Every story depends on its characters to draw the audience in. When writing drama for stage or screen, it's important to remember that the interaction between characters, along with the unfolding relationships and conflicts are the hooks that grab and keep the audience engaged in a story.
Creating Characters – Where to Start?
Finding inspiration for the creation of characters will always come from real life. The people from a writer's past, the people who have influenced or affected that writer's life will always find their traits creeping into the characters that a writer creates.
Key People
When creating characters for stage or screen it is useful to think back and remember key people, e.g.:
- the teacher who inspired
- the school bully
- the first love
Physical Attributes
It can help to begin to build a physical picture of the character…
- fat or thin?
- tall or short?
- dark or fair?
Get a Name
Naming characters as quickly as possible can be a great help. Starting to write and naming character X, Y, or Z, keeps the characters as anonymous functions. Names are the first step towards making character fully rounded human beings.
Ask the Characters Questions
One of the best ways to find out about a character is to ask that character questions and to try to answer in the character's voice.
Questionnaire For Characters
- What is your name and age?
- Are you single? married? in a romantic/sexual relationship? in more than one such relationship?
- What is your family situation - do you have parents? brothers? sisters? do you have any close family members who are deceased?
- How do you get on with other family members? (deal with each relationship separately)
- What are your interests/obsessions?
- What are your greatest fears?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What are your strengths?
- What are your dreams/ambitions?
- What are your regrets?
- What is your earliest childhood memory?
- What is your job or profession?
- Describe the events in a typical day. What time do you rise? what are your routines? How do you pass the evenings?
- How would you describe yourself?
- How would other people describe you?
- If you suddenly inherited or won a lot of money, what would you do with it?
- How would you describe yourself?
- If there was a fire in your house - what would be the most important thing you would try to save from the flames?
- If there is something in your past, of which you are ashamed, what is it? (it may be something that they did, or something they had no control over - a matter of chance or bad luck - or a bad choice or decision)
- What do you think about, when the lights go out, just before you fall asleep?
It's important to take time to think about the answers to the questions. The more thinking time a writer devotes to the characters, the better: the more material those characters will contribute to enhance the story. Also, when a writer knows the characters inside out, there is much less chance of continuity problems arising.
Find out more about the basics of writing for stage and screen.
Janice Hally - Janice Hally has written more than 300 broadcast hours of prime-time TV drama in the UK, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
