Divide Your Character into Four

We usually start of with a good idea of what our characters look like. But what about other parts of their personality?

Here's a writing exercise for you to do, that will help you get to know your characters better.

Try this in your writers' groups as well as on your own!

Hear you again soon,

Janet

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Welcome to the Write for a Reason podcast. My name is Janet Wilson. I'm a publisher of Christian fiction for young people with Dernia Publishing. If you're a Christian and new to writing stories for kids and teens, stay tuned for encouragement, creative writing tips, and actionable strategies you can implement immediately to become a better writer. In the last episode, we looked at character development, and you'll probably have spent a good deal of time thinking about your protagonists, particularly what they look like. You'll have probably a very good idea in your mind. However, it's always really useful to write down some thoughts to crystallise your ideas. Here's a quick idea that you can do either when you're on your own, or perhaps even in a writing group for a bit of fun. Divide a large sheet of paper into four, perhaps an A4 sheet, or if you're in the US, I think that might be a letter size, and head each quarter with the following subjects. So likes and dislikes in quarter one, strengths in quarter two, flaws in quarter three, and motivations in quarter four. Then just jot down ideas as they come to your mind. Just get yourself into the flow and think about your character and write these things down. So likes and dislikes. Your character is bound to have lots of them. Include as much as you can possibly think of from their favourite colour, the topping on their pizza that they like, uh, any favourite garments that they like to wear. Perhaps they got some really postion fancy trainers, sneakers that they love, or some jewellery, something that somebody has given them, a gift. Maybe they love dogs, uh, maybe they love walking in the woods, maybe they really dislike the colour beige. Whatever it is for your character, write down a whole bunch of likes and dislikes, and you can bring these up in your story as you go. So, strengths. What is it about your character that is really great, that's going to really help them? What is it that they are really good at? What are their gifts and their talents? Are they bold perhaps? Are they gregarious? Are they determined? Are they competitive? And then going on to the flaws. These are often equal and opposite to the strengths. So, for example, if somebody is very bold, they may also be insensitive at times. So that's one, two, and three, likes and dislikes in your first one, strengths in your second, flaws in your third. And motivations. This is something which is really important for the story. So have a think about what is it that your character would do no matter what? What would drive him? So for example, if somebody was mean to his younger brother, would he act no matter what the danger was? If his mum was in danger, would he act for her? And that could be true of anybody. If he was in a sports team, would he absolutely want to win no matter what? And just practising day and night to be the very best that he possibly can be. So what are these motivations for acting? If he finds a treasure map, will he absolutely have to find the treasure? Motivation is a really important part of your story, so whatever your story is, make sure that your character has a motivation that will carry him through right to the very end, no matter what the obstacles are, because you don't want your protagonist giving up. Hope you found that helpful, have fun with that, and if you do, let me know how it goes. If you'd like lots more free creative writing tips, hop on over to Writeforareason.com, where you'll find lots more resources and encouragement to help you write excellent, relevant, fun novels and get them into your readers' hands. If you haven't yet done my free writing course, Group in Beginnings, help yourself and you can start that straight away. You also have a Write for Reason Academy and a membership group. I would love for you to join us. So don't put your writing off, folks. As I always say, today is a gift to use wisely. If you've been called to write, someone is waiting for your story.