What exactly makes a character so great? Well, there are many different aspects that can go into it. The way people talk and act are a huge indicator to their persona. Their feelings, thoughts, insights, and ideals could also shape them. Background, experiences, and any trauma could have tremendous impacts as well. Even physical traits can affect characters in interesting ways. To make it even more convoluted, some of the best characters have fundamental paradoxes.
To help flesh out some of these different aspects, I did the following:
Step 1: Make Up Some Cards. I took a big stack of index cards and wrote down a single trait on each one. One stack of cards was made with purely physical traits (how a character looks, appears, is clothed, etc). The second stack was comprised solely of internal traits (a personality, a mental issue, emotion, etc). A third deck was made up with even more traits, correlating more to the externalized traits (what a character is doing with his or her life; goals, motivations, professions, etc). I left a lot of these generic on purpose, allowing the people doing this exercise to determine a character's gender, hair color, eye color, etc.
Specific traits I set up are listed down below, but they are certainly not all-inclusive. The possibilities are practically endless, and the combination of all three could yield countless character combinations.
Step 2: Pick Your Cards. Shuffle the three decks, and pick one of each from the top, so that the combination comes up totally random. The combination of your physical, inner personality, and externalized personality traits should match up to create someone worth writing about. Sometimes it'll be something really weird or crazy, but that should provide an amusing challenge. If it comes up as something too paradoxical (such as a pacifist serial killer or something), then you may have to draw again. Chances are also good that your character may come up dry or uninteresting; that can provide a challenge as well.
Step 3: Write About It. In the purposes of an exercise, you can simply write up a brief description, portrait, or character study of a character based on the cards you've drawn. Sometimes, the cards may provide enough basis for an actual plot; in which case, you could certainly write a scene that reveals the character's traits. First person point-of-view could work really well for that. In other cases, third person, or first person from another character's point-of-view, may suffice. In any case, you'd just spend somewhere from ten to thirty minutes writing about this character and seeing what comes up.
Chances are that this exercise could help in designing characters for larger bodies of work. Keep in mind though that the fullest characters may require multiple traits to create depth. It is certainly possible to flip out multiple cards from each deck to layer on different traits onto a character, so long as none contradict each other, or make the character too convoluted. In larger works, it's also worth noting that characters are never static; they may change or evolve with the story, so that requires additional consideration.
You may also find that some traits have inherent assumptions. A person dressed in black is assumed to be someone fairly wicked in some way. A person is quiet and shy may be assumed to be an introvert or social recluse. A person acting as a tour guide may be assumed to be an extrovert, and really friendly or open. But if you combine all of those together, you would have someone totally unique (a shy tour guide who dresses in black; you've already set up the possible inner conflict of having an introverted character struggling to be outgoing for the sake of his career). That may be the true value of these cards; they'll create unusual combinations that will keep you thinking and developing possible conflicts and stories.
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| A crime fighter dressing in black who doesn't know what to do with his life? Sounds like an interesting story to me. |
As for the specific traits used in this exercise, I invented the following. You're certainly free to try the same, or create your own set of cards, or a combination of these and your own. The possibilities are endless.
Physical traits
- Always carries a bag or satchel (any contents permitted)
- Can't stop smiling
- Carries a weapon of any kind
- Cross-dresses
- Dresses in sleazy or revealing clothing
- Dresses only in black
- Has a big framed body and/or broad shoulders
- Has a birthmark anywhere on the body
- Has a deformity of some kind
- Has a large overbite
- Has a long or full beard
- Has a long pointy nose
- Has a scar somewhere on the body
- Has a small framed body
- Has a wild hair style
- Has an excessive amount of cosmetic surgery
- Has an unusual color of hair
- Has big hands
- Has freckles
- Has involuntary muscle twitches
- Has long hair
- Has one or more tattoos visible
- Has short hair
- Has only one eye
- Has unusual color eyes
- Is a dull/plain looking person
- Is a dwarf or midget (4' tall or less)
- Is a foreigner
- Is a giant (7' tall or more)
- Is a giant insect
- Is a robot or cyborg
- Is bald
- Is beautiful
- Is clean and immaculate
- Is dirty, scruffy, and worn
- Is gluttonous, obese, or grotesquely overweight
- Is kinda funny-looking
- Is not human
- Is perfectly lean and fit
- Is old
- Is physically strong and muscular
- Is really skinny and looks frail
- Is wearing a costume of some kind
- Is young
- Looks really scary or creepy
- Wears a fedora or other wide-brimmed hat
- Wears a mask of any kind
- Wears a necklace or medallion that means something important to him/her
- Wears a trenchcoat
- Wears facial paint or makeup
- Wears formal clothes
- Wears glasses
- Wears loud clothes
- Wears street clothes of whatever kind
- Can never tell a lie
- Can't stop lying
- Cold and detached
- Confrontational
- Doesn't care about people or the world (nihilist)
- Doesn't know what to do with his/her life
- Easily offended
- Eternally optimistic
- Flirtatious and/or seductive
- Has a massive ego (narcissist)
- Has a superpower
- Has an attitude
- Has OCD
- Has memory problems
- Is a conformist
- Is a control freak
- Is a coward
- Is a fanatic about something (obsession)
- Is a genius
- Is a miser
- Is a perfectionist
- Is a pervert
- Is a slacker
- Is a thrill-seeker or adrenaline junkie
- Is a total bookworm
- Is a workaholic
- Is an animal lover
- Is an experienced war veteran or hero
- Is brave and/or fearless
- Is dumb
- Is eccentric
- Is easily confused
- Is evil to the core
- Is goofy or funny
- Is haunted by a crime he/she personally committed in the past
- Is hungry for knowledge
- Is hyper or energetic
- Is insane
- Is gradually losing his/her mind
- Is lethargic
- Is morally straight and incorruptible
- Is naive
- Is passive-aggressive
- Is quiet/shy
- Is rebellious
- Is suave and charming
- Is the life of the party
- Is very laid-back
- Is very lewd, crude, or vulgar
- Is very polite
- Is very selfish and pushy
- Is wise
- Hallucinates all the time
- Has a negative outlook on everything
- Has a split personality or is bipolar
- Has a troubled or disturbing past
- Has an addiction
- Has no faith in her/her own abilities
- Lost the ability to love
- Stutters
- Tries to be someone he/she is not
- Wouldn't even harm a fly (pacifist)
- Defuses bombs for a living
- Fights crime
- Finds him or herself stranded or lost somewhere
- Goes on a journey of any kind
- Hunts ghosts, or is a paranormal investigator
- Is a billionaire
- Is a bodyguard or secret service member
- Is a boss or supervisor (any profession)
- Is a cook or chef
- Is a cop
- Is a firefighter
- Is a grave-digger
- Is a hacker
- Is a leader or a figure of power
- Is a magician (can be either the street-performer kind, or an actual wizard, sorcerer, Jedi, etc)
- Is a musician or singer
- Is a nun or a monk
- Is a rogue mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin, or other profession (any kind where a person is hired to do dirty work)
- Is a serial kidnapper or murderer
- Is a social recluse
- Is a soldier or mercenary in combat
- Is a spaceman or space woman (can be an astronaut, or any sci-fi character like a ship captain, pirate, soldier, etc)
- Is a spy
- Is a store clerk or cashier
- Is a storm-chaser
- Is a successful detective or private eye
- Is a teacher or professor
- Is a tour guide
- Is an activist
- Is an artist, or a patron of the arts
- Is an inventor with a great new invention
- Is aspiring to be a celebrity
- Is either a vampire, werewolf, or other monster in disguise
- Is going after the man/woman of his/her dreams
- Is in a school of any kind
- Is out for vengeance
- Is performing an extreme sport
- Is searching for an ancient lost artifact
- Is struggling to make ends meet
- Is trying to save a friend or family member from peril
- Is using someone for his/her own ends
- Leads a revolution of some kind
- Plays a sport
- Robs banks
- Slays the undead in his/her spare time
- Was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime someone else committed
- Works at a common low-paying job (blue-collar worker)
These are great! Can't wait to play with them.
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