Character Building Kit
You can use this kit to get to know your characters.
- When you are inventing a character- start with a name.
- Have some fun making up your characters
- Make a clustering chart. Draw a circle in the middle of a blank page. Write your character’s name in the circle. Now answer the following questions. Write down the first thing that comes into your head. Don’t worry if your page is messy. Fill up the page with answers.
Questions to ask your character
- Name and age
- Address. Where do they live?
- Who is in their family?
- Do they have any pets?
- Who are their friends?
- Who are their enemies?
- What school do they go to?
- Describe what they look like on the outside. Hair colour, eye colour, height, shape, facial features etc.
- What is their favourite food?
Inside your character
- What things do they hate? What annoys them?
- How do they feel about themselves? Happy? Sad? Shy?
- Are they happy? Why or why not?
- What is their biggest problem?
- What is something they’d love to have?
- What is their main weakness?
- What is their main strength?
- What is something they love to do? Music? Art? Acting? Sport?
- In your story your character will start off with a problem. In the course of your story they will try to solve their problems. This is the story arc. Think about the shape of your story. How is your character at the start and how might they change at the end?
- Who is the main person stopping your character get what they want?
- Name 2 other characters in your story.
- Using the ideas from your clustering chart, write a description of your character
- Draw your character
- Now that you know a lot about your characters, put them in a story.
- Have fun with this. Remember you are the author, so you are the boss. You can make your characters do what you want.