kind of characters you guys have come up with. I’ve had a lot of fun making up funny characters with my friends before. I feel like this would be very entertaining to talk about.
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