Character Creating template

This is the hand out given out at the Character Building presentation by Sheila Gumpright on 20 Sept. 212 

Creative Writing Character Building template

Story idea/title --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Character 1 : Male

Naming the character : give a simple name, easy to pronounce and remember and the one you like  – Robin Ray [or Day or Wright or Bishop, Reilly, Johnson or]

Life history :

Where born – Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, NW London, England.

What sort of kid was he – the only child, a little chubby, always smiling always busy doing one thing after another, loved school ground football, his classmates loved to hang around him, he was very popular amongst his peers he always took the lead role in the school ground, they thought him to be their leader who can sort any problems out for them, Robin became the Head Boy in the Middle school, mad about Manchester United Football Club

Best school friends – Barnab, Ricky, Daniel

What were his parents like – parents were born in Northern Ireland [a territory of the UK], now live in a conservation area of leafy Pinner Village in Harrow, father  John and mother Marie, both were very friendly and smiley- specially John, mother landscape designer, father a high flier,  head of programming for IMB.

Physical aspects of the character :

Height and appearance : six feet and six inches tall, stout built with strong mussels – with the feature of a Greek God?

Weight : sixty nine kilograms

Hair : thick dark blackish brown

Eye :  colour shape/size  - big bright/intelligent/cheeky looking light blue-greyish

Age: at the time of  the story - twenty eight years old

Temperament : tolerant, doesn’t get angry unless physically threatened

Moral/ethical/religious beliefs: born in a Catholic family but doesn’t practice any religious rites or go to church, believe in universal humanity and human rights but rejects in Brussels bureaucracy, support controlled migration and asylum seeking, strongly supports green ideas/policies, rejects cruelty to animals and mammals including seals and whales culling, supports charities eg. Cancer Research, Save the
Children, Oxfam etc

Political stance: Left-oriented but doesn’t like Communism and strongly against the current Communist leaders in the world, believe in democracy and supports democratic activities, women’s rights/equality, feels helpless with UN stance on mass killings by dictators or occupied territories like Gaza, Tibet, Syria, etc

Hobbies : Loves swimming, scuba diving, gardening and playing golf, enjoy watching cricket, football, rugby, motor sports and horse racing,

Likes pets? Had a puppy-friend and when it was killed on the road outside their quite home area  never wants to see another pet in the house, except tropical fish and hope to have a large marine aquarium with all those colourful fishes and coral etc

Habits – Early riser, morning shower and twelve minutes’ meditation session in the morning, must have toasts with Marmite for breakfast, can’t go to sleep without reading and listening to classical music

Strengths – strong traits: have strong positive mental attitude, doesn’t give up until humanly impossible to achieve/do, a bit bloody minded, occasionally arrogant

Quirks – strongly opinionated in all matters outside his expertise/knowledge

Eccentricities- despite having a large garden keeps hundreds of big/small pots for planting shrubs/flowers and move them around the patio and front/back gardens; loves/mad about colours and lights and have them in abundance in house/gardens.

Glaring weaknesses: the greatest procrastinator for mundane jobs, goes over the top for the loved ones or the child on the street, too idealist [hope to change the world and kill off corruption/dictatorships in many countries of the world]

Likes : a good chat/hot discussion on pet topics like home/international politics, football/cricket/gardening, religious exploitation/bogus asylums/benefit cheating

Dislikes : Prejudice, discrimination, exploitation, war, class system, spicy food

Fears or phobias: snakes, living alone, height – fear of falling

Short and long term goals: ST goals – getting the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, cancer  research at Harvard, travelling around the world. LT goals – get a research scholarship on lung cancer prevention/cure, fall in love with a wonder woman, get a small house with big gardens by a canal, have two children

Hopes and dreams : to see a politically/religiously/economically settled and  harmonised humanity in the world

Mannerism: mild mannered, polite, smile a lot – even when in disagreement/dislikes something

Relationships, invent first loves : fell ‘madly in love’ at secondary school with a ‘dream girl’ that lasted for long seven months when she emigrated to Australia/India/America without even saying a goodbye –and that was that!

Professions, what was their education, their career - Robin did medicine at Oxford with distinction, studying for Fellowship of the RCS, hope to do research in lung cancer prevention/cure 

Conflicts/moments of change – be imaginative, credible key events, make them complicated, make them outstanding, what are the consequences?  - while at Oxford he lost his father at the age of 49 with painful lung cancer, mother [a Catholic] converted to Islam when she married a man from Morocco with three other wives,

Life experience, first jobs, epiphanies and major life events, experiences when the character’s world changed irreversibly, moments of insight or despair - Robin grew into an ‘experienced/wise/aged’ man within a space of seven months since his father’s death and mother’s desertion.

Ethnicity – London born English of Northern Irish parental roots and has strong allegiance to NI and its culture/heritage.

Social class –  middle class [but he dislikes labelling by any class] living in a well-to-do conservation area with good disposable family income – father’s Directorial job with IBM and mother’s landscaping business

Character’s fears, motivations  - fear of failure or underachievement that also spur him on to greater achievement/success

Some secrets about the character that make him/her little mysterious and let the readers read and discover something between the lines – readers love this.

Biggest secret - fear of rejection in approaching his dream ‘wonder woman’

Where they live now, where they travel – live in an old detached big house in leafy conservation area in Pinner Village in Harrow, greater London, England. They travel a lot to see family and friends in Northern Ireland, USA and Canada. Visited India a few times with his best school friend Barnab  who has ancestral houses there . Robin and family love golf and take golfing holidays to Spain, Portugal and Scotland.

Wants and goals of the character and conflicts/difficulties in achieving them – it’s how the character deals with his/her obstacles that defines them  - Robin wants to [1] devote his career to find cure for cancer that killed his dear father and [2] fall in love/marry the Indian Princes he met at Oxford while studying medicine –but consider possible  obstacles/complications in achieving his life goals and ultimately how he tackles all these issues, ultimate results – success/failure/mixture of both? – the more emotionally enriched/charged  the better the reader experience

Likes and dislikes of character – likes and dislikes are often shadow of each other e.g. if I like freedom I’m likely to dislike authority or if I like rose garden I’m unlikely to be fan of aphids.

A list of quirks :  good habits/bad habits or just things the character can’t stop doing without some serious discipline or counselling e.g. drugs addiction or nail biting or any other specific mannerism?

 

Archetypal symbols associated with the character – something that considered to be a perfect example of a particular kind of person having all their important characteristics e.g. he is an archetypal of a modern journalist, Beatles are the archetypal of a top pop group – Robin is the archetypal of modern day Albert Einstein in cancer research?

Use body language :

Facial expression including eye contact – a smile, a frown, a scowl; eye contact is direct and powerful, the eyes are always talking, eyes are so transparent that one can see the soul, nothing builds trust and rapport as effectively as eye contact, in USA direct eye contact is considered a sign of honesty and trustworthiness; a hard, unblinking stare send a different message.

Gestures – fidgeting shows boredom and restlessness; pressing fingers together to form a steeple shows interests, assertiveness and determination; touching the nose or rubbing eyes indicates discomfort, or it may even be a signal that the character is not being completely honest; a hand to the back of the neck may indicate withdrawal from a conversation.

Posture – interested people always pay attention and lean forward, leaning backward demonstrate aloofness or rejection; a firm handshake will give the impression of assertiveness or honesty; folding arms across the chest of body is protective and will give the impression of a character who’s closed, guarded and defensive; people with arms folded, legs crossed and bodies turned away are signalling that they are rejecting messages; a head held straight up signals a neutral attitude; a head tilted to the side indicates interest; a head down is negative and judgemental.

Space – [consider cultural differences] :  intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and public distance. In a group when one turns toward the speaker this conveys attention; competitors are more likely to sit face to face, collaborators are more likely to sit side by side and if one stands up and speaks he sends a message of dominance which can stifle free exchange of ideas. 

Note : Chicken or the egg? As you CREATE your life-like character you will most likely build up story ideas in your head – without even realising it.

As a writer you know everything there is be known about YOUR character that you CREATED . But you don’t need to give everything away – keep something with you and let the readers ‘discover’ them between the lines. It enhances their reading pleasure. 

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