Web Tip: Character Chart

PLEASE NOTE: I am running my first-ever contest. To learn more, click on the little blue "Contest" tag at right. Welcome!

While you're creating that gorgeous (or not) hero, you may want to know more about him. For today's web tip, let me refer you to a Character Chart created by author Charlotte Dillon.

In my own humble opinion, part of the fun of writing is in discovering new things about my characters. (I once turned to my dh and said, “Did you know Stephanie is afraid of suffering mental illness the way her grandmother did? She just told me that.”)

Still, even if Ms. Dillon’s chart is too detailed for you, looking at it carefully will help you to discover some of the gaps you may need to fill in – now or later – as you develop your realistic (almost) flesh-and-blood (nearly) characters who will live on the page and in our memories.

If the list of characteristics for your characters, which you see at the top of her Character Chart, don’t fill in all the gaps for you, perhaps the “interview” questions farther down the page will do the trick. If that’s still not enough, have a look at Lucia Zimmitti’s ideas for breathing life into your characters. I’m especially partial to inviting your characters to dinner at your house. Fun! Enjoy!

How do you create your real(istic) characters?