Contents
We will use a character development worksheet and work on refining your character.If you play enough role-playing games, this process is similar to when you are creating a character before you play. There are many character development worksheet available and most of them have the same format as we are using. If you find one that is more detailed than this or the one that suits you better, go ahead and use it. Now lets put down more information on your character. Here, we will break down the details of your character to several different sections and basically answer everything there is to know about your character.Lets begin with a basic character profile.
Basic Stats
Name: your character’s name
Alias: nickname or the character superhero name
Sex: Is your character male or female
Age: the character’s current age
Race: depending on the timeline and setting of where the story took place, this can refer to the race of a human: Caucasian, African, chinese, Indian or other sub-race such as dwarves, elves, orcs or goblins.
Nationality :What is your character’s nationality.
Height: How tall is you character?
Weight:How much does the character weighs
Glasses/Contact Lenses: does your character wear glasses or contact lenses? or neither?
Eye Color: what is the eye color of your character?
Hair Color:what is the hair color of your character?
Skin Color: your character’s skin color
Distinguishing Features
Clothing: How your character dress -military, professional, casual, costume.
Mannerism: Gestures, poses or movement that makes your character identifiable and stands out from the rest.
Hobbies and Habits: List out both good and bad habits/hobbies of your character.Smoking, chewing toothpick, fast learner, gaming freak, all-round sportsman, reading books.
Health: Your character’s current state of health- you can also include the character’s previous health issues before any change of events if there is any?
Frequent Quotes: what your character loves to say – what your character is often remembered for saying.
Voice: What your character voice sounds like -sexy, raspy, booming, throaty, harsh .
Weakness: Everyone, even the mighty superman, has a weakness and your characters are no exception.Point out your character’s weakness both physically and mentally.
Flaw: Write down one or few worst negative things of your character.
Strength/ Best Qualities: Write down the best thing that stands out about your character.
Attributes
Educational Background: Your character’s level of education.
Goal: Write down the short term as well as long term goal that your character wants to accomplish.
Self-Esteem: how does your character judge himself/herself as physically and mentally.Is your character confident of himself/herself?
Social Characteristics
Social Characteristics mostly apply to living humanoid character.If your character is made or created as an experiment mutant, machine, electronic-based platform, some of the info here can be left blank.
Hometown: Where your character is originally from.
Residence: Where the character currently lives.
Occupation: What your character does for a living.
Income: Based on the occupation, how much does the character earns.
Talents or Skills: Skill and talents your character possesses that helps him most in the storyline.
Family: Does your character have any family, siblings, parents.Is your character married? Orphan.
As a child: what was your character like as a child. An apprentice? A street urchin? a bully? What did your character goes through when he/she was a kid. Rich and wealthy living? Abusive childhood?
As an adult: What is your character like as an adult? Most titular characters in comics varies from teenagers to adults.If you want, you can write a short summary of how your character was when he was a teenager to when he is older or more mature.If your character is an adult during the present storyline, you can just describe the character as he or she is at present.
Emotional Characteristics.
Introvert or Extrovert: Is your character shy, reserved, likes to be alone, and at times avoid socializing with large groups of people? (introvert) or is your character one of the talkative-type, enthusiastic, and love to interact with the public?(extrovert)- or a little bit of both (ambivert). Whichever personality group you want your character to be in, each of them define your characters even more.But this also attracts most reader/audience who in their own mind, can automatically tell if your character is an introvert, an extrovert or an ambivert.Deciding either your character is an introvert or an extrovert can be tricky but by now, you should have a rough idea on which personality group your character belongs to based on the details you put out so far.
Motivation: What motivates your character to do what he/she does.You can always put in your own ambition on certain things for this.
Fear: What your character fears most?
Happiness: What makes your character happy and enjoy more?
Relationship: What is your character’s approach toward relationship? (emotional, social).
Spiritual Characteristics
Religion can at times be a touchy subject.Some comic characters take the safe approach of not having any.Viewers often disregard or less likely to inquire about a character’s religion mainly because it is the main subject.Most however, include their religion and beliefs but mentions very vaguely.This can be a sensitive issue.Handle with care.
Believes: What is your character’s religion? Who or what is your character’s deity,
Living with faith: How is your character with the laws of his/her religion. Does the character religion affect his/her lifestyle and perception towards other things. the character is really going to show up in the extend.
Involvement
Archetype: What is your character’s archetype?
Connection: How is your character connecter/involved in the storyline?
Timeline: Describe the timeline that was used when the events for the backstory of your character.When did those events happen? Add details of the time separation that leads to the current timeline that the main storyline is set to.
Once you have decided on your main character there will more than likely be other characters that you have thought of to complement the main one. Creating characters does not stop at the main one, and they will always need friends, and enemies to create a story. This will be when the brainstorming comes into play, and some of the ideas that you have may be used for other characters. The possibilities are endless, and you will love the creativity of the whole process.
Anyone can have a go at creating characters, however, there are very few that are a success. If this is your first time at trying, you need to understand that it is tough, and there are many people trying to do the same. However, you may surprise everyone, and be fantastic at creating a character. Remember that you want to create a character that not only you like, but will be appealing to many other people.
Comic book critics can be very harsh, and will dismiss any ideas that they have either seen, or read before. Your ideas need to have great characters, an intriguing storyline, great artwork and also be very new and fresh.With enough practice you will find out your way of creating character and be comfortable at it.