Welcome to the Wattpad Block Party - Winter Edition III!
Round FIVE of this popular event is coming your way the entire month of February 2017 and it's going to be epic! The invites have started to roll out and everyone from your all time favo...
Hey, everyone! I'm @CatMint5 and I'm here to give you some advice on character creation, to share with you the wise words of a cocky teenage shape shifter and host a giveaway (YAY, PRIZES!).
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Before you sit down to cook up a brand new character, ask yourself this: is this character needed? What will they bring to the table?
If your answer is "yes, I'll need them to move the plot forward/help out another character/etc.", then sit down and create a profile for this new character. There are some basic things to consider that everyone remembers to put in a character profile - name, age, genre, hair and eye color, etc. - but there's one important thing that a lot of authors forget about or don't focus much on: the character's background and current environment, and more specifically how they influence the character.
Here are a few useful questions to ask yourself when you create your character's background:
• Where did the character grow up? In which country/state/town/neighbourhood?
• Is there any particular slang that is associated with that place?
This will influence the way your character talks.
• Is there any particular model of behaviour?
For example, did they grow up in a very strict, religious community?
How did this influence the way they act?
Did they willingly go to church each Sunday or have their stringent environment pushed them to the other extreme: hating their community's religion?
• Who did the character grow up with and who does your character spend time with?
How did these people influence the character in the past and do they continue to influence your character now?
• What social class does the character belong to?
A lower social class would probably mean that your character uses slang while higher social class would mean clearer sentence structure and words that might sound fancy and posh to people outside of your character's circle.
• What kind of education does your character have?
Even if your character isn't big on education, if they come from an educated family or spend time with educated people, they'll pick something up by communicating with their parents, siblings, friends or colleagues.
And now, let's turn things the other way around and ponder on how your character influences and interacts with their environment and what does that tell us about the character anyway?
• The character has no control over their environment.
It could be because of their personality - they are insecure and indecisive so they let their family, significant other or whoever else they live with make the decisions for them. This case shows us one more thing: the dynamic between this character and those around them.
