Universal Needs – Creating Characters

We have put together this post on universal needs to consider when creating characters.

Our characters control our story. A novel, which consists of a plot, scenes, and settings, cannot move forward without characters.

[Use our Character Creation Kit to create great characters for your stories.]

One of my favourite things about writing a story is creating a character. I like to concentrate on creating the best protagonist and antagonist I can. These important characters drive stories. I love the idea of a blank character questionnaire, where I can mould a personality who will be strong enough to tell the story.

1. Will he or she have a personality disorder?
2. How will their body language reveal their intentions?
3. Which of the 12 Most Common Archetypes will he or she fit?

Getting under the skin of my characters is fun. I have to decide what motivates a character to act or re-act to a situation. If you look at psychology, this is usually because of an unmet need.

We found this incredible list of universal needs by Gina Senarighi in her post, Relationship Advice: Set Intentions and be heard again. She says,

“Marshall Rosenberg founded Non-violent Communication years ago based on his theory that all human behaviour centres on met or unmet needs.  Use this list as a guide to identify which unmet needs might be underlying your intention.”

The character you create in a novel will have unmet needs too. Use this list to help you define them.

If you want to know more about characters, read The 4 Main Characters As Literary Devices and use these character questionnaires.

© Amanda Patterson