The Wonderful World of Characters

Characters. We wouldn’t have stories without them — these twisty, three dimensional, abstract entities of matter with minds of their own.

I like to figure out my characters using a character worksheet. I downloaded one from Jill Williamson’s website, then formatted it and changed fonts until it fit my personality. I find I often am surprised by the answers I write down. Characters really do have a mind of their own.

Character building is
very extremely important because it helps you to better understand who you’re writing as. Writing becomes easier when you know what motivates your character, what they’re willing to sacrifice, what they value, what their goals are, etc. By knowing these things, it’ll be easier to see where the story is going.

On the Go Teen Writers site, there are multiple posts that explain the character worksheet and how to use it. I highly recommend that you check them out!

As far as the importance of characters, it probably seems obvious and totally unnecessary to explain (but I’m going to anyways). The characters are the core of the story. They are the reason the reader keeps reading. If a character is written well, the reader will want to root for the character and see them succeed. They’ll keep reading to see through that outcome. Characters who are flat and boring won’t engage the reader. The book will be closed, the story abandoned.

Harry Potter was the boy who lived. We meet him as this poor boy with broken glasses and a lightning bolt-shaped scar, living in a cupboard under the stairs because of his terrible relatives. Immediately, we are drawn to this character. As we see him learn about the wizarding world and arrive at Hogwarts, we want to see him succeed. As he
undergoes challenges, we find ourselves enthralled and committed to seeing this boy come out victorious.

Characters are pretty awesome, am I right?