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17 Character Development Exercises for Writers

Character development exercises are short forms of deliberate practice to improve your writing skills and round out your characters.

They are typically not used in the final novel, but are little extras that help you understand the personalities that you are writing.

Because for some of us, nailing down that perfect character can be hard. And to help with that, we’ve assembled 17 different exercises to improve your characters.

• Why character exercises are important
• A list of 17 different exercises that you can implement today
• Examples and advice to improve your characters

Table of contents

• Why Are Character Development Exercises Important?
• Exercise #1: Write a FULL Description
• Exercise #2: Play Dress Up
• Exercise #3: Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes
• Exercise #4: Practice Showing Emotion
• Exercise #5: Write a “Slice of Life” Episode
• Exercise #6: Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character
• Exercise #7: Write a Progression Short Story
• Exercise #8: Draw the Character
• Exercise #9: Create a Character Profile
• Exercise #10: Conduct a Character Interview
• Exercise #11: Play the “Why” Game
• Exercise #12: Create a Character Based on Someone You Know
• Exercise #13: Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel
• Exercise #14: Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)
• Exercise #15: Create a Timeline
• Exercise #16: Do a Little Fan-fiction
• Exercise #17: Use Character Writing Prompts

So why use a character development exercise in the first place?

This may be a valid question, especially for authors like myself, who just want to dive into the writing and let the characters unfold as I write.

But honestly, a little work up front can save you a load of headache afterward.

Running through a handful of these exercises will help you to:

• Understand your character’s emotions
• Give you practice writing in their voice and from their point of view
• Find out what sets them apart from other characters
• Flesh them out to create round and dynamic characters
• Establish the relationship between your characters and the setting, or other characters
• Deliberate practice of the process to create complex and well-written characters

In short, it’s a great way to deliberately practice writing and reduces the need to go back and do extensive revisions on your characters.

That said, this might not be the best thing to do if you’re a pantser and just want to dive in and discover your characters along the way. But it can be a great tool in your author tool belt.

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So without further ado, here are 17 of our best picks for character development exercises. 

Exercise #1 : Write a FULL Description

When it comes to writing characters, most of us focus on the facial features, things like hair color, eye color, etc.

A great way to begin getting to know your character is to do a full description of them. In a book, we might not do this to the extent you might in a creative writing exercise, which is why it’s good to practice here.

Here are some things to consider: 

• Skin/hair/eye color
• Do they have any warts or moles?
• What is their hair style?
• What is their build?
• Do they have any scars, tattoos, etc.
• What is their general complexion. Is their skin smooth and silky, rough and calloused, or even bruised and battered?
• What default facial expression do they have?
• What does he/she smell like?

Exercise #2 : Play Dress Up

What we choose to wear says a lot about a person. Someone wearing an extravagant French-style outfit from the 18th century will give you a completely different impression than a cut business suit from the 21st century.

The problem is that most authors, when they’re writing about their characters, often forget to add a lot of detail about the clothes they are wearing. It’s easy to see these things in your mind and forget that your readers don’t see what you see. They see what you write.

One way to help overcome this oversight is to continue the exercise above, but focus on clothing.

And don’t just focus on any one type, because your protagonist will most likely use several types of clothing throughout the course of your novel. Here are just some examples:

• Travel clothing
• Clothes for a night on the town
• Clothes for wilderness survival
• Combat wear

Exercise #3 : Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes

Ideally, every character should experience the same thing differently, depending on their background, their wants and desires, and their tastes.

Additionally, great prose is often written from the perspective of the character making the observation.

For example, let’s say you have two people, one who has grown up in a desert their whole life, where water is scarce, and the other who grew up in a place where water was plentiful. 

Imagine these two people on a hot day, observing a third person splashing water on their face. If you’re writing from the first character’s perspective, you could describe this as “and the man took a handful of water and wasted it on his face.” The second person might describe it this way, “I watched as the man poured the cool liquid and splashed it all over his face. I wish I were him right now.”

Do you see the difference there? In one, the character sees using water in one way as a waste, and for the other, it’s something to be sought after. 

Exercise #4 : Practice Showing Emotion

We’ve all heard the adage to “show, don’t tell,” but what does this really look like for most characters?

This is something that really only comes with practice. Once you’ve done it enough times, you’ll recognize instances where you’re saying things like “he felt hungry,” and can replace them with something like “He winced and put a hand to his stomach as it growled, and he swallowed hard.”

Character emotion is one of these areas where showing rather than telling can really enhance your novel.

Exercise #5 : Write a “Slice of Life” Episode

There are a lot of scenes in a book, and most of them have a purpose. That said, there are many scenes that probably occur in that character’s life, but that we don’t talk about because they’re not important for the story.

However, you as the author should have an idea of what happens in these less important moments.

Some examples of a “slice of life” episode might include:

• Having dinner with family
• Going to the bathroom
• The morning routine
• A conversation with a co-worker
• Late-night conversations with a spouse
• Cooking a meal
• Going on vacation
• Playing with their kids
• Coming home a little too drunk
• Visiting a museum

Exercise #6 : Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character

Very often, we learn more from others about ourselves that we might not have known on our own. Others can provide unique perspectives, and in some cases expose huge biases (on both sides).

For example, a proud character might not realize that he/she is proud, but it’s easy for an outside observer to spot this.

Exercise #7 : Write a Progression Short Story

In real life, people change a lot, and characters should change in stories too (most of the time). 

A great way to show this is to write a short story that examines the character at different parts of her/his life. You can focus on key moments in their life, but you could also just follow exercise #5 and focus on a few more everyday events.

The purpose of this exercise is to show how that person may have changed. Do they view the world differently as a working adult, vs as a teenager? A child? An elderly person?

What about before or after experiencing some kind of trauma?

Exercise #8 : Draw the Character

I’ll be honest, I’m not an artist. But I am a visual person, and getting some solid visuals of the character can be a huge boost in helping me understand them.

If you’re like me and really have no design skills , then finding a few photos is fine.

I’d recommend several photos though, since one might not be enough. You could have some for their face and general appearance, one for their clothes and how they look, etc.

If you know a program like Photoshop, you could even crop these together to get an even better sense of what you character looks like.

This is a great exercise for understanding the feel of a character, which is often harder to put into words.

Exercise #9 : Create a Character Profile

Imagine you work for the FBI, and you have to draft up a dossier about your character. What might that look like?

Fortunately, we’ve done a whole article about this topic, so you should definitely check that out, and also don’t forget to pick up our character profile template, which can easily help you through this process.

If you want a thorough process to identify the character’s appearance, personality, background, and more, this is the way to go. 

The best aspects to focus on are the flaws, motivations, and fears of your character. What prompts them to action? Understanding these things will help you get at the core of your character’s personality traits.

Exercise #10 : Conduct a Character Interview

Imagine you sat in a darkened room, across the table from you is your character. You can ask them anything, they won’t be offended, and they will understand the question.

What do you ask them about?

Writing a character interview is almost like writing yourself into a short story where you get to personally meet your character and ask them questions.

This is huge for helping you understand the character’s voice, but also a good strategy for building solid character backstory and character traits.

To help, we’ve already assembled over 200 character development questions that can aid you in this process.

Exercise #11 : Play the “Why” Game

This goes along with the idea of an interview, but sometimes in order to dig really deep into the motivations of your character, you’ve got to ask why.

Is your character aggressive? Ask them why. 

From there you might find out that his mother shouted at him as a kid, and he saw his parents fight a lot. Ask why.

You might learn that his father had a drinking problem and it meant that his mother took it out on him. Ask why.

From there, it might come out that his father had lost a lot of money in a business deal, leading him to turn to drink.

I hope you get the idea. The more you ask why, the more you’ll dig deeper into your character’s past, and the better you will understand them.

Exercise #12 : Create a Character Based on Someone You Know

This can be a little dangerous, because to be honest, most of the people we know are not that interesting. And we also want to avoid lawsuits for defamation if the comparison is too obvious.

That said, the people we know can be a huge inspiration to pick and choose ideas to incorporate into your characters.

For example, my own father and uncle have a really fun way of talking to each other. They’re always ribbing on each other and calling eachother weird, made-up names. You can tell that they love each other, but it’s an uncommon way of showing it.

This might make a good relationship between two people in a book.

Exercise #13 : Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel

The writer is mostly concerned with what happens during the plot of her novel. But if written well, a character will feel like they exist long before and long after the pages of the book.

So it’s a good idea to try dreaming up what happens to these characters in that time. 

It can be dramatic, or it can be mundane. Impactful, or ordinary. It doesn’t matter much. All that matters is that you have a past and future in mind for that character (unless you plan to kill them off of course).

And who knows, you might even come up with some good ideas for other books involving those characters.

Exercise #14 : Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)

I’ve heard it said that you should basically put your characters through hell in a story, and never let up.

While this is good advice, it’s not always practical. That said, putting your characters through the meat-grinder is a great way to learn how they react to conflict.

These scenarios don’t have to be trials you will actually use in your novel. These are just different ways to put your character in pain and see how they react (I know I sound like a very unethical scientist, don't @ me).

Here are some possibilities:

• The loss of a loved one
• A diagnosis of cancer
• The loss of a limb
• Getting tortured
• Breaking up with the love of their life
• Losing everything they own
• Being betrayed by a friend

Exercise #15 : Create a Timeline

Sometimes it’s hard to keep every part of a character’s life straight. That’s where a timeline can be helpful.

A timeline is a simple list of events in the character’s life, though they can get more complex and interesting, and you can even put some design skills to work if you want.

But timelines only have to be a simple list of events. They can include events from before their birth to their death, or they can be focused on a specific period of their life.

It will depend on the character and the story you will want to tell.

Exercise #16 : Do a Little Fan-fiction

When we’re writing a story, we might not have a full grasp on it yet, and that’s where writing fan fiction can help.

Imagine your character interacting with characters from a story you already know? Imagine the ultimate crossover between your story and your favorite franchise.

For example, what Hogwarts house would your character belong in? What might it look like when he/she is sorted and interacts with other characters in that house or other characters from the Harry Potter books.

It’s a great way to lean on characters you already know, to help unveil more about the characters you’re trying to discover.

Exercise #17 : Use Character Writing Prompts

There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box.

In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.

Instead, I recommend this post , or checking out our list of character questions to give you ideas.

Final Thoughts on Character Development Exercises

If you’ve made it far, first of all, well done.

Second of all, you might be a little overwhelmed, but don’t worry. This list is not meant to be a checklist for everything you should do to expand on your characters.

Instead, this is a handful of ideas that you can take (or leave) and use them to better understand your characters.

As you apply these exercises, I can pretty much guarantee that you will grow as a writer, become more familiar with your characters, and increase your chances of having a great dynamic character in your books.

Let us know how it goes!

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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How to create vivid characters for your novel or screenplay

Follow this step-by-step guide to learn the modern process of developing fictional characters in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives.

How to create a character in 8 easy steps

One of the most integral parts of any story is crafting relatable and vivid characters. As writer Ernest Hemingway said, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

The character profile is a popular technique for developing genuine personas for your story. Depending on the project or person, some stories are born out of a character, while others begin with a plot that in turn shapes the characters. A detailed character profile will help to shape a narrative as well as provide a handy reference point for their personality traits, backstory, goals, flaws, and challenges.

Whether you’re developing a character for your novel, screenplay, video game , or comic, this guide will take you through every step to bring them to life.

1. Start with a character archetype

A character might start as a bundle of random ideas, traits and plot points from a story outline, so it’s important to bring everything together in one place. A character archetype can help narrow your focus. There are twelve common archetypes or personas that we recognize across literature, mythology, and the human experience: The Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester, and Sage.

Archetypes provide guidelines for behaviors, emotions, and actions. For example, the Explorer is naturally curious, restless, and driven to push boundaries, such as detective Sherlock Holmes or Huckleberry Finn. Experiment with your archetype—layer characteristics or even transform them from one to another as the storyline progresses.

Create a new board for your character profile.

Create a new board

Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.

Add an image to represent your character.

Upload a file or document  

Click the "Upload file" button or just drag a file onto your board. You can add images, logos, documents, videos, audio, and much more.

2. Add specific characteristics

Once you've defined an initial archetype, you can begin to shape the character and make them original. Consider the emotional connection between your audience and your character, and work towards the desired outcome. You may find that switching the age and gender of a character can lead to very different responses from your reader. Here are a few other examples you could use to create a unique character:

• Adventurous and thrill-seeking
• Absent-minded and often lost in thought
• Compassionate and empathetic
• Obsessed with solving crossword puzzles or riddles
• Intelligent and analytical
• Witty and sarcastic
• Ambitious and driven
• Introverted and introspective
• Charismatic and charming
• Meticulous and detail-oriented

Add a note to describe their charactaristics.

Drag a note card onto your board

Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left-hand toolbar.

3. Build the backstory

Your character's backstory describes the journey they have taken up to this point. It allows you to explore their fears, weaknesses, and motivations and to define their purpose. You can explain the character's methods and evaluations—why they act the way that they do, the choices they make, and how it drives the individual forward. Are they making progress towards their goal, or making things worse?

To really round out the character, give them a personality that stretches beyond the story itself. Some aspects of their personality will not make it into the story but will help to inform the decisions that they make. Here are a few areas to consider when crafting an interesting backstory:

• Childhood and family dynamics
• Traumatic or impactful events
• Educational background and achievements
• Obstacles, challenges, or setbacks
• Secrets, hidden aspects, or unresolved issues
• Relationships with friends, partners, or mentors
• Goals, aspirations, and dreams
• Hobbies, interests, or talents
• Values, morals, and ethical code

Add a note to describe their backstory.

4. Give them quirks, faults, and flaws

Your character should come from an authentic place. That means that the character probably has some contradictions that make them a little out of the ordinary. If a character is too simplistic, it can feel cliched. Character flaws such as overconfidence, impatience, or recklessness can add new dimensions to a hero and make them feel more relatable. Here are a few other examples to consider:

• Obsessive-compulsive tendencies (arranging things symmetrically, fear of germs)
• Chronic lateness or forgetfulness
• Collects unusual items (rubber ducks, vintage keychains)
• Impulsive decision-making without considering consequences
• Has a habit of telling elaborate and overly complicated stories
• Overly critical or judgmental of others
• Quick to anger or easily provoked
• Overly trusting or easily manipulated by others

Add a note to describe their quirks and flaws.

5. Give your character an arc

A believable character grows and changes as your story evolves. Just like real people, they adapt and respond to life's events.

Consider where your character starts out and how they change alongside developments in the story. How do they overcome their initial obstacles? For example, do they learn new skills, gain a fresh perspective or make new relationships that lead to their success?

Add notes to describe the change in your character.

Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.

6. Add visual references

Even if you're writing a novel, visual references and inspiration can help bring your character to life. There are lots of fantastic sites where you can find great visual inspiration for free, like Pinterest or Google Images . You can also create a character moodboard at this stage to help explore all aspects of their appearance. See our guide on creating moodboards for a novel to learn more.

Use the built-in image library.

Use the built-in image library

Search over 500,000 beautiful photos powered by Unsplash then drag images straight onto your board.

Add image files to your board.

Click the "Upload file" button or just drag a file onto your board. You can add images, logos, documents, videos, audio and much more.

7. Organise & refine

Once you have everything you need, it's time to organize your content into logical topics. There's no right or wrong way to do this. The goal is to make your character profile easy to scan and reference as you're writing the story.

Use Columns to group related content

Drag a column onto your board

Name it, then drag any relevant notes or images into your column

8. Create the rest of your characters

It's important not to fall into the trap of giving just one character too much responsibility for the drama in your story. Work on additional characters that compliment and contrast the traits of your main character. You can repeat the above process to develop a whole cast of characters that help bring your novel to life. Creating a character relationship map can be a great way to visualize their relationships (good or bad).

Use the Character Relationship Map template

You're done!

Now that you've created a unique fictional character, you have a great reference to use while writing your story. Use the template below to start inventing your character or read our full guide on how to plan a novel .

Create your character

Get started for free with Milanote's easy to use character profile template.

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Write a story about someone who takes a joke way too far.

Write about a character who suddenly cannot run anymore., write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time., your character, having abstained from their worst vice (big or small), finds new clarity., write a story about a character participating in dry january., write a story about someone who has been tasked to keep a flame burning, surrounded by total darkness., write about someone trying something completely new., write about a character who has reinvented themselves, but realizes it's not always easy to outrun your past., write a story in which a character achieves a new level of clarity about how they’re really feeling., write a story in which a certain food makes your character travel back in time., win $250 in our short story competition 🏆.

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The best character writing prompts

Characters are the heart and soul of every story, no matter how short. They're who your readers will fall in love with — and they're the ones who will move the plot of the book itself forward depending on their goals, desires, flaws, and fears. 

When you’re struggling to find out the truth about one of your characters, try out some character writing prompts for size. These creative writing prompts focus on character writing — forcing you to think closely about your character in different situations that will hopefully help you with the character development for your novel. Whether you’re working on perfecting a character’s voice, backstory, or personality, these prompts will swoop in to save the day. 

If you're looking to cut to the chase, here’s a list of top ten favorite character writing prompts:

• In the form of diary/ journal entries, write a story that glimpses into a person's life at different ages.
• Write a story about a character who always repeats themselves.
• Write a story about a character who starts out as a pessimist and ends as an optimist. (Or vice versa.)
• Write a story about someone who’s famous for something they never actually did.
• Write a story about two friends who have a knack for understanding each other better than anyone else.
• Write a story from the point of view of three different characters.
• Write about a character doing something they’ve done hundreds of times — only this time, it’s taken on a new meaning.
• Write about a character learning to trust their intuition.
• Write about a character who goes by many different names throughout their life.
• Write about a character with a ‘hot and cold’ personality — or is affected by someone like this.

If you'd like to learn more about how to improve your character development, check out our free resources on the topic:

• Character Development 101 (blog post )  — Your characters are the emotional heartbeat of your story, especially if you're writing fiction. They'll make or break your success, which is why getting your character development right is important. Learn everything that you need to know about the process in this blog post, which will show you how to take your protagonist from zero to hero. 
• Character Profile Template (free resource )  — As an author, you are also the psychologist of your characters. This free character profile template will help you diagnose everything about your cast of characters, from their backstory to their motivations and the goals that drive them. 

Ready to start writing? Check out  Reedsy’s weekly short story contest  for the chance of winning $250! You can also check out our list of writing contests  or our directory of  literary magazines  for more opportunities to submit your story.

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Building & Revealing Characters

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By now, you’ve assembled a great deal of information about your characters. You can see them, you know what they’re thinking, and you know what they want. But conveying this information to your reader is its own unique challenge.

Just as you can’t rely on mere exposition to explain what happened before your story, you can’t preface your story with an interview with your character. Character is something you build throughout the course of your story. Recall that major characters, like your protagonist, are ones that will change during the course of the story; who they are in the beginning is not who they’ll be in the end.

That said, you’ll want to give the reader an impression of who the character is at the outset of the story. Fitzgerald uses the first-person narrator, Nick Carraway, to gradually reveal information about Gatsby; the reader learns more information about Gatsby as Nick learns about him. You might use minor characters to reveal information about your character if you’re writing from a point-of-view that is not the protagonist.

The protagonist must also be likeable (at least to an extent). If your reader cannot identify with your character, cannot picture themselves in the character’s shoes, then they won’t want to read on. While fiction is plot-driven, the reader isn’t going to care about your plot unless they care about your protagonist. You have to make the reader root for your character; we have to want them to succeed (as with Gatsby).

This doesn’t mean that your character should be perfect—quite the opposite, actually. We don’t want to read about perfect people; if a character is the most beautiful and talented person in the world, and if she has everything they want, there’s no story there. Besides, nobody wants to read about a character who’s perfect.

You may recall that every character in William Shakespeare’s plays has a “fatal flaw”: a personality flaw that will cause the character to fail, that Achilles’ heel that the antagonist will exploit. When you are building your own characters, think about what sort of flaws they have. The flaw should make sense for the character, as in, it should be related to their background/beliefs. You can’t assign flaws arbitrarily—the flaw should arise from the circumstances of your character’s life, where they are, who they know, how they were raised and how they’ve been treated.

20 Fun and Inspiring Character Writing Ideas

by Melissa Donovan | Nov 16, 2021 | Story Writing | 26 comments

Where do you get your character writing ideas?

Creating a realistic character is one of the most difficult challenges in writing a piece of fiction. We’ve all read stories in which the characters were dull or hollow; they come across like clones of the same characters we’ve met in dozens of stories before.

Readers want characters who are as unique and complex as real people.

Are we, as writers, obligated to deliver such characters?

Character Writing Ideas

You can spend hours, days, weeks, or months developing character ideas. Whether you launch into your story with little knowledge of your characters or create full sketches and backstories for each one before you begin drafting the narrative, there are plenty of tricks and techniques you can use to inspire characters and breathe life into them.

• Use real people as models for your characters. Think of all the people you know intimately, people you love as well as people you despise. Take their strongest and most interesting traits and qualities and give them to your characters.
• Need a face for your character? You can use people you know for this too, but you can also use celebrities and other public figures. Some writers find that putting a face to a character brings out a more robust personality. Try it!
• A baby-name dictionary is a great starting place for names, and names can help you generate ideas for your character sketches. Think about how names influence our perceptions of people, and sketch a character that fits their name.
• Start with a predicament. Then create characters who have the skills to get out of that predicament. Thieves, for example, can pick locks, so if your characters need to get something out of a locked room or building, one of your characters may have some experience in burgling.
• Live out your dreams. When you were a kid, did you want to be a rock star or an astronaut? Well, now you can live vicariously through your characters!
• Turn to fiction. Books, movies, and TV shows are packed with incredible characters that audiences have already fallen for. Don’t try to copy these characters, but by all means, use them for inspiration. Ask yourself what made your favorite characters so compelling.
• We all have quirks, so it makes sense for characters to have quirks too. Freckles, bitten fingernails, a limp, or a lisp are all ways you can set one character apart from the others.
• Family and friends make us who we are. Draft sketches for your characters’ family and friends (even if they’re not going to appear in the story) and you may learn a thing or two about your character.
• Have some style! From a modern urban princess to a bum on the street, every person has his or her own style. Your characters should too! What do they wear? How does she make up her face? Does he wear cologne?
• Most people have interests, hobbies, and passions. Even if your character’s personal interests aren’t tied directly to the plot, they could enrich it, and they’ll certainly make your character more believable.
• I’ve always found mannerisms and gestures fascinating. You often see the same mannerisms mirrored throughout a family or group of friends. In fiction, give each character their own unique gestures; biting the bottom lip, scratching one’s forehead, and tapping one’s toe on the floor are all good options.
• Have you ever noticed that everyone you know has their own special way of talking? We each have a unique voice based on how we string words together, expressions we frequently use, and our intonation. You can make a character more realistic by simply giving the character a unique voice through dialogue.
• Some of the best characters are extreme or over the top. Think of Luke Skywalker, Robin Hood, and Indiana Jones. These characters have strong personalities and are deeply driven by higher values and personal desires. Think about how your characters’ philosophies and goals shape their personalities.
• Not all characters are human! Stories can be enriched with pets; they may not be necessary to the plot, but they can add to the emotional value of a story.
• Do you write science fiction or fantasy? Forget non-human pets. Try creating characters who are not of this earth: androids, aliens, and mythological or fantastical creatures.
• When you’re fresh out of good character writing ideas, try taking your characters out of the story altogether. Write a scene from a character’s backstory or draft a monologue in your character’s voice.
• Spend some down time with your characters. What do they do when they’re not struggling with conflict or saving the world? Where do your characters eat? How do they organize their closets? What do they listen to while working out? Sometimes taking a peek at your characters’ most mundane moments will give you insight to who they are.
• Balancing traits among a group of characters means that each character brings something different to the table. Harry Potter was a hero, but where would he have been without Hermione’s smarts and Ron’s loyalty? Distribute different strengths and weaknesses among your characters, especially if you’re writing an ensemble piece.
• The literary canon is full of ancient and archetypal characters. From the herald and the hero to the trickster and the villain, myths, legends, and fairy tales can inspire and inform your characters. Put a new twist on these old favorites by forming (rather than copying) your characters from these proven standards from storytelling.
• What about you? It’s the oldest trick in the book: base a character on yourself.

What are some of your favorite character writing ideas and activities? How do you come up with new characters or make your characters realistic? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

26 Comments

I usually style my characters after my dream images of people I have seen in life as interesting, or as heroic. Their actions and quirks, I have noticed, can usually be attributed to friends, family, or just people I’ve met and known somewhere in my lifetime. Our thoughts and perceptions of people, can carry us into whole new worlds when discovering and developing characters for our writings. Great post !

Oh wow you reminded me of something I left out in my post below. Charicatures of real life people is also the best way. Just embellish their flaws and qualities or even mix two people into one character and see how it plays out.

Absolutely!

Thanks, Michael. I know what you mean. I tend to mix traits from public figures, people I know personally, and people I’ve dreamed up. It’s a lot of fun!

Something that has happened in my writing that I didn’t intend. My characters take on personality traits that are similar to my own. This has resulted in my novel’s main character, being often read as me. I guess the only people that really notice that, are people that know me, so I guess it doesnt matter. Just wasn’t what I was shooting for.

Hm, I think this is common for writers. You could always work at making the character different from you, but you may also decide it doesn’t really matter. I’ve heard a lot of authors say that either their main characters or all of their characters are different versions of themselves.

Great post! I come up with realistic characters by fleshing out their similarities and differences in contrast with the protagonist. This naturally gives me a list of lessons the protagonist will get to learn due to their interactions. I also write a short story of their personal biography that includes how their parents raised them, what growing up during school was like for them and basically how their certain behaviours influenced the course of their life time. A lot of extra info is left out from the novel, but what does make it make all the difference. Furthermore, to battle writer’s block, writing a character’s biography is what helped me determine how they would act in a certain chapter, and thus finally moved the story forward. Or should I say is how it kept me Writing Forward 😀

That’s awesome, Marlon! It sounds like you use the same approach I do, which is building an elaborate character sketch and backstory. I have a lot of fun with those projects 🙂

Good tips, Melissa. I especially like the idea of diving into a character’s back story. This can provide a lot of depth to your characters and make them come alive through their personality and nuances shaped by the past.

Another useful tool when developing character names is online logs of country-specific surnames. If you know you want a character to have an Irish heritage, or Brazilian ancestry, you can browse these lists of names to find the one that fits best.

Oh yes, that’s why I use A World of Baby Names , which organizes names by heritage. It’s an awesome character creation reference! I love flipping through it and discovering all kinds of interesting names (and their meanings!).

You touch on a lot of great points here Melissa. I like to explore the eccentricities of my characters’ thought life, but I often omit descriptions of their appearance because these descriptions bore me. (I guess I’ve read too many books where the descriptions of the character includes: her pretty face, large blue eyes, eyes like limpid pools, eyes like dark pools, her full breasts…) Your note on adding physical quirks actually makes me excited to go back and add some fun descriptions that say more than “she’s a smok’n hot babe-a-tron”.

Thanks, Aziza. I get bored with lengthy descriptions, too. However, I appreciate a few key details to help me visualize a character or setting. “pretty face, large blue eyes…” etc. would be too general. Those descriptions don’t help me see anything in my mind.

What you can sometimes do is have one of your characters describe another, what they like or dislike about that person, ‘I wish I had your green eyes’, ‘s/he’s such a moody git first thing in the morning’, ‘what’s she like ?’ or nicknames that may or may not have to be explained to new characters,

Yes, that’s a good technique for describing characters, especially in a first-person narrative where a character is unlikely to describe himself or herself. Thanks for mentioning it, Nick.

I agree greatly on using a baby naming website for cgaracter names. I am in the planning stages of writing a novel and have foynd myself reffering to them for strong character names.

I also like to find associations for characters and build on that. Sometimes a character trait can become a name for a character and something that reflects their personality (I have a character in process who is named by this process).

Thanks very much for the article Melissa! It’s helped me out alot!

You’re welcome! I’m glad you found it useful!

Great post on characters – writing a memoir makes it easier to know the characters, but finding those points that make the best descriptors for the people in my life has been a challenge. I appreciate your post and plan to keep it for future reference.

Thanks, Heather. That’s a great point. In nonfiction writing, the characters are provided for us, but there’s still a challenge in choosing which details to share. I hadn’t thought about that.

I love the ideas you have come up with. I am still learning the art of creating realistic characters. I like to use people that I know as a basis. I also enjoy taking some of my favorite characters from books and sampling from them.

I love learning about how writers form characters. Thanks for sharing your technique, Christopher 🙂

this post is really amazing. I learnt a lot from it and I will start writing again using these ideas.

Try giving characters diseases/conditions like scizofrenia, polio, or bi polar disorder

Great tips here both in your post and from the comments. I will be linking to this post on my blog. Thanks!

Thanks, Rosi!

The easiest and most obvious solution for creating characters is to identify your characters with the characteristics of asterisks, burnt stereotypes

An excellent solution to the name idea is the Scrivener full personal name generator. Detailed gender, ethnicity, etc. will suit your name ideas for you

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

I haven’t used that tool, but I do love Scrivener. Best app for writing books, by far.

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What Is Creative Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 20 Examples)

Creative writing begins with a blank page and the courage to fill it with the stories only you can tell.

I face this intimidating blank page daily–and I have for the better part of 20+ years.

In this guide, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of creative writing with tons of examples.

What Is Creative Writing (Long Description)?

Creative Writing is the art of using words to express ideas and emotions in imaginative ways. It encompasses various forms including novels, poetry, and plays, focusing on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes.

Table of Contents

Let’s expand on that definition a bit.

Creative writing is an art form that transcends traditional literature boundaries.

It includes professional, journalistic, academic, and technical writing. This type of writing emphasizes narrative craft, character development, and literary tropes. It also explores poetry and poetics traditions.

In essence, creative writing lets you express ideas and emotions uniquely and imaginatively.

It’s about the freedom to invent worlds, characters, and stories. These creations evoke a spectrum of emotions in readers.

Creative writing covers fiction, poetry, and everything in between.

It allows writers to express inner thoughts and feelings. Often, it reflects human experiences through a fabricated lens.

Types of Creative Writing

There are many types of creative writing that we need to explain.

Some of the most common types:

• Short stories
• Screenplays
• Flash fiction
• Creative Nonfiction

Short Stories (The Brief Escape)

Short stories are like narrative treasures.

They are compact but impactful, telling a full story within a limited word count. These tales often focus on a single character or a crucial moment.

Short stories are known for their brevity.

They deliver emotion and insight in a concise yet powerful package. This format is ideal for exploring diverse genres, themes, and characters. It leaves a lasting impression on readers.

Example: Emma discovers an old photo of her smiling grandmother. It’s a rarity. Through flashbacks, Emma learns about her grandmother’s wartime love story. She comes to understand her grandmother’s resilience and the value of joy.

Novels (The Long Journey)

Novels are extensive explorations of character, plot, and setting.

They span thousands of words, giving writers the space to create entire worlds. Novels can weave complex stories across various themes and timelines.

The length of a novel allows for deep narrative and character development.

Readers get an immersive experience.

Example: Across the Divide tells of two siblings separated in childhood. They grow up in different cultures. Their reunion highlights the strength of family bonds, despite distance and differences.

Poetry (The Soul’s Language)

Poetry expresses ideas and emotions through rhythm, sound, and word beauty.

It distills emotions and thoughts into verses. Poetry often uses metaphors, similes, and figurative language to reach the reader’s heart and mind.

Poetry ranges from structured forms, like sonnets, to free verse.

The latter breaks away from traditional formats for more expressive thought.

Example: Whispers of Dawn is a poem collection capturing morning’s quiet moments. “First Light” personifies dawn as a painter. It brings colors of hope and renewal to the world.

Plays (The Dramatic Dialogue)

Plays are meant for performance. They bring characters and conflicts to life through dialogue and action.

This format uniquely explores human relationships and societal issues.

Playwrights face the challenge of conveying setting, emotion, and plot through dialogue and directions.

Example: Echoes of Tomorrow is set in a dystopian future. Memories can be bought and sold. It follows siblings on a quest to retrieve their stolen memories. They learn the cost of living in a world where the past has a price.

Screenplays (Cinema’s Blueprint)

Screenplays outline narratives for films and TV shows.

They require an understanding of visual storytelling, pacing, and dialogue. Screenplays must fit film production constraints.

Example: The Last Light is a screenplay for a sci-fi film. Humanity’s survivors on a dying Earth seek a new planet. The story focuses on spacecraft Argo’s crew as they face mission challenges and internal dynamics.

Memoirs (The Personal Journey)

Memoirs provide insight into an author’s life, focusing on personal experiences and emotional journeys.

They differ from autobiographies by concentrating on specific themes or events.

Memoirs invite readers into the author’s world.

They share lessons learned and hardships overcome.

Example: Under the Mango Tree is a memoir by Maria Gomez. It shares her childhood memories in rural Colombia. The mango tree in their yard symbolizes home, growth, and nostalgia. Maria reflects on her journey to a new life in America.

Flash Fiction (The Quick Twist)

Flash fiction tells stories in under 1,000 words.

It’s about crafting compelling narratives concisely. Each word in flash fiction must count, often leading to a twist.

This format captures life’s vivid moments, delivering quick, impactful insights.

Example: The Last Message features an astronaut’s final Earth message as her spacecraft drifts away. In 500 words, it explores isolation, hope, and the desire to connect against all odds.

Creative Nonfiction (The Factual Tale)

Creative nonfiction combines factual accuracy with creative storytelling.

This genre covers real events, people, and places with a twist. It uses descriptive language and narrative arcs to make true stories engaging.

Creative nonfiction includes biographies, essays, and travelogues.

Example: Echoes of Everest follows the author’s Mount Everest climb. It mixes factual details with personal reflections and the history of past climbers. The narrative captures the climb’s beauty and challenges, offering an immersive experience.

Fantasy (The World Beyond)

Fantasy transports readers to magical and mythical worlds.

It explores themes like good vs. evil and heroism in unreal settings. Fantasy requires careful world-building to create believable yet fantastic realms.

Example: The Crystal of Azmar tells of a young girl destined to save her world from darkness. She learns she’s the last sorceress in a forgotten lineage. Her journey involves mastering powers, forming alliances, and uncovering ancient kingdom myths.

Science Fiction (The Future Imagined)

Science fiction delves into futuristic and scientific themes.

It questions the impact of advancements on society and individuals.

Science fiction ranges from speculative to hard sci-fi, focusing on plausible futures.

Example: When the Stars Whisper is set in a future where humanity communicates with distant galaxies. It centers on a scientist who finds an alien message. This discovery prompts a deep look at humanity’s universe role and interstellar communication.

Watch this great video that explores the question, “What is creative writing?” and “How to get started?”:

What Are the 5 Cs of Creative Writing?

The 5 Cs of creative writing are fundamental pillars.

They guide writers to produce compelling and impactful work. These principles—Clarity, Coherence, Conciseness, Creativity, and Consistency—help craft stories that engage and entertain.

They also resonate deeply with readers. Let’s explore each of these critical components.

Clarity makes your writing understandable and accessible.

It involves choosing the right words and constructing clear sentences. Your narrative should be easy to follow.

In creative writing, clarity means conveying complex ideas in a digestible and enjoyable way.

Coherence ensures your writing flows logically.

It’s crucial for maintaining the reader’s interest. Characters should develop believably, and plots should progress logically. This makes the narrative feel cohesive.

Conciseness

Conciseness is about expressing ideas succinctly.

It’s being economical with words and avoiding redundancy. This principle helps maintain pace and tension, engaging readers throughout the story.

Creativity is the heart of creative writing.

It allows writers to invent new worlds and create memorable characters. Creativity involves originality and imagination. It’s seeing the world in unique ways and sharing that vision.

Consistency

Consistency maintains a uniform tone, style, and voice.

It means being faithful to the world you’ve created. Characters should act true to their development. This builds trust with readers, making your story immersive and believable.

Is Creative Writing Easy?

Creative writing is both rewarding and challenging.

Crafting stories from your imagination involves more than just words on a page. It requires discipline and a deep understanding of language and narrative structure.

Exploring complex characters and themes is also key.

Refining and revising your work is crucial for developing your voice.

The ease of creative writing varies. Some find the freedom of expression liberating.

Others struggle with writer’s block or plot development challenges. However, practice and feedback make creative writing more fulfilling.

What Does a Creative Writer Do?

A creative writer weaves narratives that entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Writers explore both the world they create and the emotions they wish to evoke. Their tasks are diverse, involving more than just writing.

Creative writers develop ideas, research, and plan their stories.

They create characters and outline plots with attention to detail. Drafting and revising their work is a significant part of their process. They strive for the 5 Cs of compelling writing.

Writers engage with the literary community, seeking feedback and participating in workshops.

They may navigate the publishing world with agents and editors.

Creative writers are storytellers, craftsmen, and artists. They bring narratives to life, enriching our lives and expanding our imaginations.

How to Get Started With Creative Writing?

Embarking on a creative writing journey can feel like standing at the edge of a vast and mysterious forest.

The path is not always clear, but the adventure is calling.

Here’s how to take your first steps into the world of creative writing:

• Find a time of day when your mind is most alert and creative.
• Create a comfortable writing space free from distractions.
• Use prompts to spark your imagination. They can be as simple as a word, a phrase, or an image.
• Try writing for 15-20 minutes on a prompt without editing yourself. Let the ideas flow freely.
• Reading is fuel for your writing. Explore various genres and styles.
• Pay attention to how your favorite authors construct their sentences, develop characters, and build their worlds.
• Don’t pressure yourself to write a novel right away. Begin with short stories or poems.
• Small projects can help you hone your skills and boost your confidence.
• Look for writing groups in your area or online. These communities offer support, feedback, and motivation.
• Participating in workshops or classes can also provide valuable insights into your writing.
• Understand that your first draft is just the beginning. Revising your work is where the real magic happens.
• Be open to feedback and willing to rework your pieces.
• Carry a notebook or digital recorder to jot down ideas, observations, and snippets of conversations.
• These notes can be gold mines for future writing projects.

Final Thoughts: What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is an invitation to explore the unknown, to give voice to the silenced, and to celebrate the human spirit in all its forms.

Check out these creative writing tools (that I highly recommend):

Read This Next:

• What Is a Prompt in Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 200 Examples)
• What Is A Personal Account In Writing? (47 Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Short Story (Ultimate Guide + Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Romance Novel [21 Tips + Examples)

Creative Writing (Novels & Novellas)

• Introduction
• Generating Ideas

Developing Characters

• Crafting Settings
• Plotting Narratives
• Sharpening Prose
• Getting Published
• Miscellaneous

"We humans are a social species. Whether you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert, on some level you want to connect with others-- to build a web of friends and enemies that'll last a lifetime.

"That longing is, in large part, why we tell stories in the first place. We want to fill our lives with brave heroes, devious villains, and crushes that we would  never admit in public (don't deny it), but it's a little too dangerous to actually meet those figures in real life. Also, they might secretly be dragons... or princesses. You don't know for sure that they aren't .

"So, we call upon the young farm boy and say, 'Look, I'm a little too scared to actually meet the princess of dragons, so you introduce me and I'll keep watch from back here, where it's safe.' To this, the young farm boy will simply respond, 'hmph,' because you didn't actually give him a personality before sending him on this errand.

"On behalf of all young farm boys everywhere, please spend some time on your characters."

Audio / Video

• Hello Future Me
• ShaelinWrites
• Terrible Writing Advice (2)

Books / Ebooks

• 102 Ways to Write a Novel
• Creative Writing For Dummies
• Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide...

NOTE: Ebook Central requires a username and password to access. However, creating a new account is free. Just go to the list of available databases, click Ebook Central , click "Sign In" at the top-right of the screen, and then click "Create Account" at the center. If you don't follow these steps, the site will not allow you to create an account. Once you have a username and password, you may use the link below to access this resource. The list of available databases can be found here.

Pages / Sites / Databases

• MasterClass
• Nieman Storyboard

• << Previous: Generating Ideas
• Next: Crafting Settings >>
• Last Updated: May 29, 2024 10:17 AM
• URL: https://uaccm.libguides.com/creative_writing

How to Write a Character Portrait: 4 Steps to Better Understand Characters

by Monica M. Clark and Joe Bunting | 25 comments

Whether you're writing a novel, a memoir, or even painting a portrait, it's important to understand who   you're writing about.

Creating a character portrait is a characterization technique used by writers like Cheryl Strayed, Marcel Proust , and others to better understand your characters.

In this post, you'll learn exactly what a character portrait is, how to create one of your own, and how to get the most out of them in your writing.

Let's get started!

What Is a Character Portrait: Definition

A character portrait, in creative writing, is a piece of writing that depicts a real or fictional person's personality. It is a way to think through the critical character traits of both major character and minor characters. A character portrait or sketch are usually used in memoir and fiction writing as a preparation method.

Great characters are part of the foundation of  every  good story, whether you're writing memoir, fiction, a screenplay, or even a news article.

They help you get into your subject's life, personality, and thought process, so you can write better stories.

Since these are usually used as a characterization technique to prepare for the writing process, there aren't really rules about how to write a character portrait. For example, they can be any length and focus on any aspect of the character. As long as it helps you better understand your character, it's great!

How do you actually use them well, though? Let's get into that next.

4 Tips to Write a Better Character Portrait

To prepare for this post, I took a look at my notes from the Cheryl Strayed writing retreat I attended. Cheryl is the mega-bestselling author of Wild  among other things, and I shared what I learned here and here and here . Today, we're looking at what Cheryl Strayed has to say about character portraits!

Here are four tips to better understand your characters through character portraits:

1. Character Portraits Reveal Relationship

A portrait is a description of a person or a group of people.

From Cheryl Strayed, however, I learned portraits also reveal the relationship between a person and the writer (in memoir) or another character (fiction).

For example, a person might describe his father using terms like “looming,” “powerful,” and “spoke with a deep voice.”  In addition to providing a physical description, these words evoke some of that fear or intimidation a child may have for his parent.

Another person (his wife, for example) may use completely different words to describe the same man.

So ask yourself, does your portrait reflect the person's relationship to the speaker?

2. Character Portraits Are About More than the Physical

Cheryl read us a paragraph from a writer about his mother—but he didn’t use a single physical description.

Instead, he wrote, “She was the type of woman who was charming and beloved by strangers, but all of us close to her couldn’t help but walk on egg shells.”

I made this example up because I couldn't remember the exact paragraph. However, I do remember the author wrote about his mother's actions, how she made people feel, and what she said, while completely avoiding describing her physical appearance.

You can capture character emotions and how they make others in the story feel.

You don't have to eliminate physical description. Rather, I encourage you to consider how you might create an image of a character if you couldn't describe his or her appearance.

3. Character Portraits Can Be Made for Groups of People

When Cheryl was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in her memoir  Wild , she kept running into a certain type of hiker. This group of hikers spoke a certain way, wore certain gear, and were all hiking for similar reasons. To portray this group, Cheryl decided to combine all of them into one, single character.

In cases where you want to depict a certain type of person, she said, you can choose to either combine those people into a single character, like she did  (in memoir, I might add), or you can literally write a portrait of the group.

For example, “The women of Logan Circle wear Lululemon yoga pants, racer-back tank tops, and yoga mats strapped across their backs.”  That’s how I would describe certain people in Logan Circle, D.C.  It’s not a portrait of one woman, but a type of woman that I always see there.

I understand the fear of stereotyping by describing groups this way.  My suggestion is to try to be accurate and fair, but also to  not be afraid to  lean into your character's subjectivity .

The real question is how the character would see these people.  Would he or she really have a nuanced perspective?

4. When Writing Character Portraits, Follow the HEAT

I wrote down this quote from Cheryl:

When someone you know well does something they always do, that’s a point of heat and interest, and when someone does something they never do, it’s also a place of heat and interest.

In other words, follow the heat.

I think this advice is particularly helpful in memoir.  Is there something someone in your life always does?  Is it in your description of him or her? If not, it should be!

Whether you make your distinct character portraits super-detailed or just a simple character profile to help you remember key details, the key elements you choose can bring your character to life and make them truly memorable.

What about a time when someone did something they never do?  Why did they do it?  Let us know in the comments !

I have a couple of related writing prompts for you today:

• Write a portrait of someone without describing him or her physically.
• Write a portrait of a group or category of people (or type of person).
• Write a portrait of yourself at your best or your worst .

Choose one of the writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes . When your time is up, share your writing in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you share, please be sure to give feedback to your fellow writers.

Happy writing!

Monica M. Clark

Monica is a lawyer trying to knock out her first novel. She lives in D.C. but is still a New Yorker. You can follow her on her blog or on Twitter (@monicamclark).

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

25 Comments

I find it helps me to write notes on how the secondary characters feel about each other and what their history is.

He was able to drive cattle with nothing more than his stern gaze and the other cow pokes respected him for his serious nature. The women in town were always treated well by him and fought over who would have the opportunity to spend the evening with him.

He enjoyed whiskey and women as much as the next cow poke, but he did not beat them and would take down anyone who tried.

I find it interesting to describe a character without using physical description, since it leaves more to the imagination of the reader. Adds a little flavor to a character.

I enjoyed this. I felt I was in the world of Louis Lamour!

I must confess, I love Louis L Amour’s novels.

I tried to stay away from directly describing the physical, but a few little details still crept in there. This was a very fun exercise, and it ended up sort of turning into a little story.

He had the sort of voice people subconsciously gravitated towards. It was somewhere between a deep, gravelly shout and a honey coated whisper, and even in a murmur in almost echoed. No one ever seemed to mind the only words that crossed those lips were obscenities. As long as it was that musical voice that shouted these threats, people listened.

There was something in the way he walked, too. I would notice it every day in spite of myself, peeking through the frosted windows at the man marching through the snow in a tattered rag of a shirt. He had a certain swagger to him, as did most young unattached men, but it was something more than that. He took each step deliberately and held his head so high I imagined it simply popping off one day from the strain. He was barefoot on ice, but I could imagine him walking just the same way on the red carpet.

Every movement he made was like that. Every filthy word he spoke, too; everything he did seemed like it had been planned for weeks. There was never a fidget or fumble. He meant every single action he took and carried them out as though he was center stage at the biggest show on Broadway. He knew everybody was watching everything he did with rapt attention, and he liked it that way.

I just never thought he noticed me, noticing him. Until one morning as he made his usual march past my shop, took an abrupt turn, and crossed the threshold of my store with two long steps.

As the door clattered shut behind him, he stared at me. He did not make a move or a sound.

I thought I saw something flicker behind his eyes, and I knew that look was not deliberate. I stepped out from behind the counter and crossed towards him, not fully aware of what I was doing.

quite a bit of physical description. I want to know more of his actions besides his swearing. I loved the barefoot on ice line.

Okay, here is my 15 minutes…

My daughter is a five foot nine, auburn-haired contradiction–part Pollyanna and part worrywart, I never quite know how she’ll respond. Now, that she is away at college, her mother and I miss the reverberating laughter coming from her room at night as she entertains herself with online puns and memes. I miss her presence of joy. She lives with a smile and happy disposition, often with the quixotic nature of youth, except when she is not. Then, she is the sourpuss, the prophet of doom. She is not too mercurial; just uncertain and frightened by the new and uncertain world she is thrust into. Still, it is odd to experience her–a bubbly, effervescent, dreamer and apprehensive, anxious fudgeon.

I used to be called a sourpuss. I was a witch during those times.

My mother is not the person she used to be. Once gregarious and fun-loving, now she is morose and quiet. When once we could not get her off the phone, now she doesn’t even like to answer it. Something about being afraid she’ll never be able to hang up with the caller should he or she be a real talker.

Mom sits in her easy chair with the TV constantly on. Right now it’s game shows. A few months back it was “Law and Order”, all day and all night. Where Mom used to go to bed around midnight and rise no later than 8:00, recently I arrived to her room in her assisted living facility to find her in bed at 10:00.

But Mom is still a voracious reader. At 89 she goes through four or five books a week, just as she has for the past 30 years. I didn’t know there were that many romance novels in the world. She used to keep a list of all the books she’s read, so as not to repeat them, but after filling three or four notebooks she gave that up – it took longer to peruse the list than to actually re-read the book.

Yesterday I called her and I was not certain I was speaking to my mother. She immediately began going on a tear about not being able to get hold of my brother or nephew so they could go to the pharmacy for her. “What’s the matter with them; don’t they answer their phones?!!”

Of course I put it all down to aging. I’m just shocked at the changes I see happening to Mom on an almost daily basis. She doesn’t eat much and has shrunk in size and weight. She gave away her jewelry, her clothing, and her photos. She used to have at least 15 photo albums.

My brothers and I have arranged for a psychiatric evaluation for Mom. She must be depressed. If we can get her on the right medication, she’ll be back to her old self in no time.

We’re crossing our fingers.

I hear your words within my own mother, I had recently reflected similar feelings that you have and came to the conclusion that the loss of zen for life stems from the loss of romantic love. A place where age doesn’t really matter nor physical health, although both play their roles. It’s a place where the love of family and friends can only do so much. But you threw me off by stating the fact that she reads so many romantic novels. Or could that be reason enough to want it more? It seems like she is preparing to move on to her next realm by giving away her material possessions. Maybe instead of seeking out more medications and evaluations, you can seek out a place for her to find spiritual rejuvenation. Just a thought. …

A friend shared this with me. It’s a great way to get started and a much needed nudge. Here’s my attempt at writing prompt #1:

He teetered back and forth between a world filled with hopes and dreams and one filled with debilitating memories that crippled his reality. Every step forward became months and weeks of progress towards a better future and the happiness he longed to have. Then, in an instant, a trigger – a fleeting memory, a tragedy, his or someone else’s, an unkind word – would send him spiraling back to devastating moments of self-doubt, the questioning of his existence, and a darkness that could not be penetrated by even the most illuminating thoughts and fantasies of life without the pain inflicted by years of feeling unwanted, unaccepted, unfulfilled. His was a life lived on the brink of something bigger, better, bolder than anything he had ever known, but it was always out of his reach. He could see a glimmer of the peace that he so desperately wanted to feel, but it kept slipping away with every inch gained.

Wow, powerful! Especially the last sentence. Really gives insight to the innermost thoughts of this man

My family says they can see my emotions portrayed across my face. With Grandma Sylvie, however, we don’t need to see her reaction to know what’s on her mind. She lets out her emotion in terms of sound effects. When she is concerned, we hear the rattle of her lungs as she clears her throat dramatically. When she disagrees, the smack of her lips comes just before a faint pouting hmm…. When she heavily disagrees, houses could blow over with the amount of air she lets out in her everlong purring sigh. Yet the cracking of her heart comes even louder than the horrifying sound of her cry, a brutally quick impish sound that paints sadness straight across my own face.

By my third week on the job, I’d learned everything there was to know about what tasks I was supposed to do. By my third month I learned everything else. All the nuances of the computer filing system, why the chef came in at differing times, and what made the owner tick. Discovering this about her was gradual, but connected like two lego pieces when I put the two together.

You know the phenomenon that people start looking like their pets. Here, Pat started to look like her restaurant. Or, maybe more precise, the restaurant was her, and I just realized it. The art was a scattered collection from far away places and local artists. The rhino tightroping on a unicycle came from a deranged sculptor in Mexico. The mosaic stone portrait was of, and by, her grandson Ryan.

The building was 30 years old now, and she had been a part of it’s design and construction. I would guess that every jagged wall and peaked ceiling was directed by her finger on the blueprints. After all this time though, the wear is starting to show. A chip of paint, a cracked tile, a wide space in between baseboards. There have been a lot of servers and cooks work within these spaces, everyone of them drawing a paycheck, everyone of them treating the building as if was just a building.

Pat put a lot into these employees, and it showed in how the place ran. The servers were top notch, filled with knowledge of plates and wines. The chef was creative, and pushed the cooks to follow suit. It was a hard act to keep up, but from day one, the restaurant received rave reviews, and had ever since been at the top in the city.

We’re in our last season now. The boaters are going to flood into the area and give us a good crowd to leave with. The locals will retain their opinions with a few last visits or a bystander view of how it will all end. They’ll look at Pat as either someone to be remembered or someone to forget. When they tear down some walls and renovate it into condos Pat will spend more time with her grandkids, and play more sets of tennis.

This a post from Fridays prompt. Fortuitive? You decide. I think it provides the character portrait of this prompt, but I use dialogue. Ok, yes, I cheated. I believe in KISS, no not some boy band in war paint, but Keep It Simple Stupid.

As first light painted the Brooklyn Bridge in pinks and reds, John watched from the East River. He loved the morning view of the bridge and the city. He and Edward made the trek through Squibb Park for fifteen years, until Ed passed last year. Now John came by himself, for the memories of his partner, and for the view. Ed had loved this city, the bridge, and his love for this bustling hive of humanity had transferred to John.

John was not alone. Other people, older folk, ambled along the trails and paths of the park. Not paying attention, he suddenly heard “Hey!” from behind. His collision with another chubby, grey headed, old man, left him on his side, gasping for breath.

The man, stooped, offered a hand, and asked, “You OK?”

Looking up at the hand being proffered, John thought, “Now what?” He had seen this fella a few times, and had wondered how to say hello. Taking the hand John managed to get to his feet and got his breath back.

“Cecil.”

“Hi Cecil, John.”

“Mornin’ John. You going to be ok? Live nearby?”

“Yeah, just a block or two north.” John took a tentative step and winced. “Damn, ankle.”

“Sprain?”

“Nah, ain’t that bad. Broke it when I was young and stupid and it gives me fits now and then.”

“I live up that way too. Let me walk that way with you. Want a coffee?” Cecil said.

“Bailey’s?”

Cecil grinned at John and said, “Hurting that bad?”

“Oh, nah, I meant for coffee,” John grinned back. “Though a shot of Bailey’s might help.”

“Ok. Just moved here. Lost my partner three months ago, and don’t know where things are yet.”

“I lost my partner last year, but decided to stay.” John said.

“Partner?” asked Cecil.

“Yes, Edward,” John said and braced for the impact.

“Tom, nearly 30 years,” Cecil replied.

“A little over 15 for us.”

“Long time, big loss. So, buy you a coffee at Bailey’s? Come up to my place and I can add the other Bailey’s to it?” Cecil said.

“Sure. Why not.”

John and Cecil turned and walked, John limping a bit, back up the path in Squibb Park, getting to know each other.

“Sky diving! That’s young and stupid? You went sky diving?” Cecil was heard to say as they continued up the path.

Here’s a description of a character in the novel I’m currently working on. The POV is of my protagonist, and the man being described is the one she eventually ends up marrying. . I chose option 1, describing a person without any physical description. He was a mystery. One obviously didn’t have to know him long to figure that out. He was the kind of person who, at first glance, was no different from anyone else in disposition or attitude. But if he talked for more than a couple of minutes, his attitude would start to change, like the front he put up was starting to melt away. It was at that point that he would end the conversation and leave, seeming afraid to reveal even the slightest truth of who he really was. All these reactions she had were from a mere 2 days of seeing him only a handful of times, but each meeting was the same. He was living a masquerade, and not a good one, at that. The only thing she knew for sure was that there was more hidden than even she could guess, and sooner or later, he wouldn’t be able to hold it back any longer. But what she also knew was that she could not help him. Only God could, and only if this man could let down his walls long enough to let God in.

I had been working for Jessica for a few months now, and I thought that I was starting to get a good feel for what a meeting would be before I entered her presence.

Jessica was never the type to tolerate failure. It was a good sign that she had kept me waiting thus far – if I had been summoned directly into her office, it usually meant that I had done something wrong, and was going to get yelled at. Not yelled at in the sense that Jessica would raise her voice – Jessica never raised her voice, it would be uneconomical – but the edge that she could inject into her voice when she was disappointed with me could etch diamonds.

It was also a good sign that I had received this invitation through the usual sources. Jessica did things by-the-book. I had only been summoned once in an unusual way – a phone call, directly from Jessica’s aide. That time, it had been to discuss someone else who had disappointed Jessica. Based on the orders Jessica had given me that day, I had made it my eternal purpose to never disappoint Jessica again.

Finally, the time of the appointment was telling. The office was empty – even the aide had gone home, and the perennial buzz of activity that usually surrounded Jessica’s office (even, and especially, if there was no work that needed to be done) had been replaced with an eerie calmness. Jessica kept her business public; if this was business, she would have made sure that everything was visible. This had to be something personal, something that involved him and not the business – but what?

I had closed my eyes to focus when the sound of her shoes against the marble echoed through the office with the precision of a metronome, or a bomb’s timer. When she spoke my name, she did so in a voice that could not be quieter without becoming a whisper, yet her enunciation was so perfect that, in that empty office, every subtlety could be heard, even as it echoed back upon itself. Her voice was as rich as caramel, as smooth as silk, but with that icy razor’s edge that indicated that someone, very shortly, would wish that they’d never been born. I sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t be me.

Captivating details, enthralling from the start of the story to the end. Not only did you do a good job of describing the character without using physical attributes of the character, but you did a good job of appealing to the senses, such as you did where in the last paragraph you wrote, “I had closed my eyes to focus when the sound of her shoes against the marble echoed through the office with the precision of a metronome, or a bomb’s timer.” I love the description here, because not only could I imagine the sound vividly, the descriptions were so effective, the sound of the womans heels dug under my skin as I was reading this piece. Well done.

Here it is… I have always characterized myself as the type of person who settles in life. For fear of embarrassment that would lead to self-loathing. Always finding implausible excuses to avoid feeling like a piece of excrement. I isolate myself from my family because I feel shame of them looking at what I think they think I am and I try to persuade my thoughts into believing that I don’t need them at all when the idea is completely false. The first sign of struggle I find in my life, all want to do is run for the hills and dropped everything.

Thanks so much, Monica, for the tips. I have found it really useful…love tip #2! I’m linking your article today in a post on my blog about helpful tips from other authors. http://bit.ly/1BWYbEI Be well!

I often think that physical descriptins are superfluous and distracting. When reading I like to create my own images of the characters from their actions.

Here is my exercise:

The Neighbor

My elderly neighbor Mr. George who never spoke to or even waved back as I passed him when he was out in his yard mowing the lawn, or pulling weeds, or sweeping the gutter, strode across the street, as soon as I pulled into my driveway that hot summer’s day. I was viewing him coming toward my car via my rearview mirror. He seemed on fire with intent and I immediately felt fear. What had I done to offend him I wondered? He was notorious for writing complaints to the Homeowners Association about others’ overgrown yards, yapping dogs, and cars parked facing the wrong direction. He called the police when teens had parties when their parents were out of town. A party to him was more than two unfamiliar cars parked in the neighborhood. Although he received invitations like all of us, he never attended the picnics in our local park. Besides his beautifully landscaped yard, he never displayed any kind of holiday decorations, not a wreath on the door, a candle in the window, or a flag flying, though there was a flag pole attached to the wall next to his garage door. I never saw anyone visiting. His wife was aninvalid, and I only saw her on a gurney when an ambulance came to take her to thehospital, or return her home. That event was repeating more often of late. I felt sorry for the Georges but after the first few months of being a new neighbor and all of my efforts to befriend him were always met with indifference if not disdain, I was not inclined now after several years to care in any meaningful way. I thought, “It’s probably the oil stains on my driveway he’s going to lecture me about.” I wanted to just grab my two bags of groceries and run inside, but Mr. George’s stride was long, and he was at my tailgate before I could conjure an exit strategy. “She’s dead,” he said, his voice completely different than I had ever imagined it, “she didn’t wake up from her nap today. And I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?”

it was interesting how many people who did this exercise used sound to describe characters.

Character Portrait Of Alfredo By Kiki Stamatiou a. k. a. Joanna Maharis

Alfredo was a hardened soul throughout the earlier stages of his life, resulting from his father pounding his fists and voice of thunder into him, with the ambition to break his spirit. The more the fire from his father’s words came, the more Alfredo rebelled.

Among his friends, he was charismatic and outgoing, but at home Alfredo, was rebellious, full of rage in his soul.

Throughout the years, he went to bars where he’d often have drinks with his buddies. They’d go to wild parties where the young women who frequented such doings left much to be desired.

One woman, who was less than virtuous, befriended Alfredo, becoming his confidant, until one day she left town, never to return until three years later.

Upon hearing about her return, she never went to see Alfredo. He never received one phone call from her telling him she was in town.

Finding out from a mutual friend about Elizabeth being in town for a short while, Alfredo went over to a friends house where he confronted her, crying, “Why didn’t you tell me you were in town. We’re friends. You never even came to see me. How could you do this to me?”

“I’ve moved on with my life, Alfredo. I don’t need reminders of my past and who I was. Your problem is that your too clingy and too much of a downer. Go on and let me live my life,” she said flatly, as she threw him out of her friend’s house.

Alfredo spends most of his time these days, visiting parks and ponds, carrying with him bags of bread he uses to feed the birds, squirrels and other little creatures gathering round him.

He observes every detail about them with great fascination in his heart. Walking up to the little squirrels he puts his hand full of bread out to the squirrels waiting as they anxiously take the bread.

Noticing Alfredo with his plastic bags full of bread, the geese flock around him as well. He walks up to the and gently puts the bread inside their beaks, treating them and the rest of the little creatures in the park and near the pond like they were his children.

When he’s not at the local parks or the pond, he likes to go to the north side of town to shoot some baskets by himself at the basketball court.

At home, he spends his time in the basement of his house playing pool or ping pong against himself, keeping score, just to pass the time.

Sometimes, he calls up his sister, aunt, grandmother, and uncle, to see how they are doing. They often call him to invite him to go along on their outings.

© Copyright, Kiki Stamatiou, 2015

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The Best Character Template Ever (100+ Character Traits!)

So you have an awesome story and want to bring it to life with some incredible characters, but organizing all those character ideas in your head can be tough!

I know, I’ve been there. We’ve all been there (trust me, I did a very legit survey of us all).

To help, here is a very thorough list of more than 100 different character traits you can use to understand more about your character than you do about your friends and family. Fill out this template with as many or as few details as you’d like. You can even grab your fillable PDF at the bottom of this article.

Readers will sniff out a half-baked character from a mile away, and you better pray they never find a poorly written character in your book. Luckily, this template will help you avoid both of those pitfalls.

How to Use This Template

Hopefully, this template is, for the most part, straightforward. But there are some options that might give you some pause. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to quickly go over the different sections of the template.

In general, the traits get deeper and deeper into the abyss of your character’s soul the further down the list you go.

Demographics are your basics. This is the sort of information someone could likely glean from a short conversation with your character or what the government might gather from a census.

Physical appearance is what someone would notice about your character if they looked at them. This goes beyond just hair, eye, and skin color, though. Things like your character’s gait or their fashion style can add a lot of depth for your reader.

History allows you to understand a character’s past. More importantly, it allows you to understand how that past affects their actions in your story. Some of this information might never see the light of day, but it allows you to craft dynamic, complex characters.

Psychological traits are those that aren’t readily apparent to an onlooker but are critical to how your character operates in any given situation. This is where you start getting deep with things like flaws , desires, and traits that make people (or non-people) who they are.

Communication is not only important for things like dialogue and writing, but they are easy ways for you to differentiate between your characters .

Strengths, weaknesses, and abilities are very vague terms but are quite important. This is especially true for genres like fantasy or sci-fi, and these traits can be helpful when crafting your main characters, including villains .

Relationships are important for characters, even if it means highlighting how alone they are. Relationships can go a lot further than immediate friends, family, or partners. Try and take some time to think about exactly who is involved in your character’s life.

Character growth is the most important category in this template. Here is where you include things like arcs, archetypes, conflicts, goals, and motivation. You need to pay attention to this section, because these ideas will be the ones that make memorable characters.

So check out the template below and think about how you can use it to build your characters. 

The Best Character Template Ever

Demographics.

• Sex/Gender:
• Occupation:
• Socioeconomic status:
• Other notes:

Physical Appearance

• Skin color:
• Hair color:
• Fitness level:
• Scars/Birthmarks:
• Other distinguishing features:
• Disabilities:
• Fashion style:
• Accessories:
• Cleanliness/Grooming:
• Posture/Gait:
• Coordination (or lack thereof):
• Weaknesses:
• Birth date:
• Place of birth:
• Key family members:
• Notable events/milestones:
• Criminal record:
• Affiliations:
• Skeletons in the closet:

Psychological Traits

• Personality type:
• Personality traits:
• Temperament:
• Introvert/Extrovert:
• Mannerisms:
• Educational background:
• Intelligence:
• Self-esteem:
• Skills/talents:
• Morals/Virtues:
• Phobias/Fears:
• Angered by:
• Pet peeves:
• Obsessed with:
• Bad habits:
• Favorite sayings:
• Accomplishments:

Communication

• Languages known:
• Preferred communication methods:
• Style and pacing of speech:
• Use of gestures:
• Facial expressions:
• Verbal expressions:

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Abilities

• Physical strengths:
• Physical weaknesses:
• Intellectual strengths:
• Intellectual weaknesses:
• Interpersonal strengths:
• Interpersonal weaknesses:
• Physical abilities:
• Magical abilities:
• Physical illnesses/conditions:
• Mental illnesses/conditions:

Relationships

• Partner(s)/Significant other(s):
• Parents/Guardians:
• Grandparents:
• Grandchildren:
• Best friends:
• Colleagues:
• Mentors/Teachers:
• Idols/Role models:
• Non-living things:
• Clubs/Memberships:
• Social media presence:
• Public perception of them:

Character Growth

• Character archetype:
• Character arc:
• Core values:
• Internal conflicts:
• External conflicts:
• Goals: 
• Motivations:
• Epiphanies:
• Significant events/plot points:

Craft Amazing Characters With Dabble

Creating characters your readers will love (or love to hate) has never been easier than with Dabble. By keeping all of your notes about characters and your plot just a click away from your manuscript, you’ll be able to write a story that is bound for the bestseller lists.

You can click here to grab a PDF copy of this template, or you can just copy and paste the categories you want from this article directly into your Character Notes in Dabble.

That’s not all! We also have a handful of other resources that can help you make some awesome characters. Be sure to check out:

• Our complete guide to creating characters
• 101 character goals
• A metric ton of character ideas you can use with this template
• 65 character development questions
• 20 original character interview questions
• A downloadable character profile

The best part? You can add all of these into your character’s folder in Dabble. Your character will be more real than you or I.

Enough dilly-dallying, time for Dabbling. Click here to get started with your totally free, no credit card required trial of Dabble and build your amazing characters today.

Happy writing!

Doug Landsborough can’t get enough of writing. Whether freelancing as an editor, blog writer, or ghostwriter, Doug is a big fan of the power of words. In his spare time, he writes about monsters, angels, and demons under the name D. William Landsborough. When not obsessing about sympathetic villains and wondrous magic, Doug enjoys board games, horror movies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah.

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If you dream of a writing career, studying creative writing is an absolute must. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways you can pull that off. Check out our guide to learning the craft, from where to find courses to which topics you should prioritize.

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6 creative writing exercises for rich character

In creative writing, practice is key. Try these creative writing exercises for deeper characterization. Use every detail, from appearance to movement, gesture, voice, habit, and reputation to make your characters great:

• Post author By Jordan
• 1 Comment on 6 creative writing exercises for rich character

What do we mean by ‘rich character’?

First, what do we mean by ‘rich’ character? Call it rich characterization, deep characterization – whatever superlative you prefer. We mean characterization that shows, more than tells . Conveying character using every available narrative device to build more intriguing characters.

Creative writing exercises for fuller characters:

• Play ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’
• Think about ‘The clothes make the man’
• Use language to embody emotion
• Make setting do character work
• Evoke habits (and changes in them)
• Let people’s reputations precede them

1. Play ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’

As children, many English speakers learn the song ‘head, shoulders knees and toes’. Yet as adults, when we introduce characters we often stop at ‘head’.

Beginners’ character descriptions often read something like this:

‘Jemima had short brown hair and violet eyes.’

As character description, this is at least factual. We know Jemima doesn’t have long hair or brown eyes.

Yet, staying at head level for now, what if we said:

Jemima’s new pixie cut gave her a tomboyish look. The kohl she had started wearing recently amplified the piercing and perceptive quality of her violet eyes.

Some may say the description here is too much, by comparison. Of course, each writer (and reader) must decide for themselves what is too little, or too much. Yet what this doesn’t lack is concrete detail and specificity.

The description also tells us:

• What’s changed about Jemima recently
• Aspects of how she performs her gender
• Character qualities suggested by appearance (intensity, intuition)

Creative Writing Exercise #1: Head, shoulders, knees and toes

Play head, shoulders, knees and toes. Describe a detail about a character at head-level in concrete terms (a hairstyle, unusual mark, wild choice of hat). Proceed to describe one detail each from shoulder level, from knee to navel, and at the level of your character’s feet.

2. Think about ‘The clothes make the man’

Mark Twain is alleged to have said, ‘The clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.’

Clothes, of course, make living beings of every or any gender, gender flexibility or absence of gender.

Clothes may signal :

• Intent : For example, dressing formally (or infornally) for a job interview or conservatively to communicate respect for another culture
• Status or title: A queen’s crown, a beauty queen’s tiara
• Rank: For example, the Papal ferula or pastoral staff used by the Pope in the Catholic Church
• Personality: One person may favour concealing or baggy clothing while another prefers skimpier, revealing clothing
• Profession or educational status: A librarian’s reading glasses, a chef’s hat, an air steward or schoolboy’s fedora

They may also suggest the opposite of what we expect.

The private slob may dress in a neat style that does not admit to their chaotic home life. Especially in the era of carefully-curated social media accounts, appearance does not always align with reality .

Consider this character description that conveys the hero Pip’s sister’s proud and reproachful nature in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations :

My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes, had such a prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always wore a coarse apron, fastened over her figure behind with two loops, and having a square impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of pins and needles. She made it a powerful merit in herself, and a strong reproach against [her husband] Joe, that she wore this apron so much. Charles Dickens, in Great Expectations (1861), full text available here.

Creative Writing Exercise #2: Making the clothes

For this creative writing exercise, pick one of the following items identifying a character’s job, status, intent or other detail:

• A gem-studded crown
• A chef’s apron
• A businesswoman’s power suit
• A schoolgirl’s uniform

Now write 500 words describing a charactor. Use this garment or accessory – the way they wear it, handle it (or don’t wear it). Use it to show two character qualities from the following list:

• Industriousness
• Carelessness
• Absent-mindedness
• Ruthlessness
• Rebelliousness

3. Use language to embody emotion

Building deep characterization isn’t only a task for description, of course.

The rhythm, tone and quality of the language we use in narration all contribute to an impression of character.

This is especially the case in limited third person , where the narration and the third person POV character overlap. We might narrate a clipped, brusque and brutish character in clipped, brusque and brutish phrases, for example.

Imagine, for example, a belligerent chef who dents his pots when he’s in a range:

Bang. He swung another down hard on a stone counter corner. A pot’s lid clattered to the floor as he plonked the dented casserole down, scowling.

Short phrases and the explosive alliteration of ‘p’ and ‘t’ sounds (known as plosive consonants ) create a sense of the character’s jerky, angry movements.

Besides movement and the emotion in the chef’s scowl, the language itself mirrors the character’s mood.

Creative writing exercise #3: Using emotive language

This writing exercise is courtesy of Ursula K. Le Guin’s wonderful writing manual Steering the Craft .

The exercise is given after Le Guin’s following advice:

For the moment, forget all the good advice that says good style is invisible, good art conceals art. Show off! Use the whole orchestra our wonderful language offers us! Ursula K. Le Guin, in Steering the Craft (1998) , p. 17.

The character writing exercise:

In a paragraph or so, describe an action, or a person feeling strong emotion—joy, fear, grief. Try to make the rhythm and movement of the sentences embody or represent the physical reality you’re writing about. Le Guin, Steering the Craft, p. 17.

4. Make setting do character work

Setting and character are two separate areas of writing craft, right? Not entirely. We’ve already written about how to use setting to drive plot .

You can also involve setting in character description to create a richer sense of tone, mood and state of mind.

We used the following example by Barbara Kingsolver to illustrate this in our workbook How to Write Real Characters: Character description .

“Take this baby,” she said. […] The child had the exact same round eyes. All four of those eyes were hanging there in the darkness, hanging on me, waiting. The Budweiser sign blinked on and off, on and off, throwing a faint light that made the whites of their eyes look orange.’ Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees , p. 17.

Kingsolver captures the moment a baby is foisted on her protagonist at a rest stop beautifully.

The neon light of the Budweiser sign, reflected in the eyes of the desperate woman and the child, add a layer of quiet pathos to their situation.

Creative writing exercise #4: Making setting do character work

An archaeologist is working at a dig site when a stranger approaches them with a strange, cryptic caution. Write their conversation. Include details from their surrounds to make the stranger creepier.

5. Evoke habits (and changes in them)

Change is a vital element of character development.

If characters stayed exactly the same throughout a story, and little else changed to at least provide contrast, it would be a boring story indeed.

People are often, of course, creatures of habit. Yet conflicts and other schisms often shake us out of routines. This is one of the reasons conflict is crucial to stories. They often supply a reason for change, a reason for story.

Consider this description of a change in habit on page one of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina :

Everything had gone wrong in the Oblonsky household. The wife had found out about her husband’s relationship with their former French governess and had announced that she could not go on living in the same house with him […] The wife did not leave her own rooms and the husband stayed away from home all day. The children strayed all over the house, not knowing what to do with themselves. […] On the third morning after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky – Stiva, as he was generally called by his friends – awoke at his usual time, which was about eight o’clock, not in his wife’s bedroom but on a morocco-leather couch in his study. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (translated by Rosemary Edmonds), p. 13.

Details Tolstoy includes – the children’s ‘straying’ all over the house like lost cats, Stiva alone on his ‘morocco-leather’ couch – provide a sense of characters’ habits and changes caused by the upset of Stiva’s infidelity.

Creative writing exercise #5: Evoking habits

A teacher at a local school follows the same morning routine for years, taking the same walking route to school.

One morning, something happens on their morning route that changes their life and makes them quit teaching and pursue a new passion.

For this creative writing exercise, describe the routine, what happens on their route, and their reaction.

6. Let people’s reputations precede them

Gossip, rumour, or blowing someone’s trumpet – these are all useful ways to introduce characters, even before they appear on the page themselves.

Anticipating the way a character will match, exceed (or entirely differ from) prejudice creates intrigue.

If a character is famous, what are they famous for? What garners public interest? If they are a notorious villain, what misdeeds are widely reported or spoken about in hushed tones? Take, for example, the character of the famous parrot belonging to Dr Urbino in Love in the Time of Cholera :

Day after day, over and over again for several months, [Dr Urbino] played the songs of Yvette Guilbert and Aristide Bruant, who had charmed France during the last century, until the parrot learned them by heart. He sang them in a woman’s voice if they were hers, in a tenor’s voice if they were his, and ended with impudent laughter that was a masterful imitation of the servant girls when they heard him singing in French. The fame of his accomplishments was so widespread that on occasion distinguished visitors who had traveled from the interior on the riverboats would ask permission to see him… Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), p 20.

The delight of the parrot’s vast repertoire of imitations (the doctor also teaches him ‘to speak French like an academician’) provides a keen and lively sense of character. This imitative prowess builds the parrot’s celebrity.

Creative writing exercise #6: Preceding reputations

A famous artist is coming to a small town for a residency. A amateur artist is a fan of their work but has heard of some peculiar interests and behaviours. Her neighbor asks her over the fence whether she’s aware of his impending arrival, and the first woman tells her neighbour what she’s heard. Write their conversation.

Once you’ve completed the writing prompts above, explore 10 fun writing exercises for practicing writing tenses .

Get even more exercises in prompts to build useful character profiles .

Related Posts:

• Creative points of view in character writing: 5 examples
• Creating your own budget MFA in Creative Writing
• 50 fun group writing exercises
• Tags creative writing exercises

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

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Helpfull sugestions. Have to exercise!

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How To Write A Character Description (101 Examples)

February 15, 2024

Learn what character description is and how to describe a character. Jump into OC description writing with one of the iconic character description examples from our list.

Developing a description of a character can be a challenge for OC creators. How much do you give away as someone who knows the character innately versus trying to generate interest and get an audience to invest in the character’s journey? We’re going to dive into writing character descriptions that stand out.

Why Character Descriptions Matter

Character descriptions, at heart, serve as a marker for the reader to determine if they wish to know more about the character. They are creators' attempts to signal that an individual they are writing about is worth becoming invested in. This is why a boring character description can be fatal to first impressions - why bother exploring a project if the character's description generates no spark?

Character descriptions are also influenced by purpose. A character description in a screenplay occupies a different purpose than a character description on a profile page. A description in a screenplay is lean, whereas a profile has more room to explore. These descriptions we’re talking about are too large for a character reference sheet .

While focusing on writing character descriptions for profiles, we will look at examples from literature, screenplays, and existing character profiles on CharacterHub. 

The Five Key Questions

When it comes to description in a general sense, there are five questions to consider: Who, What, Where, Why, and When? These questions are also beneficial in writing original character descriptions because you can use as many as you wish or even omit some to generate interest.

It is rather complicated to omit the who in a description, as a description is usually tied to an identifiable figure. Even if you may not want to give away a character’s identity, there is usually some marker that identifies them. For example, in the script for the horror classic Halloween (1978) by John Carpenter and Deborah Hill, the lurking presence of Michael Myers is simply referred to as “The Shape.” It is a name as evocative as it is practical. In most cases, a creator will probably just include the OC’s name.

The what in a character description can be interpreted as a marker for their identity. This could be their ethnicity, role, or species, for example. It is, again, reasonably complex to avoid this when developing a description, as a character without a perceived role may not feel like a character. A great example of “the what” in a character description comes from the character Tiberius Skärvas IV from the webcomic The Fourth . 

From the character's description on the cast page: “Ever since the First and his rather unethical business practices, the Tiberius Skärvas have been accursed by the gods. While technically still human, they possess the appearance and certain traits of sharks.” A cursed human with shark-like traits is undoubtedly a bold answer for “the what.”

When it comes to where , you are likely answering who the character is to their setting. It is less about a physical location and how that character connects to or runs counter to a location or society. Essentially, you are positioning them against civilization in whatever form that takes. A great example of this can be found in the codex entry of Agrippa Varus from the webcomic Terra Incognita . 

Case in point: “Agrippa Varus was raised in a well respected family in the Asurian capital of Sokai. His father Argo Varus, served as a consul and the main liaison between Asura and other sentient worlds. Due to his exposure to other species from a young age, Agrippa has an open mind and is much less prejudiced than the average Asurian citizen.” 

As we can see in this description, Agrippa is given a physical “where” regarding a space civilization while also being described of their societal “where” - as a figure that runs outside their culture.

The when of a character in their description is all about position. Whether the setting is based on natural history or set in an entirely fictional timeline, a character occupies temporal space, which can factor into how they are seen. Are they of their time, or do they feel apart from it? Descriptions that hint at such things are great at generating interest.

A great example of this can be found in the script of Warm Bodies (2013), in a description of the character R. “Blank face, sunken eyes. Blueish lips. If we didn’t know any better we’d think he was a junkie, a runaway from the set of My Own Private Idaho . Then we might notice a few thin gashes cutting across his cheeks. And then we might hear a soft groan humming from his frozen lips. And then we might start to wonder…

In this example, we see the deliberate usage of a contemporary reference to another film, positioning R and their relationship to a contemporary setting. The reference also does double duty, saying a lot about how R can be perceived by those familiar with the reference.

The why of a character description is most easily omitted to generate interest and intrigue. However, it can also be incredibly influential in generating interest in an original character. Knowing what drives a character can be a descriptive hook.

A great example of the “why” in a character description comes from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote in this rather brilliant moment: “In short, his wits being quite gone, he hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon, and that was that he fancied it was right and requisite, as well for the support of his own honour as for the service of his country, that he should make a knight-errant of himself, roaming the world over in full armour and on horseback in quest of adventures, and putting in practice himself all that he had read of as being the usual practices of knights-errant[...]”

Don Quixote’s mad notion of being a knight proves a compelling hook to the character, especially in how that motivation is presented. A reader can’t help but be intrigued by the description of the thin, elderly man who wants to be a knight.

Other Descriptive Traits and Tips

Much descriptive writing can come from things you probably already learned in school but are worth repeating. For example, utilizing sensory details in a character description can be particularly useful. Writing about how a character may smell like motor oil or freshly baked bread can suggest different things.

Contrast is another powerful tool in the character description, as when we are introduced to someone, we cannot help but size them up compared to people we know. This is especially true of original characters. How does one protagonist compare to another? How might you set a character apart from others? Using contrast is especially helpful here. For example, describing how a lead character differs from others in a similar position of their setting.

Of course, there are also things to avoid when developing character descriptions. Writing a description that is a laundry list of traits is something you may want to avoid. It can lack personality and feel a little boring. A solid character organizer can help you visually track if you rely on listing too often.

In any case, referring to some classic descriptive writing techniques can be helpful, especially when punching up a first draft of a character description.

Ways of Establishing Character Through Description

Well-written, informative descriptions greatly help establish interest in an original character. Consider them a teaser to what you hope to be a more significant journey you want to take readers on. Your goal is to connect an audience and a character through intrigue an interest - your aim can be to use description as a hook. Here are some different ways to use description to create that hook.

Using Description to Create a Presence

One of the most essential uses of description is to establish the presence of a character in their respective story. How about who is heroic or villainous? Who merits us following their story and becoming invested in them? This is particularly useful in writing an OC profile because you want to establish how we should feel about them without the burden of a ton of backstory to provide context.

Consider this like trying to convey everything about a person possible at a glance. How can you give us what we need about an OC in a descriptive passage? Well, let’s look at some examples.

In this sample from Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin , we see presence established by tying description to color and costuming details. Note that the presence established here is not a flattering one.

I could picture the smooth oval of Laura’s face, her neatly pinned chignon, the dress she would have been wearing: a shirtwaist with a small rounded collar, in a sober colour – navy blue or steel grey or hospital-corridor green. Penitential colours – less like something she’d chosen to put on than like something she’d been locked up in.

• Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000)

Another great way to establish a character’s presence through description is to tie it to a metaphor. Let’s look at an example of Arudhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, where we have a character consumed by quietude.

Once the quietness arrived, it stayed and spread in Estha. It reached out of his head and enfolded him in its swampy arms…sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles inching along the insides of his skull, hoovering the knolls and dells of his memory, dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue.

• Arudhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997)

In these examples, we see how descriptive language can imply something about the character's presence, such as their authority or lack of authority. In the Atwood example, the character is effectively rendered blank or meek. Meanwhile, in the Roy example, the description paints a picture of a character consumed by their awkwardness and silence. Noting and working with such traits is key to building a good character profile.

Let’s look at how the presence of Gandalf is established through description in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring .

“Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.”

• J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)

Gandalf’s physical presence is a fun juxtaposition with him appearing larger than life. He may be shorter, but he has an aura about him - something noticeably distinguished. I recommend reading Tolkien for character description, not just because I am a fan. 

Using a History to Create Significance

Character description that depicts an established history can go a long way to informing a reader about what makes the character tick. A character can sometimes be seen as a record of their experiences, and knowing those experiences can tell us a lot about a character, how they view the world, and how the author wishes for us to view them. There is no shortage of character ideas , but a character is more than an idea: they are a story.

In Charles Dickens’ Hard Times , the character of Bounderby is pernicious and self-centered, motivated by the pursuit of their wants and desires having come up from poverty. We can see Dickens establish much of that in his description of Bounderby by including history in the character’s description.

“A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh. A man made out of coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him […] always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty.”

• Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)

Let’s look at a character with an established history and how that history plays into their description in the present. If you are a fan of Star Trek , then the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan should be pretty familiar. The film was a culmination of a storyline that began in the 1960s featuring characters who have aged decades for the 1980s film. In particular, let’s look at a description of Captain Kirk from the script.

“Kirk reads the novel, trying to focus. His flat befits an Admiral and a loner with few possessions, except a collection of antiques.”

• Harve Bennett, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

In this example, we have a little bit of environmental storytelling that plays against what audiences would know of Captain James T. Kirk. Kirk, from the original series, was quite the heroic figure, not mainly seen as an elder statesman. However, the depiction of his apartment, filled with antiques belonging to a man who is alone, shows that much time has passed for the figure. He is different in many ways - almost startlingly so.

So, what can we draw from these examples when developing descriptions of our original characters? A character with a lot of history is undoubtedly colored by it, so if your description can evoke a journey, you’ve gone a long way to informing us about what makes them tick. This is seen in the example from Hard Times, where the character’s journey through the classes of 19th-century London colors how we see their outward-facing personality.

Further, if you are playing with time, descriptions of a character at different stages in their life or respective journey can highlight their growth, such as in the example from Star Trek . Contrast through history is a particularly effective strategy when writing a character description.

Using Perspective to Create Interpretation

In some cases, describing a character from another person's perspective can yield beautiful results. First impressions can say a lot, and stepping away from an omniscient narrator’s view of a character, filled with insight about them and their past, can be a valuable technique. It also can create a narrative journey for an OC later on, as our initial impressions, through a more limited outsider perspective, do not usually represent the whole character.

Here is an example of Virginia Woolf establishing a character’s description from another character's perspective.

“He was such a miserable specimen, the children said, all humps and hollows. He couldn’t play cricket; he poked; he shuffled. He was a sarcastic brute, Andrew said. They knew what he liked best – to be for ever walking up and down, up and down, with Mr. Ramsay, saying who had won this, who had won that …”

• Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (1927)

Here is an example of a character description written from another character's perspective. In this case, we have Ripley from Aliens , who first encounters Burke as she recovers in a hospital room. Notice the usage of traits in the following passage. This is taken from the film's shooting script.

“The visitor sits beside the bed and Ripley finally notices him.  He is thirtyish and handsome, in a suit that looks executive or legal, the tie loosened with studied casualness.  A smile referred to as ‘winning.’”

• James Cameron, Aliens (1985)

Specifically, this is a friendly, somewhat charming face for a recovering from intensive trauma. However, we also get a sense of Burke's nature through the description, such as emphasizing the fakery of a “winning” smile.

If we want another great example of perspective coloring the description of a character, we can look toward another sci-fi franchise with Star Wars . In particular, the 4th draft script from A New Hope introduces Darth Vader in a fantastic way that tells us everything we need to know about the character from the perspective of the terrified Rebels.

“The awesome, seven-foot-tall Dark Lord of the Sith makes his way into the blinding light of the main passageway. This is Darth Vader, right hand of the Emperor. His face is obscured by his flowing black robes and grotesque breath mask, which stands out next to the fascist white armored suits of the Imperial stormtroopers. Everyone instinctively backs away from the imposing warrior and a deathly quiet sweeps through the Rebel troops. Several of the Rebel troops break and run in a frenzied panic.”

• George Lucas, Star Wars: A New Hope (1976)

That Darth Vader cuts an imposing presence in this description is an understatement. The key here is that we are seeing him through the eyes of those terrified Rebel troops.

Character Descriptions from Some Friends of Mine

There are many great examples of strong character descriptions out there. I turned to a few writer friends who are particularly good at creating characters, and I want to look at examples from two of them.

Robert Livingston: Tom n’ Artie and Kaiju Dayz

First up, we have my friend Robert Livingston, who was gracious enough to provide some examples from his in-depth pitch documents for two of his projects. First, look at some examples featuring the two leads of his comic Tom n’ Artie .

Tommy ‘Tom’ Sunshine Bliss

“Our stoic, disciplined Unicorn with the sparkly hair! Tom is the straight man of the duo usually doing the talking when they're with clients or when a deal needs to be made. Straight-laced with a dry sense of humor, he approaches situations with a strategic mindset preferring to have all the information before diving in. Due to his friendship with Artie, he commonly has to just 'wing it' with his little wildcard friend as he changes strategies on the fly.”

As we can see, Tom is the comedic straight man of the pair, but given the nature of the project, he still has his quirks. In particular, I want to note the contrast between his character and the description of his appearance. It does a lot to sell the inherent comedy of the character.

Artie Artillery

“The cartoon wildcard! Artie is zany and a rabbit/cat of action preferring to let his fists, teeth, legs, bats, guns, bombs and whatever he's got do the talking for him. He's spontaneous with a short fuse willing to crack jokes then skulls seconds apart from each other. Tom usually is the one who has to hold him back but during the events of the arc, he's more willing to let his little toon buddy cut loose more.”

Because the project revolves around a comedic pairing, we can see how essential contrasting the two leads can be in establishing their characters. There is some great description here, especially the emphasis on Artie’s improvised armory. Artie has enough of a hook from his description, but the depth is substantial when paired with his co-lead, Tom.

Next, we have an example from Robert’s other series, Kaiju Dayz . This project is like a sitcom set on an island of giant monsters. Let’s look at the series lead, Big Mama.

“A well-known Kaiju on Monster Island for her several successful attacks on human cities and other locations for many years. She’s gained a large reputation that gives her a lot of respect from others. It’s also forced her to put up a constant face of intimidation to keep that respect, she feels force is the only way to keep others in line. The only ones she’s softer on are her own children, Junior and Pestania, but now seeing that she’s growing estranged from them she’s trying to change that. She isn’t of this world (or possibly reality) and has no love for it but wants to keep anything she does love (her children and late husband) as close to her as possible.”

This character description does a great job of pitching the whole character. While I only used some segments for Tom and Artie earlier, I wanted to share the entire character description for Big Mama because it is so thorough without being overly long. This is an excellent example of a character description meant to sell the original character to an audience. This is what you’d want to see on a character profile .

Ben Paddon: Jump Leads

Ben Paddon sent me pitch documents for their audio drama, Jump Leads . You should give it a listen. Let’s look at the character descriptions for Meaney and Llewellyn, the dual protagonists of the story.

Thomas Meaney

The following is transcribed from the Jump Leads character breakdown about the character of Thomas Meaney.

• Meaney is excitable, enthusiastic, and young. She has wanted to be a Lead her entire life, and now she’s finally in training. This is her dream come true. Such a pity it’s about to be absolutely derailed by Misadventure.
• Meaney is a hopeful idealist. She always wants to see the best in people, and always tries to do good, even when the odds - and, indeed, her own skill set - are not in her favor. She’s also driven by a desire to get back home to complete her Lead training, though her adventurous, helpful nature, coupled with a desire to explore, often get the better of her.
• Meaney is excitable, in every sense of the word - her enthusiasm runs just as deeply as her fear, though she tries not to let being scared of a situation prevent the right decision from being made.
• Meaney is a brilliant problem-solver. She doesn't quite know this yet. She’ll discover that soon enough.

This is a wonderfully written character description that gives us everything we wish to know about a character while giving us the suggestion of a larger arc. When you think about this profile in terms of the questions who, what, where, why, and when, you’ll see they are all there.

Richard Llewellyn

• Llewellyn is in his mid-to-late 20s - still young enough to be bitter and cynical without having any of the real-world experience to justify it. He’s indifferent, snide, at times cruel, and he keeps people at an arm's length. Unfortunately, he’s been utterly unsuccessful in doing this with Meaney, in part because the alphabetical arrangement of the training classes has stuck them together.
• Llewellyn is smart, but lazy; brilliant, but apathetic. He joined the Lead Service because the alternative involved being in the real world, and that isn't something he's willing to do just yet. Of course, he'd never admit this.
• Underneath it all, there's something else. Maybe he's ready to let someone in. Or maybe he's hiding something else entirely…

Again, we have a dual protagonist situation; contrast is essential to define each. Each character can stand independently, but their descriptions are tailored to work best when read together. Yes, we get a fully rounded character in Llewellyn thanks to the description, but we also get a further hook because of the emphasis on personality clash. How might their journey go down, given their radically different perspectives?

Character Description from CharacterHub

While writing this article, I wanted to look at examples of character descriptions written by CharacterHub users. I’ve found some great examples to share, so why don’t we dive in and see what OC creators have been sharing with the community?

I’ve taken snippets from each profile of something I found to be particularly evocative or inspirational. Be sure to visit the complete profiles for even more great examples.

• Euronym by genderkiller - “driven to be the least evil thing around her, euronym chooses to use her manipulation and intelligence for what she believes is the betterment of others. but does it really know what's best for others, so blinded by its own trauma?”
• Valentine Adelaide by DEADRKGK - “Personality wise, Valentine is a man with many facets to him, and all are generally expressed and felt in extremes. To call him unpredictable would be both correct and incorrect. For those around him often, he can be much more easily predictable of a person. He’s open with his thoughts and feelings and expresses them freely with a poor social filter– good or bad, he’ll speak his mind regardless of if people want to hear it or not.”
• Tessa Verisey by LuminaLyric - “Standing at 5'8" with chestnut brown hair cascading in loose waves to her shoulders, her hazel eyes conceal a depth of intelligence and charisma.”
• Seth Salem by Paracosmic - “If looks could kill, Seth's would be the firing squad.”
• Aries by AFishWithAGun - “Aries is not a good person. At least, not anymore. Greif is a funny thing, pushed by a whirlwind of emotions. Anger, regret, betrayal. It spins its way into a palpable rage. His jagged psyche knows how best it can ruin a man.”
• Sidney Ignacio by soupysoupster - “Throughout his days, Sidney can’t seem to get past his own thoughts and anxieties. As a result, he comes off as withdrawn and uninterested to most. Despite what people may think though, Sidney is nothing short of a caring and compassionate person and will do anything he can do to help others. He’s a great listener, and will often catch onto things others don’t. ‘The devil is in the details’ as their father would say.”
• Adem Petrovic by lysesander - “Athletic enough to make a quick escape over a side wall if the situation calls for it. Face is unmemorable, and hard to spot in the crowd.”
• The Depths by celestrian - “A mysterious and enigmatic traveling merchant of the depths, a man whose past is shrouded in secrecy and his appearance completely hidden beneath a strange fox mask as well as a hooded cloak, wrapped in layers of cloth that cover his entire body. He claims to have knowledge of the entire kingdom and forbidden secrets, despite seeming quite young.”
• Clawfoot by Sunckeys - “Naivete is not a word known to poor Clawfoot, yet it may just be the best word to describe him. Unknown to him are the ways of man, of conversing with another and sharing pleasantries. No, for Clawfoot's expertise lies in savagry, ravaging, of ripping and tearing. Yet he hungers not for prey- though he much enjoys a meal or four- but for connection.”
• Soffice Pluvia by bunnymacaron - “Recently, he's found himself in an...unusual situation. Almost as soon as he entered the country he went through the Magical Girl transformation process. Immediately after, he got roped into the schemes of a sadistic Magical Girl and is stuck unraveling the tangled web of Kannazen City's Magical Girls to hopefully finally have some peace and quiet...or die trying.”
• Joshua Vox by ThaLizardWizard - “In terms of appearance, he is very skinny, pale, and sickly looking, with wild black hair that stands on end, and freckles all over his body and face. He has intense eye bags under enormous pale gray eyes, and to be completely honest, has frequently been mistaken for a ghost.”

Further fantastic examples of evocative character descriptions can be found all over CharacterHub . Browsing the thousands of existing character descriptions will inspire anyone to create character descriptions for their OCs. In particular, searching tags to find the kind of characters that inspire you most is super easy.

Further Examples of Character Descriptions

We’ll leave you here now with the following massive list. This list features different examples of character descriptions from various stories. Try to match the selections to some of our established principles. The descriptions here are very inspiring for any OC creator.

• Denis Lehane’s A Drink Before the War : “He had a shock of stiff white hair you could land a DC-10 on and a handshake that stopped just short of inducing paralysis.”
• Amber Dawn’s Sub Rosa : “When he did appear his eyes were as brown as I remembered, pupils flecked with gold like beach pebbles.”
• Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven : “I thought she was so beautiful. I figured she was the kind of woman who could make buffalo walk on up to her and give up their lives.”
• Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women : “Amy, though the youngest, was a most important person,—in her own opinion at least. A regular snow-maiden, with blue eyes, and yellow hair, curling on her shoulders, pale and slender, and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her manners.”
• Frank Herbert’s Dune : "Through the door came two Sardukar herding a girl-child who appeared to be about four years old. She wore a black aba, the hood thrown back to reveal the attachments of a stillsuit hanging free at her throat. Her eyes were Fremen blue, staring out of a soft, round face. She appeared completely unafraid and there was a look to her stare that made the Baron feel uneasy for no reason he could explain."
• Kury Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five : "He was a funny-looking child who became a funny-looking youth — tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola."
• Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? : "Black-haired and slender, wearing the huge new dust-filtering glasses, she approached his car, her hands deep in the pockets of her brightly striped long coat. She had, on her sharply defined small face, an expression of sullen distaste."
• John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces : “Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs.”
• Ralph Ellson’s Invisible Man : “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids — and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me.”
• George Eliot’s Middlemarch : “The rural opinion about the new young ladies, even among the cottagers, was generally in favour of Celia, as being so amiable and innocent-looking, while Miss Brooke’s large eyes seemed, like her religion, too unusual and striking. Poor Dorothea! Compared with her, the innocent-looking Celia was knowing and worldly-wise.”
• Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness : “He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe…”
• Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books : “But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.”
• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice : “…your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”
• Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : “He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines.”
• Lindsay Faye’s Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson : “The door flew open, revealing a wrinkled, forward-thrusting face wreathed with a nimbus of wispy white hair, a face resembling nothing so much as a mole emerging from its burrow. Her spectacles were so dirty that I could hardly see the use of them.”
• Adlous Huxley’s Brave New World : "Tall and rather thin but upright, the Director advanced into the room. He had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say."
• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby : “He smiled understandingly — much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.”
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring : "The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars."
• Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight : “I vividly remembered the flat black color of his eyes the last time he glared at me – the color was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different color: a strange ocher, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone.”
• Joan Johnston’s No Longer A Stranger : “Her straight, boyishly cut hair fell onto her brow haphazardly and hid beautiful arched brows that framed her large, expressive eyes.”
• Anne Rice’s The Vampire Armand : “I saw my Master had adorned himself in a thick tunic and beautiful dark blue doublet which I’d hardly noticed before. He wore soft sleek dark blue gloves over his hands, gloves which perfectly cleaved to his fingers, and legs were covered by thick soft cashmere stockings all the way to his beautiful pointed shoes.”
• Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations : “Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, as they told me, she still had something of her old ghastly bridal appearance; for, they had covered her to the throat with white cotton-wool, and as she lay with a white sheet loosely overlying that, the phantom air of something that had been and was changed, was still upon her.”
• Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : “He was sunshine most always-I mean he made it seem like good weather.”
• N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms : “His long, long hair wafted around him like black smoke, its tendrils curling and moving of their own volition. His cloak — or perhaps that was his hair too — shifted as if in an unfelt wind.”
• Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings : “Her skin was a rich black that would have peeled like a plum if snagged, but then no one would have thought of getting close enough to Mrs. Flowers to ruffle her dress, let alone snag her skin. She didn’t encourage familiarity.”
• China Miéville’s The Census-Taker : “His hand was over his eyes. He looked like a failed soldier. Dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing.”
• Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women : “Fifteen-year-old Jo was very tall, thin, and brown, and reminded one of a colt; for she never seemed to know what to do with her long limbs, which were very much in her way. She had a decided mouth, a comical nose, and sharp, gray eyes, which appeared to see everything, and were by turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful.”
• Henry James’ The Aspern Papers : “Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not ‘dressed,’ and long fine hands which were–possibly–not clean.”
• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”: “The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not.”
• Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush : “He was abominable…and the most alluring, tortured soul I’d ever met.”
• William Golding’s Lord of the Flies : “Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness.”
• Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys : “As always, there was an all-American war hero look to him, coded in his tousled brown hair, his summer-narrowed hazel eyes, the straight nose that ancient Anglo-Saxons had graciously passed on to him. Everything about him suggested valor and power and a firm handshake.”
• John Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated : “He did not look like anything special at all.”
•  J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring : “He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf.  He had a long white beard and bushy  eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat.”
• Andrew Lang’s The Crimson Fairy Book : “When the old king saw this he foamed with rage, stared wildly about, flung himself on the ground and died.”
• Rudyard Kipling’s Many Inventions : “He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula : “The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely.”
• Hugh Lofting’s The Story of Doctor Dolittle : “For a long time he said nothing. He kept as still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing at all. When at last he began to speak, it sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly, in a dream.”
• M.L Legette’s The Orphan and the Thief : “Its gray, slippery skin was stretched taut upon its face. Its mouth was wide and full of needle teeth.”
• Julia Stuart’s The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise : “Blooms of acne highlighted his vampire-white skin.
• James Lee Burke’s The Neon Rain : “His khaki sleeves were rolled over his sunburned arms, and he had the flat green eyes and heavy facial features of north Louisiana hill people. He smelled faintly of dried sweat, Red Man, and talcum powder.”
• Becca Fitzpatrick’s Black Ice : “His brown hair was cropped, and it showed off the striking symmetry of his face. With the sun at his back, shadows marked the depressions beneath his cheekbones.”
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein : “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.”
• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”: “He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.”
• E.C. Sheedy’s Killing Bliss : “He stood, which put him eye to eye with the dark-haired woman whose brilliant, burning gaze poured into his worthless soul like boiling tar, whose mouth frothed with fury–and whose hand now curled, knuckles white, around a steak knife.”
• Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games : “She has bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound.”
• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone : “A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.”
• Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women : “Elizabeth—or Beth, as every one called her—was a rosy, smooth-haired, bright-eyed girl of thirteen, with a shy manner, a timid voice, and a peaceful expression, which was seldom disturbed.”
• Anne Rice’s Violin : “What a well-formed mouth he had, and how the narrow eyes, the detailed deepened lids gave him such a range of expression, to open his gaze wide, or sink in cunning street.”
• Kevin Brooks’ Lucas : “An easygoing lope. Nice and steady. Not too fast and not too slow, Fast enough to get somewhere, but not too fast to miss anything.”
• Iris Johansen’s The Face of Deception : “Kinky tousled curls, only a minimum of makeup, large brown eyes behind round wire-rimmed glasses. There was a world of character in that face, more than enough to make her fascinating-looking instead of just attractive.”
• Herman Meilville’s Moby Dick : “There seemed no sign of common bodily illness about him, nor of the recovery from any. He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini’s cast Perseus.”
• Gena Showalter’s The Darkest Night : “Pale hair fell in waves to his shoulders, framing a face mortal females considered a sensual feast. They didn’t know the man was actually a devil in angel’s skin.”
• Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game : “Ender did not see Peter as the beautiful ten-year-old boy that grown-ups saw, with dark, tousled hair and a face that could have belonged to Alexander the Great. Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or boredom, the dangerous moods that almost always led to pain.”
• Caitlin Moran’s How To Build A Girl : “He had his head in his hands, and his tie looked like it had been put on by an enemy, and was strangling him.”
• Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass : “Lord Asriel was a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that seemed to flash and glitter with savage laughter. It was a face to be dominated by, or to fight: never a face to patronize or pity.”
• J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey : “She found herself looking at Lane as if he were a stranger, or a poster advertising a brand of linoleum, across the aisle of a subway car.”
• L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz : “They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads, with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved. The hats of the men were blue; the little woman’s hat was white, and she wore a white gown that hung in pleats from her shoulders. Over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds.”
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula : “Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere.”
• Algernon Blackwood’s Ten Minute Stories : “Then, by a green field that shone like a thought of daylight amid the darkness of the moor, he saw a figure lying in the grass. It was a blot upon the landscape, a mere huddled patch of dirty rags, yet with a certain horrid picturesqueness too; and his mind—though his German was of the schoolroom order—at once picked out the German equivalents as against the English. Lump and Lumpen flashed across his brain most oddly.”
• John Rhode’s The Murders in Praed Street : “He was tall and thin, with a pronounced stoop and a deep but not unpleasant voice. But it was his head that you looked at instinctively. Above the massive forehead and powerfully-chiselled features was a wealth of long, snow-white hair, balanced by a flowing beard of the same colour.”
• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Telltale Heart”: “He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold.”
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein : “His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition.”
• Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow : “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.”
• Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women : “Margaret, the eldest of the four, was sixteen, and very pretty, being plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of soft, brown hair, a sweet mouth, and white hands, of which she was rather vain.”
• Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland : “It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came…”
• J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan : “He was a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees but the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth.”
• Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis : “He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper : “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.”
• L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz : “When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now.”
• Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment : “This was not because he was cowardly and abject, quite the contrary; but for some time past he had been in an overstrained irritable condition, verging on hypochondria. He had become so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but anyone at all. He was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him. He had given up attending to matters of practical importance; he had lost all desire to do so.”
• Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter : “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.”
• Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : “This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white, and a boisterous and decided manner.”
• Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him.”
• Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol : “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”
• Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace : “Anna Pávlovna Schérer on the contrary, despite her forty years, overflowed with animation and impulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had become her social vocation and, sometimes even when she did not feel like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the expectations of those who knew her. The subdued smile which, though it did not suit her faded features, always played round her lips expressed, as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect, which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to correct.”
• Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia”: “His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story. He was at work again.”
• J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan : “In person he was cadaverous and blackavized, and his hair was dressed in long curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly.”

Looking for more tips and tricks regarding character creation? Check out the CharacterHub blog !

David Davis

David Davis is a cartoonist with around twenty years of experience in comics, including independent work and established IPs such as SpongeBob Squarepants. He also works as a college composition instructor and records weekly podcasts. Find out more about him at his website!

Table of Contents

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OC Drawing: Step By Step Instructions on How to Draw an OC

How To Make Character Concept Art: A Guide To Developing Character Designs

How To Design Clothing, Fashion, and Costumes For Your Character: With Outfit Ideas!

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350 Character Traits – A Fabulous Resource For Writers

Use these lists of 350 character traits to help you select the positive and negative traits you need for the characters in your stories.

What Is A Character Trait?

A trait is a distinguishing quality or characteristic , typically one belonging to a person. It can be a genetically determined characteristic.

Traits are formed by a person’s behaviour and attitude to others. We all have good and bad character traits and we should remember this when we describe people.

Some synonyms used for the word ‘trait’ are: attribute, characteristic, feature, particularity, peculiarity, quality.

Tips For Including Character Traits

Even if you adore your protagonist and loathe your antagonist , it is important to remember that nobody is perfectly good, or perfectly evil.

Every character will have positive and negative personality traits. Make sure you have created real people rather than caricatures by giving your cast a selection of both.

Include them when you complete the character questionnaires for your fictional creations.

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

How To Use Character Traits In Plotting

When you know what your characters’ traits are, you can use this to add to or to change your plot.

• An unreliable character might lose a job and the course of the story will change.
• A helpful or scrupulous character may inadvertently find out information when they are lending a hand. This information could create conflict and might force them to act or react.
• A romantic might start an affair and cause complications in their relationships. This could be the inciting moment for a story.
• A selfish person may want to be more dependable  and self-disciplined , but this trait could prevent them from achieving this. You can use this to create internal conflict in your characters.
• A hostile character may want to be included in society to improve their life, but their anger will ensure this does not happen.

We hope these lists help you choose the negative and positive character traits you will need in your books.

Enjoy developing character traits . Have fun, and happy writing.

If you want to receive a  free  daily writing prompt, click  here  to join our mailing list.

If you enjoyed this post,  you will love:

• The 4 Main Characters As Literary Devices
• 15 Questions Authors Should Ask Characters ,
• 10 Things To Consider When Naming Characters ,
• Creating Characters – Five Mistakes Beginner Writers Make
• 5 Ways Setting Affects Your Characters
• The 7 Critical Elements Of A Great Book
• 9 Literary Terms You Need To Know

Top Tip : Find out more about our workbooks and online courses in our shop .

• Creating Characters , Writing Tips from Amanda Patterson

7 thoughts on “350 Character Traits – A Fabulous Resource For Writers”

Tapping into this information is a lifeline when stuck in a mire. Thank you.

The information above is very useful, wish I had it when I wrote my first book

Thank you. We’re glad you liked it.

Thank you very much Amanda.

To write is to give breath to words….to love is to give words of life to others.

This will help me as I write and find my voice. Thank you.

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Ex-Forza Horizon devs and Skins co-creator want you to ‘fall in love with’ the characters in their story-led open-world driving game

Studio Maverick Games was opened in 2022 by ex-Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown

It’s been a little while since we last heard about the untitled open-world driving game from Maverick Games, the studio opened a couple of years back by ex-Playground Games veterans including former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown. We still don’t know what the team’s new game is called or when it might hit the road, but we have been given a few more snippets of what to expect and news on who’ll be helping pump up its tires and fill it with fuel as publisher.

As well as the obvious racing game experience of the Playground devs (along with other devs who’ve worked on open-world games like Sea of Thieves and Cyberpunk 2077 ), the untitled driving game is mixing in an element that Brown and team feel reckon will set it apart: a closer focus on its story and characters, with what Brown describes as a “human connection”.

“Lots of great driving games have amazing gameplay, amazing content,” said Brown. “But to really cross that bridge, to become a game that people genuinely love, then there needs to be that human connection where you’re actually rooting for these characters, falling in love with these characters.

“That, I think, is a place where our game will be able to really differentiate itself from the other titles in the genre. There’s nothing about this genre that prevents it from having amazing characters and amazing stories - it’s just not really been explored yet.”

Helping with the “narrative-led” portion of the game is lead writer Jamie Brittain, who co-created Channel 4’s era-defining noughties teen drama Skins. Brown said that Brittain’s knack for creating characters who are “flawed and actually a little bit weird - just like the rest of us” (though presumably quite good at driving regardless) will come through in the game’s story. While Brown mentions that "human connection", I quite like the idea of a gritty Cars-like world full of sentient vehicles going to driving school by day and partying in grotty clubs by night.

Maverick is now up to more than 60 devs from the ten or so that founded it back in 2022, and has inked a fresh deal with Amazon Games to publish their debut “AAA” racing game across PC and consoles - making it Amazon’s latest game after the likes of MMOs New World and Lost Ark , with Crystal Dynamics’ next Tomb Raider game and a Lord of the Rings MMO also in the works. Brown, for his part, claims that Amazon have backed the team’s efforts to “foster an environment of creativity and risk-taking”.

Read this next

• Nightmare Kart, the Bloodborne-inspired PSX-styled racing game, is out now
• Wildermyth's developers are going into hibernation, with no sequel or new project planned
• Wolcen: Lords Of Mayhem won't receive new updates and its multiplayer will switch off in September

Suicide Squad Isekai: Trailer, Confirmed Characters & Everything We Know

• The anime Suicide Squad Isekai features Harley Quinn, Joker, and the Suicide Squad in a fantasy world setting.
• The series, directed by Eri Osada, has strong anticipation due to its character premise and involvement of popular Japanese voice actors.
• The expansion includes original characters and a trailer revealing the storyline of a war-torn otherworldly kingdom.

The villainous Harley Quinn and Joker will star in the new anime titled Suicide Squad Isekai . Warner Bros is just the latest Western company to partner with an anime studio, here Wit, as Mappa and Adult Swim are collaborating to make a sci-fi series . Anime is only continuing to become popular overseas: from games and live-action series to crossovers, this medium has truly gone global.

The Joker and Harley Quinn are some of the most popular characters in the superhero world, so they were great picks to star in the series. Furthermore, the deadly group Suicide Squad will make their appearance. With the premise of the isekai genre and the nature of the characters, the series has a lot of hype surrounding it.

Batman Ninja Is The Anime Isekai Fans Must Watch Before Suicide Squad

Suicide squad isekai latest news.

Crunchyroll News announced at Anime Expo 2023 that a new anime called Suicide Squad Isekai will be making its way to screens everywhere in the very near future. This huge project features various talented individuals who have worked with Isekai anime before, including the anime's director, Eri Osada ( The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat ), and co-writer Tappei Nagatsuki ( Re:ZERO - Starting Life in Another World ).

More recently, Suicide Squad Isekai announced an expansion of its cast. Characters such as Rick Flag and Katana were confirmed alongside a set of characters original to the upcoming anime, Fionne, Cecil, and Aldora.

Warner Bros Japan has also announced that several of Suicide Squad Isekai's voice cast will appear at a panel at Anime Japan 2024 in Tokyo, on March 23 at 9:15 a.m. JST (March 22, 4:15 p.m. PST). The following voice actors will be at the event:

• Anna Nagase (voice of Harley Quinn)
• Yuuichirou Umehara (voice of the Joker)
• Reigo Yamaguchi (voice of Deadshot)
• Jun Fukuyama (voice of Clayface)
• Taku Yashiro (voice of Rick Flag)
• Kujira (voice of Amanda Waller)
• Reina Ueda (voice of Fione)

Suicide Squad Isekai Creative Crew Confirmed

Wit Studio is in charge of bringing the anime to life. They are the makers of Attack On Titan and Vinland Saga before handing it off to Mappa, and are now animating the hit series Spy x Family . Eri Osada has been chosen to direct the season. A veteran in the industry, she has also worked on Jujutsu Kaisen and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure . Tappei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara ( Vivy: Flourite Eye's Song ) will be in charge of the script. The character design is the work of Akira Amano, a manga artist known for Katekyo Hitman REBORN! and for the character design of Psycho-Pass . The cast hasn't been confirmed yet.

Suicide Squad Isekai Trailers

The teaser trailer for Suicide Squad Isekai i was released on July 3, 2023, along with the announcement at the Anime Expo 2023. The gorgeous visuals and fast-paced action in the trailer are a signature of Wit Studio. Harley is swinging her iconic bat at grenades, dragons are soaring across the skies, and the Joker speeding down the streets in his car while playing piano. It's the type of chaos and mayhem fans would expect if these two characters were suddenly dropped in an anime world.

New Suicide Squad Isekai Trailer Reveals More Of The Upcoming Anime

On March 14, 2024, Warner Bros Japan and Wit revealed the third Suicide Squad Isekai trailer, revealing more of the storyline, as DC's villain team is sent to another realm to intervene in a long-raging war between an otherworldly kingdom and the Empire.

What Song Is In The New Suicide Squad Isekai Trailer?

The catchy EDM song that plays over the Suicide Squad Isekai trailer is title "GO-Getters" and was created by American virtual YouTuber and rapper Mori Calliope, who has released two albums - UnAlive and Sinderella (both in 2022).

Suicide Squad Isekai Confirmed Characters & Cast

Every character & actor confirmed to appear in suicide squad isekai.

The Joker and Harley Quinn will be the main characters of the show. As given away by the title, the Suicide Squad will also be in the show, sent by the merciless Amanda Waller to bring back the dangerous couple. As confirmed not only by the trailers, but also by Warner Bros Japan's official Suicide Squad Isekai minisite , characters such as Peacemaker, Deadshot, King Shark, Clay Face, Captain Boomerang, Rick Flag, Katana, and a host of original characters will also appear.

Japanese voice actors for the cast have also been announced, with Summertime Rendering's Anna Nagase voicing Harley Quinn, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Black Clover's Yūichirō Umehara voicing Joker, and industry veteran Takehito Koyasu as Peacemaker. Unfortunately, there is no word yet on an English dub cast.

In addition to the familiar DC characters in the Suicide Squad Isekai roster, Warner Bros Japan has revealed information about three original characters created specifically for the anime, all associated with the kingdom Amanda Waller sells her villainous crew to:

The official character descriptions from Warner Bros Japan reveal more about what to expect from these new characters in Suicide Squad Isekai:

• Princess Fione: Princess of the kingdom in another world. She loves her people but is too shy to speak out against her mother, Aldora’s orders. She is fascinated by the free-spirited Harley.
• Queen Aldora: Queen of the kingdom in another world. She rules the kingdom and commands the war with the empire with her unwavering majesty. She tends to be harsh with Fione
• Cecil: The knight commander of the kingdom in another world. Once known as the savior of the kingdom, he was rewarded with legendary armor. He is a serious and worldly man. He is deeply devoted to Fione and cares for her.

What The Original Suicide Squad Isekai Characters & Actors Look Like

Suicide squad isekai story, amanda waller sends the dc legends to a magical kingdom at war.

As with most Suicide Squad stories, Suicide Squad Isekai sees Amanda Waller assembling a group of imprisoned villains to take on a deadly mission too dark for the likes of more traditional heroes like the Justice League. The twist this time is that Waller is sending classic Suicide Squad heroes like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and King Shark into a fantasy world filled with genre staples like dragons, orcs and werewolves.

Warner Brothers has described the bones of the story like so:

In the crime-ridden city of Gotham, Amanda Waller, the head of A.R.G.U.S., has assembled a group of notorious criminals for a mission: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark. These Super-Villains are sent into an otherworldly realm that’s connected to this world through a gate. It’s a world of swords and magic where orcs rampage and dragons rule the skies—an “ISEKAI”!

With lethal explosives planted in their necks, there’s no running or hiding, and failing the mission means a one-way ticket to the afterlife! Can Harley Quinn and her crew conquer this perilous ISEKAI realm?! Brace yourselves for the pulse-pounding saga of the elite task force known as the “Suicide Squad” as they embark on a jaw-dropping adventure!

Suicide Squad Isekai Doesn't Have A Release Date Yet

At the moment, there is no release date for Suicide Squad Isekai . There is also no known streaming service destination for the show. As it is produced by Warner Bros. and DC, it could end up on Max. Warner Bros' official Suicide Squad Isekai mini-site confirms that the team's " journey starts in 2024" with the website also stating " Suicide Squad Isekai is to be released globally in 2024," establishing the release window, but nothing more specific has yet been revealed.

For now, these are the only pieces of information available to the public but be sure to check back on this page for all the latest news on Suicide Squad Isekai .

Suicide Squad Isekai

A project direct from WIT Studio in Japan, Suicide Squad ISEKAI is an animated action-adventure series that centers around the titular DC antihero team, with Harley Quinn and Joker being the main leads. Sent to another world, characters like Quinn and the Joker will wreak havoc on a fantasy world where they find themselves inexplicably whisked away.

Cast Anna Nagase, Reina Ueda, Subaru Kimura, Reigo Yamaguchi, Yichir Umehara, Jun Fukuyama, Takehito Koyasu, Mamiko Noto

Genres Action, Adventure, Anime

Franchise(s) DC Universe

Writers Eiji Umehara, Tappei Nagatsuki

Directors Eri Osada

Rating TV-MA

Source: WarnerBros

More From Forbes

Is peter krause leaving ‘9-1-1’ bobby nash’s fate in the finale revealed.

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9-1-1: Peter Krause in the Peer Pressure episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Oct, 18 (8:00-9:00 PM ... [+] ET/PT) on FOX. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)

Ahead of the emotional Season 7 finale of 9-1-1 , there were two burning questions on every viewer’s mind: Is Peter Krause leaving 9-1-1 , and is Bobby Nash going to die ? Now, we finally know the answers to both of those questions.

Peter Krause has played Robert Wade "Bobby" Nash, the captain of Station 118 of the Los Angeles Fire Department, since 9-1-1 debuted in January 2018. Bobby was married to Marcy Nash, and together they had two children, Robert and Brook Nash. Tragically, he lost his entire family in a fire he inadvertently caused by leaving a space heater on.

After their deaths and an investigation that determined it was an accident, Bobby went to rehab and relocated to the LAPD, where he first met field sergeant Athena (Angela Bassett). Bobby and Athena started dating at the end of Season 1 and eventually married in Season 2.

9-1-1 - "Step Nine" - After a victim of the apartment fire that changed Bobby's life resurfaces, he ... [+] searches to make amends. Driven by his need to right past wrongs, Bobby delves deep into memories of his childhood, unearthing moments from his fractured past. THURSDAY, MAY 16 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Chris Willard) ANGELA BASSETT, PETER KRAUSE

But lately, things haven't been going well for Bobby, and his character arc this season has been traumatic, to say the least. In Season 7, Episode 9, "Ashes, Ashes," he resigned as captain of Station 118 after confronting Amir, a figure from his past whose family perished in the same Minnesota apartment fire that Bobby caused many years ago.

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The heartbreaking episode also featured Bobby admitting to Athena his plan to commit suicide after saving 148 people as a firefighter — the same number that lost their lives in the fire he caused. While 9-1-1 has hinted at Bobby's death over the years, this scenario feels different. So, what happened?

Warning: Spoilers ahead of the 9-1-1 Season 7 finale.

Is Bobby Going To Die On 9-1-1 ?

9-1-1 - "Buck Bothered and Bewildered" - Upon her return to shore, Athena's son, Harry, finds ... [+] himself in trouble with the law. Meanwhile, Buck grows envious as Eddie forms a close bond with someone else, and the 118 rescue a woman who's stuck on receiving a rose at an iconic mansion. THURSDAY, APRIL 4 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Mike Taing) PETER KRAUSE

No, Bobby does not die in in the 9-1-1 Season 7 finale, but his life was definitely at risk. Season 7, Episode 9, "Ashes, Ashes," ended with Bobby collapsing from cardiac arrest after rescuing Athena from their burning home. The preview for the 9-1-1 Season 7 finale showed Krause’s character on a ventilator and unconscious in a coma. The teaser ended with ominous sound of a flatline, leaving some of the Station 118 crew gasping.

Thankfully, Bobby woke up from his coma in the final episode of Season 7. “Being a part of this comic book come to life about first responders, has been really fun. Because we go through things that some people wouldn't necessarily survive, but that's the language of the show,” Krause told People after the finale aired.

He continued, “It is about perseverance and redemption and moving forward and having family and supporting each other. All these themes are underneath the splashy entertainment. And I'm a big fan of the splashy entertainment, the wild and wacky emergencies. But I'm also really happy to see us delve into people's personal lives and see them struggle with the same things that audience members struggle with.”

While Bobby survived this time, he might not be so lucky the next. “I don’t think the characters are unkillable,” series showrunner Tim Minear told The Wrap in March. “There have been a few times when they’ve come close to actually dying. I just don’t want to kill any of them,” he said. “One day when it does happen, it’s going to be a sad day for me.”

Is Bobby Nash Leaving 9-1-1 ?

9-1-1 - "Ghost of a Second Chance" - Maddie and Athena investigate a case surrounding an abducted ... [+] mother and child as Hen and Karen learn more about Mara's family history. Meanwhile, Eddie grapples with unresolved feelings for someone from his past. THURSDAY, MAY 9 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Chris Willard) RYAN GUZMAN, KENNETH CHOI, PETER KRAUSE, AISHA HINDS, OLIVER STARK

ABC has not yet announced whether Peter Krause's character, Bobby Nash, is leaving 9-1-1 . Now that Bobby survived his coma in the Season 7 finale, Krause’s time on the procedural will continue into its 8th season , arriving sometime this fall.

The season ended with Gerrard showing up as the chief, which could weave into Nash’s storyline next season. “I don't know exactly what is in store, but I'm assuming that Bobby will have to go through some things to regain his captainship,” Krause told People . “What those things are, I don't know. Could it be a physical? A cardio test? I don't know.”

When the site suggested that maybe Nash can go back to being a probie, the actor quipped, “Well, I can tell you that Kenny Choi [Chimney] would certainly enjoy that. I don't think that's going to be the case, but I'd assume that the entire fire team would really enjoy that, if that's the route that it took.”

All episodes of 9-1-1 on streaming on Hulu .

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