What is a character sketch?
- a character sketch is a written piece that is a person's personality and behavior or a theatrical portrayal of a unique character.
Why is it important?
- character sketches are important because they help the author grasp a better understanding of their character so that they can convey it to the reader. Not having specific details in a character sketch can lead to a fragile and fraying plot.
Things to include:
Who (name, age, family):
What (what makes them important enough to write about?:
Where (living space, neighborhood, city, suburb):
When (months, years, hours, weeks, day, night):
Why ( Why is the story important? Why is the story starting where it is?):
Descriptions (physical/mental/emotional):
Type (the protector, the hero, the sly scammer, a mix?):
Most Important Thing
Desire
- what does your character want to accomplish in life/or temporarily accomplish
- what causes them to have this desire?
- This determines how the character will act, think, or feel about certain topics (this is helpful to get to know your character)
-This is crucial to the plot as it is what drives it
- Example: Fred wanted to save animals so that is why he started working at the wildlife reserve where he discovered the just how badly are treated. He then dedicated his life to fixing this.
tips:
1. I suggest completing this in as much detail as possible.
2. If you aren't sure whether it is detailed enough, see if you can have a conversation with them and predict their answers. If you ask them a question and aren't sure how they would respond, go back to the sketch and add more detail.
3. Remember if you can not understand your character neither will the reader.
4. I find it helpful to think about what that character and I have in common as I write so that no character is exactly the same.
5. Remeber writers write what they know. It is 100% acceptable to pull feelings, thoughts, actions, from experiences in your own life and have a character with similar experiences.
YOU ARE READING
Writing Prompts and Tips
JugendliteraturBasically, just some fun prompts and simple tips that I find helpful. Please let me know if you have any ideas of how I can improve.
