Character Development Tool

Maggie ♦ December 23, 2010 ♦ 6 Comments

I was working on this back in November, but decided to post it now. Questions are in no particular order. I tried to leave out the usual height, weight, eye color types of questions.

Character Creation

1. What does your character’s handwriting look like?
2. What kind of illnesses is your character susceptible to?
3. Does your character have any chronic medical conditions?
4. Does your character have any birth marks, warts, freckles, tumors, hair in odd places, or any other physical oddities or distinguishing marks?
5. What kind of nervous mannerisms does your character have? (Nail-biting, twirling hair, etc.)
6. Describe your character’s hands.
7. Describe your character’s voice.
8. What makes your character really angry?
9. What makes your character mildly irritated?
10. What are three things that are always on your character’s mind?
11. Is your character an only child? A twin? A triplet? How many siblings does he/she have?
12. What are your character’s parents like? Is your character adopted? Raised by aunts, uncles, grandparents, wolves? Does he/she have stepparents or foster parents?
13. Does your character have any allergies?
14. What are your character’s three biggest fears?
15. Describe your character’s bedroom.
16. What are three objects that symbolize your character’s personality?
17. What’s your character’s birthday/astrological sign/Chinese zodiac creature?
18. Does your character have a high or a low tolerance to pain?
19. What are your character’s top three hobbies? (What does he/she enjoy doing most?)
20. Was your character born prematurely?
21. Does your character have any pets?
22. What are three things your character dislikes about him/herself?
23. What are three things your character likes about him/herself?
24. How does your character handle stress, fear, pain, rejection, anger, joy, sadness, etc.?
25. Name three quirks/strange mannerisms/odd personality traits your character has?
26. Is your character right-handed, left-handed, or ambidextrous?
27. Is your character outgoing or introverted?
28. What’s your character’s opinion on sports? Does he love them? Play them? Hate them?
29. Describe an average day for your character.
30. What do your character’s teeth look like? (Crooked, straight, no teeth, braces, etc.)
31. Does your character have a signature facial expression? (For instance, he raises his eyebrow in skepticism or wrinkles his nose in distaste, etc.)
32. Does your character wear glasses, have contacts, 20/20 vision, blind, etc?
33. What’s your character’s hair like? (Gel, spray, dyed, wig, short, long, etc.)
34. Does your character have any piercings or tattoos?
35. Does your character wear makeup? What kind? How much?
36. What are the three main things or people that influence your character’s actions?

I hope these questions will help you discover who your characters are.

Jody Hedlund’s character worksheet is a great resource, and so is OC Meme Central on LiveJournal, which has all the memes and procrastination devices you could ever want or need.

Enjoy and have fun!