There are a million and a half character building templates floating around on the internet like overcomplicated sea choked with driftwood, most of which are much too detailed, time consuming, and tedious to fill out. After all, it doesn't really matter what your character's favorite novel is or how they like their coffee unless it relates DIRECTLY to your actual story. So here I've complied the most essential questions off of all the character building templates I've come across into one lean, actually important template. This short set of questions will help you learn the deepest, most requisite aspects of your character in order to help your story soar to its highest potential.
Below, I'll go over the aspects of the template and explain each questions importance. I've also included a brief minor character template as well!
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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS
CHARACTER NAME
Name:
Age:
Enneagram: MBTI: If you have not discovered the enneagram and MBTI charts, do yourself a favor and look them up immediately. They are EXCELLENT for discovering your character and mapping out who they are, as well as understanding the deep aspects of their personalities.
Personality
Appearance: (physical description, identity, mannerisms): Appearances are tough to manage while writing fiction. It's always difficult to balance satisfying our writerly wishes to detail a character's physicality to the tiniest details while still allowing our readers a chance to build their own unique, personal interpretation of a character in their minds as they read. This question allows you to dive as deeply as you want into details your character's appearance with literally no consequences against story narrative, creating a great place to go crazy with details galore and keep on hand as a reference for consistency's sake. After all, it's super easy to forget what color a character's eyes are when/if you have a large cast!
History: History, or backstory, is ESSENTIAL. Who was you character before the start of the story? This is a great place to try out different backstories and really pin down the start of your character's lie and any traumas, successes, or relationships that helped shape who they are today. Some questions to ask yourself as you ponder this question are: where was this character born? How deep are their roots in regard to their childhood? Who raised them? What chain of events led them to the world the readers find them in at the start of the story?
World/Present Story: When your readers open your story, where do they find your main character? Your inciting incident will happen in this world, so make sure the setting is interesting and you know why and how the character is in the present world in the first place.
Goal/Life Purpose: What keeps your character going? What gets them out of bed in the morning? Whether it be spite, love, hate, or ambition, knowing their initial drive at the start of the story helps you know exactly how to break it down or build upon it with the inciting incident, midpoint crisis, and general chaos of your plot.
How is your character dissatisfied with their life?
What do they think will bring them true happiness or contentment?
What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality?
How has their fear kept them from taking this action already?
(Full disclosure:: I don't believe I came up with the four questions above. I'm pretty sure Abbie Emmons or KM Weiland is the source of those most essential and self-explanatory questions!)
Fears: What is your character afraid of? This is beyond spiders or the dark— we're talking what drives their life, keeps them in chains, paralyzes them with doubt or fear or trauma. Character fears should relate directly to your character LIE. for example, if your character is afraid of loss, his lie might be that "getting close to others only ends in pain" or "don't leave the house become you might lose someone you love".
Flaws: Character flaws should also relate directly to character LIES and FEARS. The more cohesive your answers to these questions are, the most impactful your story will become.
Misbelief/LIE: Arguably the most important question on the template, the character LIE is the reason your character is unhappy with their life in the first place and will ultimately embark on a character arc. KM Weiland explains the LIE as...
"...your character is incomplete on the inside. He is harboring some deeply held misconception about either himself, the world, or, probably, both." --KM Weiland
For more information on the ever essential lie, check out her EXCELLENT post here. https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/character-arcs-2/
Skill Set/Powers:
Moral Code/Religion: Moral codes and religion are super important. These questions explain your characters boundaries. After all, Batman would be a lot less interesting without his moral code against killing. These aspects will help you pin down just how far your character will go to achieve their desires in pursuit of their story goal.
Allies:
Enemies:
Extra:
What makes his/her heart feel alive?
What makes him/her feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?
Top three things he/she values most in life?
What does he/she love?
Describe character at their best
Describe character at their worst
(Again, not sure if I came up with the questions above myself! If not, credit to the writer(s) responsible.)
And that's that! Let me know in the comments below if the templates are easy to copy and paste for your personal use.
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TEMPLATES FOR YOUR USE :)
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(MAIN CHARACTER)
CHARACTER NAME
Name:
Age:
Enneagram: MBTI:
Personality
Appearance: (physical description, identity, mannerisms):
History:
World/Present Story:
Goal/Life Purpose:
How is your character dissatisfied with their life?
What do they think will bring them true happiness or contentment?
What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality?
How has their fear kept them from taking this action already?
Fears:
Flaws:
Misbelief:
Skill Set/Powers:
Moral Code/Religion:
Allies:
Enemies:
Extra:
What makes his/her heart feel alive?
What makes him/her feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?
Top three things he/she values most in life?
What does he/she love?
Describe character at their best
Describe character at their worst
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(MINOR CHARACTER)
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Character Name:
Character’s name:
Role in story:
Physical description:
Age:
MBTI Personality Type:
Backstory:
What is his/her greatest fear?
What is his/her misbelief about the world?
What happened in the character’s past to create this misbelief?
What is his/her agenda?
Top three things he/she values most in life?
