Goal (Character's) Goal (Writer's) Character Development Worksheet For: Character's purpose. They believe that attaining this goal will bring them success and happiness, though sometimes what they think they want and what they actually need will be different. What the writer wants to see happen Motivation Purpose Fear Flaw History Present Story Personality Interests Quirk Something is driving your character to chase down their goal. (The WHY. It could be a negative emotion like fear, guilt, or regret; a negative trait like pride, vanity, or greed; or a positive emotion like love, determination, or passion. Whatever the case, giving your character a motivation will make the actions they take to achieve their goal seem realistic and relative and reveal who they are at heart. Consider how your character adds to the story. Do they create conflict or undergo emotional development? If not, your character will seem pointless. Fear is an emotion that all humans feel. It leads to insecurity, impatience, and conflict. Go beyond the physical and give your character a poor personality trait, bad standing in society, or an unpleasant circumstance to live in. Character's past shapes who they become. Give your character a rich history that will affect their present-day decisions. Don't drown your novel in backstory. Give your character a present-day story, a quest or a journey that will shape and grow them. Make your character complex by giving them contradictory traits and avoiding clichés at all costs. Once you ve chosen a few personality traits, decide when each of those traits comes in to play. If your character is prone to anger, what sets them off? If your character is silly, what makes them laugh? Repeat this process for each of their traits to discover exactly how your character will act in every situation they encounter. Give your character a passion, even if it's one your readers will hate. Fervor breeds interest, no matter the subject. Everyone has their strange habits. Give your character a quirk to help them stand out from the crowd.
Name Desire Love Complexity Uniqueness Intelligent Relatable Failure Suffer Gender Perspective Type Language More specifically, give your character a name with purpose. Showcase a time period, foreshadow their actions, or hint at their interests. Give your character's name a role in your story. Desires are powerful motivators. Some desires may lead your character to accomplish their goal while others may lead your character away. How can your readers love your character if your character loves no one? Your character doesn't have to be all hugs and smiles, but they do need to hold love for at least one person if you want your readers to like them. The best characters are those whose actions always surprise readers. Create a character with a complex personality and motivations, then reveal each layer one by one. Make them stand out from the rest by giving them a unique goal, motivation, or trait. A character that can stand up to your story's villain, one whose intelligent and intuition prove to be a powerful force. Give your character at least one personality trait, situation, or motivation that readers can connect with on a personal level. If your character succeeds in everything, then there was never much of a plot to your story. Your character needs to face setbacks, to get discouraged and overwhelmed, and sometimes to even fail outright. It is their failure that will make the victory all the sweeter. Readers need to see who your character is at their worst so that they can love them at their best. That means that you need to be a cruel author and make your character suffer. It's not always easy (though sometimes it can be fun), but it is necessary to take your character through the fire so they can become a stronger person. Take the time to consider everything your character will go through. Which gender would realistically be able to tell that story best? Everyone has a different perspective on life. Your character's upbringing, religion, morality, beliefs, and social influences will shape how they see the world. Take the time to flesh out each element so that readers can become fully enveloped in your character's perspective. Is your character introverted or extroverted? Shy or outgoing? Adventurous or content? Think about all of the many roles your character can play. Who are they truly? Do they show their true selves to the world, or do they put on another face in a public atmosphere? People speak differently depending on where and how they were raised. Does your character speak with a certain dialect or have an accent?
Attitude Happy Place Support Gut Feelings Bane Refuge Redemption Glory Their Story Early Failure Also, consider whether or not they use slang words, trendy jargon, or proper grammar. Your character's attitude is deeply linked to their perspective. The way in which they were raised and what they now believe will dictate how your character acts. Are they optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic? Consider if they treat others will respect and compassion or if selfishness or hatred runs deep in their veins. Everyone has a place that they can go to in order to feel comfortable and relaxed, where they can truly be themselves. Discover this place for your character, and then take them there. Readers need to see who your character is in their purest form. Your character is going to go through some tough situations. They'll need others by their side to love, encourage, and guide them. Discover who these characters are, and then bring them onto the scene. Everyone has gut feelings and gut reactions. Get to know these for your character. Even if they don't follow them, relating your character's gut in the narrative can help you reveal more about your character, create tension and suspense, and foreshadow upcoming events. Everyone has a breaking point. Your readers need to see what this is to better understand who they are reading about. It is this bane that will cause them to suffer, and that suffering will reveal who they really are. A safe haven from time to time, someone or someplace that will make them feel safe and secure. Find this person or place for your character so that they can receive the respite they need to recharge for your story's climax. Your character will screw up. They will be forced to make decisions that will harm other people. Sometimes, they'll even harm or offend others purposefully. It's your job to give them the redemption they need to become a likable character. How will they be humbled? How will they fix their mistakes? our character has grown and developed throughout their journey. In all likelihood, they have become a better person. Give your character a glimpse of how far they have come, and allow them to revel in it. Who were they in the beginning? What happened to them? What mistakes did they make and trials did they face? What did they do when they reached their breaking point? What realizations did they make, and how were they motivated to continue on? What did their fight look like? How did they overcome? And who are they now because of it all? Show just how powerful your villain is, have them take a step towards achieving their goal that sets the hero back. This will be your hero s first failure, and it will force them to change
their course. Ask yourself what your hero s next step to achieving their goal will be, and have them work towards it. Personality at Work 1.How does my hero handle their setback on an emotional level? 2.Does my hero need help to move forward? If so, how do they feel about asking for help? 3.How does my villain react to making forward progress? 4.How does my villain treat others based on their early success? By working your responses into the plot, you ll allow readers to get to know your characters on a deeper level, ensuring that they and your plot remain interesting. Some Success Progress should definitely be hard-earned (they may even experience a few small setbacks along the way), but for all intents and purposes they are getting closer to achieving their goals. Testing Test your hero s mettle by making them fail. Not something that merely sets them back. This failure should be massive, something that makes your hero seriously consider quitting their journey altogether. The loss they experience should call their motivations into question, making them wonder if anything they have done thus far has been worth the price they have had to pay. skyrockets the tension in your novel skyrocket, but opens up the opportunity for you to give your hero some emotional development, as well as to reveal what they truly need to find success (compared to what they ve been chasing so far). This is also the place where readers finally get to know the most raw, vulnerable version of your hero, where their true personality becomes more evident than ever. Climatic Tension Whether your characters have been chasing individual goals or the same goal for individual reasons, this is the point where they come into final conflict with one another. And it should be epic! Neither character should be able to take another step towards achieving their goal because the other stands directly in their path to success. As a result, someone s dream will be completely shattered by the time the conflict ends. All of your hero s and villain s actions are hanging on this one final thread, and there is no turning back. Resolution Character finally achieves their goal. This is also the point where we learn how the action thus
far had affected your character. Are they the same person in the end of the novel as they were in the beginning? Have they changed for better or for worse? Wrap up your main character s story, revealing how they finally achieved their goal and how doing so shapes the rest of their lives.