Name: Anngela D. Aruyal.

Section: BSEd-3B
Instructor: Jan Beau-J P. Napalan Course: Creative Writing

Module 1: Creating Characters

Topic
Chapter 4: Creating Characters

 Character is fundamental to writing any kind of autobiography, biography, or fiction.

 The voice of the character can dictate the style and subject matter of the poem, story, or book, and
the reader can be so close as to “inhabit” the character.
 To "inhabit" means to live or dwell in a place.
 The main character, the hero or the heroine, is called the protagonist. The main opponent, or the
villain of the story, is the antagonist.
 An anti-hero is the protagonist, but one who has weaknesses and doesn’t fit the usual stereotype of
the hero.
 In traditional drama or fiction, the hero – or heroine – is undoubtedly morally good. The anti-hero
is bad, flawed, or morally ambiguous.
 Minor characters can be important characters, highly significant to the main character, or they can
be brief walk-on parts. They can be helpers, who support the main character in achieving his goals,
or they can be hinderers, who actively oppose the main character or who, by having different aims,
get in his way.
 these characters create conflict and obstacles that the protagonist must overcome, adding tension
and complexity to the narrative.
Discovering Where Characters Come From
 You borrow from life. - In writing fiction, you often use a real-life person as a basis for a
character, and then change and adapt his characteristics for the story you’re writing.
 You find a character comes to you. - A character may come into your mind fully formed because
you’re tapping into some of the unknown aspects of your own personality.
 You create a character from scratch. - Creating a character from scratch can be an exciting but
sometimes challenging process, especially when the character doesn't organically come to life. In
such cases, a conscious and deliberate approach to character creation becomes necessary.
Detailing Clues about Your Characters
 When creating fictional characters or portraying real people, making a list of their characteristics is
helpful.
 Personal Details - Gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, height,
weight.
 Social Details - Social class, level of education, job, how much money they earn, how much their
partners or families earn, religion, how they vote.
 Family Details - Family background, what jobs their parents did, if they have brothers and sisters,
what position they occupy in the birth order of their families.
Portraying Personality
 The four main methods you can use to reveal character are pretty intuitive as they’re the same you
use to learn about people you meet in real life.
  How people look, what they think and feel, what they do, and how they speak reveal their
personalities.
 Fleshing out your Character’s...well,flesh - Describing what a character looks like.
 Inhabiting a body - When advising to ensure that a character "inhabits a real body, if only in
your mind," the suggestion is to create characters that are vivid, three-dimensional, and
believable. In other words, the character should feel like a living, breathing person with a
distinct presence and personality.
 Leaving room for imperfection- Nothing’s as boring as describing characters as incredibly
good-looking or ravishingly beautiful and leaving it at that. You need to be more specific.
 Sharing a character’s thoughts and feelings - If you’re writing through the eyes of a character,
you can reveal their inner thoughts and feelings through how they express themself, their
preoccupations, hopes, and fears. Whether a character is obsessive or cool and rational, emotionally
needy, or focused on helping others helps your readers relate to them.
 Letting actions for your characters - A character can be revealed through their actions.How do
they move – quickly and confidently, slowly and hesitantly? Write about your character doing an
ordinary, everyday activity, such as making a cup of tea, combing their hair, or going for a walk. Do
they quickly run their fingers through their hair or do they spend hours in front of the mirror?
 Listening to how your characters talk. - Think about your character’s choice of words. Use
vocabulary that’s appropriate to them. Consider how your character speaks and what accent they
have, if any. Imagine that your character meets another character and write a conversation between
them.
Revealing Character Indirectly
 When referring to revealing a character indirectly, it means providing information about the
character's traits, personality, or background through subtle and implicit means rather than stating
these details explicitly.
 "Subtle" and "implicit" not directly obvious or stated.
The Art of Holmesian Deduction
 "The Art of Holmesian Deduction" refers to the detective skills employed by the famous fictional
detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
 Holmes is known for his exceptional powers of observation and deduction, and the narrative style
often allows readers to engage in solving mysteries alongside him. This approach encourages
readers to actively participate in the story by drawing conclusions from subtle details and clues
provided in the text.
Choosing A Name
 Putting first names- authors choose first names that they like or which are fashionable for their
heroes and heroines, and names they dislike for their villains.
 Adding Last names and Family names.
 Taking care of Foreign Names- take care choosing foreign names, especially if you’re not familiar
with the culture.
 for example, in Japanese the name Ichiro means first son and so wouldn’t be appropriate for a
youngest child.
Avoiding Stereotypes and Tapping into Archetypes
 stereotypes limit creativity and authenticity, archetypes provide a rich and timeless framework
for crafting characters that tap into fundamental aspects of the human psyche. The key is to use
archetypes as a foundation and then infuse them with unique qualities and individuality to
create well-rounded and memorable characters.
 Stereotypes are oversimplified, generalized representations of groups or individuals, often
relying on fixed ideas or assumptions.
 Archetypal characters often embody broader themes and tap into shared human experiences.
Diversifying Stereotypes
 Stock characters are standardized, conventional, and easily recognizable character types that
embody widely shared and simplified traits or characteristics. These characters are often used
in fiction, theater, and other forms of storytelling as a convenient shorthand to convey certain
roles, personalities, or stereotypes quickly.
Uncovering archetypes: The Jungian Personality Theory
 The images and symbols surface spontaneously in all religions, in art, dreams, and creative
processes. Examples of archetypal figures are the Hero, the Lover, the Outlaw, the Magician,
the Explorer, the Sage, the Jester, the Innocent, the Creato