5 Essential Exercises For Creating Characters

We are posting a series of Essential Writing Exercises to help you tell your stories. This post includes five essential exercises for creating characters.

In our course, Writers Write Online, we spend time creating characters, plotting, learning to write dialogue, learning how to pace, and learning how to show and not tell. We teach you about viewpoint, setting, description, and scenes, and much, much more. In my series, I am going to concentrate on a few of these areas.

We’ve included exercises about creating characters, dialogue, viewpoint, plotting, setting, beginnings, and pacing. If you want a downloadable, advert-free workbook that includes all of these exercises, please buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook.

This week I have included five essential exercises for creating characters.

5 Essential Exercises For Creating Characters

When we teach Writers Write, we find that writers don’t spend enough time creating three-dimensional characters for their stories. They also add too many characters instead of using one or two that do the same job in the story.

No matter which genre you choose, you should have these four characters for a story to work properly:

1. Protagonist
2. Antagonist
3. Love Interest
4. Confidant/Sidekick

They hold your plot together.

Absolute Must-Read: How Writers Use The 4 Main Characters As Literary Devices

Exercise 1: Physio, Socio, Psycho

‘When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.’~Ernest Hemingway

Create three biographies for your main characters and they will seem like real people:

1. Physiological: Include detailed physical descriptions.
2. Sociological: Include class, wealth, education details.
3. Psychological: This is usually a combination of how they are affected by the physiological and sociological aspects. Feelings, moods, rationalisations, and thought processes are included here. Include character traits and flaws. Decide on the ruling passions which motivate and focus your characters.

You can do this yourself, or you can use this questionnaire: The Only Character Questionnaire You Need

Exercise 2: Going Shopping

Write down a shopping list of 10 items. Send your protagonist shopping. They have just had an argument with their love interest. Write the scene as they walk through the aisles thinking about the fight as they do their shopping.

1. Name the characters.
2. Use the five senses, dialogue, body language, and the internal thoughts of the viewpoint character.
3. Show the setting through their interaction with it.

This exercise will reveal your character’s attitude to both shopping and their love interest. It will really help you to show your character instead of telling us what they are like. P.S. Remember that love interests are perfect for sub-plots in stories.

Exercise 3: Pivot

Write one of the pivotal incidents that happened in all four of these characters’ childhoods that shaped them into the people they’ve become. Write it from their viewpoint in first person present tense. (You can find some ideas for negative experiences here.)

1. Name the characters.
2. Use the five senses, dialogue, body language, and the internal thoughts of the viewpoint character.
3. Show the setting through their interaction with it.

This exercise will show your character came from somewhere. They have a backstory. You will probably never use these scenes in your story, but you will get to know your characters well.

Exercise 4: Getting Dressed

Write a scene where your antagonist gets dressed. Let them stand in front of their wardrobe considering their options. (Write the scene in second person present tense – if you’re brave enough to try! Start with ‘You stand there, stretching your toned arms, admiring your reflection in the mirror. You…)

1. Name the characters.
2. Use the five senses, dialogue, body language, and the internal thoughts of the viewpoint character.
3. Show the setting through their interaction with it.

This exercise will ground your characters in the real world. They are not caricatures. They make choices. They may not care about their appearance or they may be vain. Show it in this exercise.

Exercise 5: 15 Questions

Use these 15 questions to find out more about the psychological motivations of your important characters. Answer them for each of the four main characters in your story.

Click here: 15 Questions Authors Should Ask Characters

This exercise will show the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that make them unique. The better you know your characters, the more memorable you can make them.

[If you want a downloadable, advert-free workbook that includes all of the ‘essential exercises’, please buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook.]

The Last Word

Use these five essential exercises for creating characters to make your stories come to life. The more real your characters seem, the more your readers will empathise with them.

© Amanda Patterson

More posts from Amanda:

1. 7 Reasons Introverts Make Great Writers
2. What Is Anger? 37 Ways To Write About Anger
3. How To Write A One-Page Synopsis (With Examples)
4. 9 Ways To Set Up A Believable Fictional Breakup
5. 3 Ways Sidekicks Strengthen Your Novel
6. Have You Chosen The Wrong Character As A Protagonist?
7. Does Your Character Fight, Freeze, Flee, Or Fawn?
8. 30 Character Motivations To Kickstart Your Story
9. 5 Instances When You Need To Tell (Not Show) In Your Writing
10. What Is A Sequel In Story Structure? A Writer’s Guide

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