Building Characters in a Story
A character is a person depicted in a narrative or drama. When people like a story, it is usually because they like the characters in the story. Creating a vivid and interesting character will help your story leave a memorable impression on your readers.
Create a Character Sketch!
A character sketch is a descriptive piece of writing that focuses on a dominant impression of a person. The character sketch uses many lively details to support this impression.
Direction: Make up a character (could be based on a friend, a mysterious stranger or a memorable person from a movie or book) and write a character sketch about that person.
Follow the steps:
1. What is the overall impression of that person you want to express?
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2. Describe the person’s physical characteristics, including clothing, movements and facial expressions.
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3. Write down some important facts about your character’s past.
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4. What would your character say? Show your character’s personality through their own words.
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5. Describe the character’s opinions and typical activities.
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6. Show the character in action by describing an experience the character had.
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7. Describe how others feel about the character.
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8 . Now that you have all the information, organize it in such a way that will help your readers to see your character vividly.
A character is a person depicted in a narrative or drama. When people like a story, it is usually because they like the characters in the story. Creating a vivid and interesting character will help your story leave a memorable impression on your readers.
Create a Character Sketch!
A character sketch is a descriptive piece of writing that focuses on a dominant impression of a person. The character sketch uses many lively details to support this impression.
Direction: Make up a character (could be based on a friend, a mysterious stranger or a memorable person from a movie or book) and write a character sketch about that person.
Follow the steps:
1. What is the overall impression of that person you want to express?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Describe the person’s physical characteristics, including clothing, movements and facial expressions.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Write down some important facts about your character’s past.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. What would your character say? Show your character’s personality through their own words.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Describe the character’s opinions and typical activities.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Show the character in action by describing an experience the character had.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Describe how others feel about the character.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . Now that you have all the information, organize it in such a way that will help your readers to see your character vividly.
illustration by Vicky Liu Example:
By Edward Wang (Age 8)
Josh was born in Barcelona. He is a “brave” 17-year-old teenager. His parents were so surprised when he was born: he already had lots of hair! Josh has blue eyes, white skin and green hair. He has a big secret that only his best friend, Jake, knows.
No matter what the weather is like, he always wears a red jacket and black pants. When he travels from one country to another, he always goes by helicopter. No matter what he needs to do, where ever he is, he will never leave Jake alone. He was successful at robbing eight banks in Italy and twelve in the United States. He has also escaped jail.
Just for emergencies, he keeps a pet lion at his secret laboratory. He sometimes says to himself, “I will get a pet shark one day！”Josh thinks he will never ever get caught by the police. Every morning, he tells his minions to rob as many banks as they can. In the meantime, he builds more and more weapons as well as robot minions. If the cops ever found him, he would call his flame dragon and minions to attack the cops. Not many people know about Josh’s true identity, but his minions say he rocks！
By Edward Wang (Age 8)
Josh was born in Barcelona. He is a “brave” 17-year-old teenager. His parents were so surprised when he was born: he already had lots of hair! Josh has blue eyes, white skin and green hair. He has a big secret that only his best friend, Jake, knows.
No matter what the weather is like, he always wears a red jacket and black pants. When he travels from one country to another, he always goes by helicopter. No matter what he needs to do, where ever he is, he will never leave Jake alone. He was successful at robbing eight banks in Italy and twelve in the United States. He has also escaped jail.
Just for emergencies, he keeps a pet lion at his secret laboratory. He sometimes says to himself, “I will get a pet shark one day！”Josh thinks he will never ever get caught by the police. Every morning, he tells his minions to rob as many banks as they can. In the meantime, he builds more and more weapons as well as robot minions. If the cops ever found him, he would call his flame dragon and minions to attack the cops. Not many people know about Josh’s true identity, but his minions say he rocks！
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