Getting to know your characters

First, a confession.  I plot first and do characters second.  That being said, I do have a system.  I use WriteWayPro software because I like the organizational platform and I've customized it for the things I want.  Let me also give credit to fabulous author Leanne Banks for her list of traits that I've adopted.

You don't need organizational software to develop characters.  I did this in MS Word:

CHARACTER INFO SHEET

Name:

Photo: (I use pictures off the net just as visuals)

Age:

Description:

Story Role:

________________________________________________________

Relevant Backstory:

Secret Wish:

Greatest Fear:

Super Power:

Now you're probably wondering about the relevant backstory part of this.  The Secret Wish can be anything from finding a killer to finding eternal love.  It's the one hold-back the character has that is revealed to the reader before it is revealed to other characters.

The Greatest Fear is how you define your conflict.  As a purely simplistic example, let's say the secret wish was finding eternal love.  Then for the sake of conflict, that character has to fear commitment.  It creates that stumbling block that makes it impossible for him to have his secret wish granted.  This is the one thing he/she needs to resolve before the story concludes.  You can have big fears or little fears as subplots, just remember opposing forces is the key to all this.

The Super Power is not what you think.  It does not involve capes and tights.  It's a running thing that happens just to that character to give them a uniqueness.  For example, my husband's Super Power is that he's invisible to wait staff.  Never fails, we go out to dinner and he practically has to dance on the table to get the check.  My Super Power - diffuse any emotionally difficult situation with inappropriate humor.  See?  No capes.

If you are interested in WriteWayPro (and no, I have no relationship with the company), it's under $50.00 and money well spent, IMHO.  You can add any kind of category you want and you can make your topics as long as you want.  If you need to write 10 pages of a bio for a character, go for it.  Even though I also use Power Structure, I find the character templates in WriteWay much better.  Want something that has most of those features for free?  Try yWriter5.  It's free!

Happy Writing!
Rhonda