Writing Tools: Getting To Know Your Characters By Susan Hanniford Crowley

Getting to know your characters gives you a lot to work with. Write a character description and include everything you can think of. Here is a possible list.

Name of Character and meaning if you can find it
Physical Description
Family background – where they came from and they have lived.
Jobs your character has had, include jobs their family members have had
Siblings, age differences, how they get along
Pets
Personal beliefs
Friends – How do they help or don’t? Why are they friends?
Enemies and why they are enemies
What are their favorite songs, tv shows, movies
What do they enjoy doing in their off-time from work
What are they afraid of?
What places do they not like at all?
How do they view themselves?
What character has the strongest influence on them?
Do they have a strength or remarkable talent or skill?
Do they have a weakness? Could also be an allergy.
What do they love the most?

You could add more but this will give you a strong start if you do this for your main and secondary characters. You could do this for all your characters, especially if you plan to use them in another book in a series.

This is also part of your book’s bible. There is nothing more confusing to a reader to have the hero look into the heroine’s brown eyes on page 156 when they were green on page 6. Having this information already put together in one handy place helps an author be consistent.

If you read the Vampires in Manhattan series, you’ll see how some characters have more description while others have less. Remember how description blends in the flow of the store and is not “dumped” in one place at the beginning. You can find my first series here: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Hanniford-Crowley/e/B004YXOGXG

Have fun reading and writing!

Truly,

Susan
Susan Hanniford Crowley

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