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Writing a Character Development Sheet For Your Next Book

by | Apr 11, 2016 | Tips For Writers

Writing a Character Development Sheet For Your Next Book

A character development sheet is essential if you plan on writing a longer book or a series of books. This sheet is what will help keep your plot and its characters in order. Your character development sheet is going to organize your thoughts and creations for you so you can focus solely on writing your story. When creating your character development sheet, you’ll want to include facts and details about your characters that will help you, and your eventual readers, get to know them. Having a character development sheet helps you create lifelike, realistic characters that give your book depth and a real sense of life. So… where do you begin?

What Should Be Included in Your Character Development Sheet?

 

When you start creating your character development sheet, you’ll of course want to address the basics first. The basics include: name, age, nationality, hometown, current location, occupation, skills, wealth level, family members (relationship description), romantic history, and physical appearance. You’ll also want to include the beliefs and mental background of your characters. For example: educational background, illnesses, short and long term goals, their self image, confidence level, whether they are more emotional or logical, their mannerisms, the greatest flaw, and their best quality. Once you get through those facts about your character, it is time to dive into the deeper parts of what makes a human, human. You’ll want to explore their strengths and weaknesses, how they deal with certain emotions, what motivates and frightens them, what their personality traits are, what makes your character unique from any other run of the mill character. It may seem like a lot, but in the long run, having all of this information is going to strengthen your characters and, therefore, your book.

Creating a character development sheet can seem overwhelming, especially when you make one for every main character in your book. But trust me, it will help you keep all the facts straight in your mind, help with the continuity of your book, and create real, vivid characters that your readers will come to love and cherish. Leave a comment below and share a sample of one of your character development sheets! We would love to see what you’ve got!

NEXT: Utilize Character Development In Your Novel

Writing a Character Development Sheet For Your Next Book

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