Writing from the Character Up

Getting a story started, whether it's a short story or a novel, is sometimes the hardest thing to do. So I developed a way of creating a story starting with the character, which has not failed me to this day. Writing a story this way made so much sense to me from the beginning. After all, a story is usually about a person (or people), so why not start the story with its main character and let the story evolve from there?

The first step is to create a character profile. If you have a specific audience you are writing for then choose attributes for your character that reflect that audience. Generally I will start with a blank slate and see where the story will fit later on. There have been times, though, when I've needed to write a story for a specific age group, or I already had a story idea, and I have found that this method works in any case.

I always start with a character profile form like this:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Physical appearance:

Positive Traits:

Negative Traits:

Background:

Your character's name can tell a story itself and choosing a good name for your character can really sell your story. It doesn't have to be anything flashy, but it should certainly fit your character's personality and the story. There are many ways to choose a name for your character. I generally use a baby book or I go to a website called Kabalarian Philosophy, which has a virtual encyclopedia of over 600,000 names and their meanings that you can choose from.

What I do is flip a die to determine the character's gender (odd number is male... even number is female), and then I browse through the names to find one I like. Once I choose a name I will look at its meaning, and then I will use that to develop the personality of the character. Age and physical appearance are attributes you may want to hold off on until your character is more developed and you have decided on a general audience for your story.

When determining positive and negative traits for a character, it's usually a good idea to create an equal number of negative traits as positive. People are not perfect, so your character shouldn't be either. These traits can be anything from personality traits, such as caring, cunning, or self-absorbed, to habits, such as biting fingernails or playing with a strand of hair.

Next you want to develop your character's background. Where was he born? Where did he grow up? What was his childhood like? What kind of skills does he have? And so on... You can include as much or as little detail as you like, but keep in mind that the more detail you have, the better you will know your character as a real person. If you can get to know your character on an intimate level, then portraying them as a real person through your writing will be much easier.

If a story for your character hasn't made itself known at this point, it most likely will during this next step. Now it's time to determine where your character is at this point in his life. Where does he live? Who are his friends? Does he have friends? What kind of home/job does he have? Does he go to school? Does he travel a lot? What are his hobbies? What does he like to do in his spare time?

Giving your character an environment will help to create a situation for him. Through determining his lifestyle and his physical appearance, you will be able to give him a real life challenge for him to work through, and this can be the basis for your story. What negative personality traits will have to be overcome in order for him to meet this challenge, and what positive ones will help him? What friends will be there to help him through this challenge, and what enemies will stand in his way of accomplishing his goals? Use the character profile to give these characters life too.

If the story still isn't clear to you, then put this work to the side for now and go back to it the following day. I usually do this anyway once I have brought the characters to life. I always find that by giving myself a break my mind will start whirring with ideas. Now go create some characters and most importantly... HAVE FUN!