character development essay prompts

47 Character Development Prompts To Flesh Out Your Book Characters

What kind of person is your main character?

Maybe you’ve started to hear their voice in your head, but they just haven’t been very talkative.

What can you do to make your character reveal their full self, quirks and all?

The best way to get to know the people you’ve created is to use character development writing prompts.

We’ve created a list of 47 to put each of your key characters to the test.

Choose your own adventures for them. And see what your characters reveal about themselves.

Actions speak louder than words. But you’ll need both.

Key Benefits of Character Development Exercises

Identity or personality prompts, relationship prompts, reaction prompts, ethics and morality prompts, backstory prompts.

The more writing prompts you use in the development of your characters, the more of the following benefits you’ll enjoy:

Deeper awareness of the process of creating complex and believable characters
Experience writing from the character’s point of view (voice journal entries)
Experience writing dialogue (or taking dictation for the voices in your head)
Greater ease in making each character stand out as unique and three-dimensional.
Well-drawn, interesting characters , which help in the creation of unique plots.

The more you know about these people in your story, the more real they become to you.

Related: 16 Best Self-Publishing Companies For Your Writing Business

Then comes the challenge of helping your reader see them through dialogue and essential details.

The more character development prompts you use, though, the more experience you’ll have doing exactly that.

47 Character Development Prompts

Try any of the character scenarios below to see what each of your key characters is made of. Put them in situations that reveal their character and what they believe about themselves — as well as what they think of other characters in your story.

We’ve divided these into groups to make it easier for you to focus on the areas that are the foggiest right now. Dive in and choose a prompt for today’s freewriting exercise .

1. If your character has a superpower , what is it and how did they discover it? Is it something they’re proud of or would they like to exchange it for someone else’s?

2. What is your character’s biggest flaw ? Write about how they came to terms with it (if they have) or how they react when someone calls them out for it.

3. Write a scene exposing your character’s fatal flaw and include another character from your story. Write from either character’s point of view.

4. Write a scene revealing a mental health challenge for your character. Another character recognizes that challenge and offers help.

5. Your character is trying to decide what to eat on a Friday night alone at their place. Write a voice journal entry about their thought process, what they eat, and why.

6. Have three of your characters play “ Truth or Dare .” What do they learn about each other? And what character is more likely to choose “Dare” over “Truth”?

7. If your character has decided romantic or sexual love is not for them, write about what led them to identify as asexual or aromantic . How have others reacted?

8. Has your character discovered an attraction they’ve been taught they shouldn’t have? Write about how has that affected their beliefs and sense of identity?

9. Does your character identify with the gender assigned to them at birth? If not, write about how they came to identify as a trans person and who supported them.

10. Write a scene where your character reveals their sexual orientation or gender identity to someone who doesn’t respond well to the news.

11. Have your character take the 16Personalities test to identify their Myers-Briggs type. Write a voice journal entry about their reaction to the results.

12. Get your character alone with a parental figure that shaped their response to authority. Is your character generally obedient or more likely to question or rebel?

13. Get your character alone with someone they’re attracted to , whether they’ve acknowledged that attraction or not. Let them find out the attraction isn’t mutual.

14. Get your character alone with someone who hurt them and who now needs their help. Write a scene or dialogue exchange hinting at the hurt caused by the other.

15. Write a scene where your character cooks a meal for someone else in your story. Show how it turns out and what they talk about while they eat (or drink).

16. Write a scene where one of your character’s siblings comes to visit them. What do they talk about? What have they been through together?

17. Get your character talking about their first love , who it was and whether the attraction was mutual. Was it an epic love or just a crush? How did it end?

18. Does your character have a mentor , coach, or guide? Write a scene where they clash with this mentor or take issue with advice or directions they’ve been given.

19. Has your character ever lost a friend ? Write a scene leading up to that loss and then show how your character reacts.

20. Write a scene that shows what kind of friend your character is when someone they care about is going through a bad break-up.

21. How does your character get along with kids ? Write a scene where someone talks to your character about whether they want kids of their own and why or why not.

22. Write a scene describing an encounter between your character and someone who has an unrequited crush on them — and who writes poetry.

50 Character Development Writing Prompts

Last updated on January 5th, 2023

If you’re looking for some inspiration for your next creative writing project, why not try using some character development writing prompts? By coming up with creative and unique ways to develop your characters, you can ensure that your story will be more interesting and engaging for your readers.

From developing a character’s back story to exploring their motivations, these prompts should help you and your readers get to know your characters better and create characters that are more three-dimensional. By giving your characters prompts that help you understand them on a deeper level, you’ll be able to write them more authentically.

Plus, they can help you to break out of any writing ruts you may find yourself in and find inspiration. So if you’re ready to get started, here are some prompts to help you get inside your character’s heads. And if you are lucky, they might even surprise you!

What are writing prompts?

A writing prompt is a topic or question that is used to generate ideas for writing. As a writing exercise, character prompts specifically are used to generate ideas for writing about characters, and can be used for any type of writing, including fiction, non-fiction, and even poetry.

How do you use writing prompts?

There are many different ways to use character prompts. One way is to choose a prompt that focuses on a specific aspect of a character, such as their appearance, personality, or history. This can help to narrow down the ideas that are generated and can make the writing process easier.

Another way is to choose one that is open-ended and allows for a variety of ideas to be generated. This can be a great way to get the creative juices flowing, and can often lead to some very interesting and unique characters.

Whatever method you choose to use, they can be a great way to jump-start your writing and can help to create some truly fascinating and original characters.

Also, they may or may not lead to writing an actual scene that will be included in your story but will still give you more history of your character from which to draw.

Types of Character Writing Prompts

Things and objects.

When you are developing a character, you want to make sure that they are well-rounded and believable. One way to do this is to have them interact with their environment. What kind of things are in their environment? How do they react to them? Do they have any kind of connection to them? What does the object’s sentimental value say about the character who holds it dear? What kind of memories and associations does it bring up for them? All of these things can help to develop your character and make them more believable to your readers.

A character is cleaning out their attic and finds a dusty old box. Inside are things that belonged to a person they used to be close to, but haven’t thought about in years. What objects are in the box, and what do they mean to the character?
A character is going through a difficult time and finds solace in a particular object. What is the object, and why does it bring them comfort?
A character inherits a piece of jewelry from a relative they never knew. What does the jewelry look like, and what does it mean to the character?
A character finds a lost wallet on the street. What is the wallet’s owner like, based on the things inside it?
A character is going through a tough break-up and decides to get rid of all of the things that remind them of their ex. What are some of the things they get rid of (or keep!), and why?
A character is moving to a new city and has to downsize their belongings. What are some of the things they keep, and what do they mean to the character?
A character is going through a difficult time and starts collecting random things as a way to cope and regain a sense of control. What kinds of things do they collect, and why?
A character is going through their family’s things after a loved one dies and finds an old photograph. Who is in the photograph, and what does it mean to the character?
A character is cleaning out their closet and finds a box of things they used to love as a child. What are some of the things in the box, and what memories do they bring back for the character?
How does a character’s relationship to a thing or object change throughout the story? How does that reflect the character’s evolution and growth?

Personality

When developing a character, it can be helpful to explore their personality to get a better sense of who they are and how they might react in different situations. This can be done by considering their values, beliefs, and motivations, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Your character is faced with a difficult choice and the consequences of that choice. How do they address it, or not? What did they learn?
What’s your character’s biggest secret? What would happen if it was revealed?
Your character tries out a new hobby and discovers they have a hidden talent for it. What is it? How does the hobby or that knowledge impact them?
Your character encounters someone who challenges their beliefs or worldview. What is it, and does either character change?
Write a scene in which your character tries out a new personality trait and it backfires hilariously.
Write a scene in which your character’s personality is the perfect match for a situation, and they make the most of it.
Write a scene in which your character has to restrain their personality for the sake of a professional setting.
Write a scene in which your character’s personality gets them into trouble but they manage to talk their way out of it.
Write a scene where your character has to fake a personality different from their own.
Your character has a revelation about themselves that leads to a radical change in their personality.

Character Interactions

One way to develop a character in your writing is to explore interactions with other characters or creatures in the story. This can help you to understand how your character thinks and feels, and can also give your reader insight into how other characters may react to your character. Additionally, exploring interactions between characters can help to create conflict and tension in your story, which can make it more interesting to read.

Have your character find a lost pet. What does this reveal about your character’s compassion for creatures?
Have your character overhear a conversation between two other characters. What does this reveal about your character’s relationships with others?
Have your character wake up in a room full of people they don’t know. What does this reveal about your character’s social anxiety or lack thereof?
What does your character do when they first meet someone new? Are they outgoing or shy? Do they make a good first impression?
How does your character act when they’re around someone they’re attracted to? Do they get tongue-tied or do they flirt shamelessly?
In what ways does your character open up to others, and in what ways do they hold back? What do they reveal about themselves, and what do they keep hidden?
What would happen if the character had to spend an entire day with someone they absolutely despised?
Your character is at a party and gets into a heated argument with another person. What caused the argument, and how does your character react?
Your character is at a museum and strikes up a conversation with the person next to them. What do they talk about?
Your character is stuck in an elevator with someone they don’t know. How do they pass the time? What do they learn about the other person?

Places and Locations

Developing a character in your writing can be informed by exploring places and locations in the story in several ways. First, they can provide physical details about the character such as how they dress, and what kind of environment they are comfortable in. Second, they can also provide information about the character’s past, such as where they grew up or what kind of experiences they have had. Finally, places and locations can help develop the character’s goals and motivations, as well as create obstacles and challenges for them to overcome. By exploring all of these aspects of a character, you can create a well-rounded and believable character that will resonate with your readers.

Develop a character who has a deep love for a certain place, whether it be a city, nature, or even an imaginary world. What is it about this place that draws them in?
Your character is haunted by a specific location. This can be a place from their past that they can’t forget, or a place they’ve never been to but feel a deep connection to.
Your character discovers a hidden room in their home that they never knew existed. What’s inside?
Your character gets lost in a place they have never been before. How do they manage the situation and find their way back?
Your character has to move to a new location and doesn’t want to leave their old home. How do they adjust to the new place?
How did your character come to live where they do? Why do they stay?
Your character visits a place that was significant to them in their past. What memories did it bring up? How did they feel?
Your character stumbles upon a place that is the complete opposite of what they expected. What was it like? How did they react?
Your character realizes they are homesick. For where? What do they do?
What was the last place your character visited that left them feeling inspired? How long has that been?

Another way to develop a character is to explore their senses, or the senses of those around them to add another layer of depth to the story. For example, if a character is trying to figure out what another person is feeling, they might pay close attention to that person’s body language and facial expressions. Or, if a character is trying to remember a past event, they might focus on the smells and sounds associated with that event.

Write a scene where your character is trying a new food for the first time and describe their reaction using all five senses.
Describe the first time your character ever saw snow. How old were they? Was it in-person, in photos, or on TV?
Your character’s child is learning an instrument. What does it sound like, and how do they feel?
What is your character’s sense memory of a parent’s perfume or cologne? What feelings or memories does it trigger in them?
Your character wakes up to the sound of someone else in the room. What is their first reaction and what does this say about the character’s paranoia or trust issues?
The character bites their tongue and tastes blood in their mouth. Where in their past does this take them emotionally?
The character smells something burning. What is their response, and what does it trigger in them?
What does your character’s handwriting look like?
How does your character respond to hearing their voice?
Your character receives an electrical shock. What is the first word or sound they make?

I hope these help your characters take you somewhere unexpected, and you can learn about them along the way. What motivates them? What do they fear? What are their deepest desires? By exploring different aspects of your character’s personality, history and motivations, you can create well-rounded, believable, and compelling characters that your readers will love (or love to hate).

Still need even more inspiration? AI writing assistants have the ability to brainstorm with you, potentially providing endless prompts! Check out our Directory of AI Writing Tools and find one that fits your needs and budget… some even have free plans!

Contributing Writer

Molly Rittenhouse

Molly has a passion for writing and helping others improve their writing skills. She is a strong advocate for clear and concise writing, and she enjoys helping others find their voice and improve their writing. When she’s not busy writing, Molly enjoys spending time with her family and friends, exploring new places, and reading good books.

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101 Character Writing Prompts

Author: Natalie Harris-Spencer Updated: June 8, 2023

In order to sell a book and get it published , you need to create a product, which, for most of us here at Aspiring Author , is a novel. And in order to write the darn thing (while lamenting your career choices), you need to live and breathe your characters. Character writing prompts can be an excellent way to help you get inside your characters’ heads and achieve that elusive narrative voice through speech, dialogue, or internal narration.

Creating real people

Creating convincing characters isn’t easy. Have you ever had that feeling that your characters are slippery, not quite sounding or doing the right things, or, worse, are fake? Have you noticed them steering their own way, diverging from your carefully outlined plot? Characters are the one device that should drive your plot – not the other way around. Follow them down whichever dark paths they choose in order to access the truth. Keep them honest and as grounded in reality as possible.

When it comes to creating 3D characters, Ernest Hemingway said it best: “When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” And to write real people, you need to ground your people in reality: real circumstances, real settings, and real thoughts and feelings. These character writing prompts have been designed to help you expose the human condition in all its imperfect glory. Humans are multi-layered (ah, the onion), with numerous internal complications, feelings, and flaws. Remember: characters have to change in order for the reader to care about them. They must go on a journey, through which your novel’s plot is the vessel.

101 character writing prompts

Below are 101 character writing prompts that will help you deepen your understanding of your characters and elevate them from caricatures into real people. As you work your way through these character writing prompts, consider writing how your characters think, feel, but also change . Sameness is never interesting to read.

Physical appearance

Does your character have any moles, birth marks, or beauty spots? Where? Describe them.
Hair is not character. However, it can show something unexpected or unusual about your character. Write a scene featuring your character’s hair, without relying on the usual tropes (length, color etc.).
Write what your character thinks they see when they see their reflection.
Write a scene about your character in costume. What are they wearing, and why? How do they feel about it?
What does your character’s coughing, sneezing, and hiccoughing sound like?
What do they look like when they’re sick?
What’s in your character’s wallet apart from money?
Switch the gender of your character. How does that change how they think, feel, and move through the world?
Write about your character getting their ears pierced or getting a tattoo.
Describe your characters hands and feet.
Show your character doing a workout. What are they wearing? How do they look before, during and after?
Draw a sketch of your character’s passport. Does it help you understand who they are and where they come from?

Inner workings

What is your character’s biggest flaw?
What is your character’s biggest fear?
What or who would your character kill for?
What does your character want more than anything else in the world?
What is the one thing that is stopping them from getting it?
Write a therapy session between your character and their therapist.
Write a scene without dialogue that shows exactly what your character wants – only through their actions.
Show your character’s reaction to getting a parking ticket.
Write a scene about a mental health challenge your character has faced.
Put your character on a diet. How do they feel? What mood are they in?
Write about your character being insatiable thirsty.
Write about a time when your character couldn’t stop laughing.
Using just dialogue, write a scene between your character and someone they’re attracted to.
Your character is being lectured by someone in a position of authority. How do they react?
Show your character making a selfish decision and the ramifications it has on their life.
What is your character’s favorite book , and why? Has it always been the same book, or have their tastes evolved?
Write a scene where your character can’t remember what happened the night before, and they’re trying to piece it together.
Imagine your character is a nervous flyer. Document their thoughts during take-off.
Write a recollection scene about the most frightening time of your character’s life.
Show your character’s most embarrassing moment, either through recollection, dialogue, or action.
Write a scene where your character is struggling to show or purposefully concealing their real feelings and emotions.

Family, relationships, and home

How does your character spend their Christmas holidays, and who with?
Write a scene with your character attending a family funeral.
What are your character’s earliest memories? Do they remember their first home, their parents, or something else?
Your character has a bunch of keys. What do they have as keyrings?
Write an argument between your character and their mother and/or father.
Describe a family portrait: who’s in it? Where are they now?
Write your character’s bedtime ritual.
Show your character having an argument with a family member at the dinner table. Do they win?
What does your character’s closet and/or bedside drawer look like? What’s inside? Are they hiding anything they shouldn’t be?
Write a drunk argument between your character and a family member.
Imagine your character has a twin. List their similarities and differences, both physical and otherwise.
Write about your character on graduation day.
Write about your character going on a blind date.
Your character is getting married. They choose an unusual wedding cake topper. What is it, and why is it important?
Does your character want kids now or in the future? Why or why not?
Write a scene where your character moves to a new town. Are they welcome? Why or why not?
Write about a home invasion. Show your character’s possessions strewn and/or missing. What’s the first thing they check?
Your character opens a letter not addressed to them, only to discover a secret about the previous resident. How do they react?
Write a sex scene without mentioning anatomy (you can do it!).
Put your character in a country where they don’t speak the language. How do they get by?
Show your character meeting their first love again for the first time in ten years.

Epistolary character writing prompts

Write a letter in your character’s handwriting.
Write a Craigslist ad from the voice of your character.
Write an Airbnb listing for your character.
Write your character’s LinkedIn profile.
Create an online dating profile for your character.
Write a letter to your character’s younger self.
Create a tarot card reading for your character.
Come up with your character’s regular take-out order.
Write out your character’s family tree, including dates of birth, marriage, and death.
Write a postcard home from a far-flung destination.
Write a journal entry from a pivotal day in your character’s life.
Write a Valentine’s Day card from your character.
Write your character’s weekly shopping list. Include one item that doesn’t go with the rest.
Write a text conversation between your character and another person who they are trying to seduce or win over.
Write two lies and a truth for your character. The lies should be as convincing as the truth.
Write a scene with your character on the top of a Ferris wheel. What can they see? How do they feel?
Write a scene with your character in a haunted house.
Write a scene with your character falling asleep on the deck of a boat.
Write a scene with your character in a station waiting room. Where are they going and why?
Write a scene with your character in a hospital bed.
Your character has just been discovered stealing a midnight snack. How do they respond?
Write a scene with your character at a baseball game.
Write a scene with your character at a fireworks display.
Write a scene where your character is in a cemetery in the snow.
Your character is going on a camping trip. What do they pack?
Write a scene showing your character going into a church or place of worship.
Write a scene at the top of revolving skyscraper restaurant.
Your character makes a surprising discovery in a hotel room. What is it?
Your character enters an antiques store. What trinket do they come away with?
Write a scene where your character gets lost in a vineyard.
Write a scene with your character on a boardwalk or pier.
Imagine your character living in another decade. Now write about them – their clothes, their job, their desires.

Nature and animals

What is your character’s favorite season and why?
Write about your character ice skating on a frozen pond.
What does your character see when they look up at the night sky?
Is your character a cat or a dog person?
Or do they have an unusual pet? Write about it!
Write about your character accidentally hitting an animal with their car.
Write about your character’s experience of dissecting a frog in a science lesson.
What’s the first animal your character goes to see at the zoo?
Your character gets stung by a bee. How do they react?
Write a scene with your character sunbathing on a tropical beach.
Write a scene with your character skinny dipping in a lake.
Write a scene with your character watching the sun rise from a mountain top.
Take your character for a walk in the woods when the light is fading.
Describe the images, shapes, and patterns your character sees in passing clouds.
Write a scene where your character is caught in a thunderstorm.

Of course, there are countless more character writing prompts that you can work on. We hope these 101 character writing prompts from Aspiring Author give you just enough to spark your writerly imagination and take your characters to multi-layered, unexpected, and very real places. And trust yourself that your characters can be strange, because the truth is almost always stranger than fiction.

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100 Character-Driven Writing Prompts

March 19, 2024 by Richard 1 Comment

100 Character-Driven Writing Prompts: Character-driven stories are the heart and soul of great literature, captivating readers by delving deep into the minds, emotions, and motivations of the protagonists. These stories focus on the inner lives of characters, exploring their struggles, growth, and relationships as they navigate the challenges and triumphs of their journeys. By placing characters at the forefront, writers can create narratives that resonate with readers on a profound level, fostering empathy, understanding, and self-reflection.

Crafting compelling character-driven stories requires a keen understanding of human nature and the ability to create multi-dimensional, relatable characters. Writing prompts that focus on character development can be invaluable tools for writers seeking to hone their skills and explore new creative avenues. These prompts encourage writers to delve into the psyches of their characters, unearthing their fears, desires, and secrets, and bringing them to life on the page.

The following list of 100 character-driven writing prompts is designed to inspire writers of all levels, from novice to experienced. These prompts span a wide range of genres, from science fiction and fantasy to contemporary fiction and mystery, ensuring that there is something to spark the imagination of every writer. Each prompt presents a unique scenario or character archetype, inviting writers to explore the depths of human experience and craft stories that will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned.

By embracing the power of character-driven storytelling, writers can create works that not only entertain but also enlighten, challenge, and transform readers. These 100 writing prompts serve as a springboard for creativity, encouraging writers to push the boundaries of their imagination and craft stories that celebrate the complexities and beauty of the human experience. So, whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding writer, dive into these prompts and let your characters guide you on an unforgettable journey of self-discovery and storytelling magic.

A retired spy is pulled back into the world of espionage for one last mission.
A time traveler falls in love with someone from the past.
A child discovers they have magical powers and must keep them hidden.
A therapist begins to suspect their patient is a dangerous criminal.
A robot learns to feel human emotions and questions its purpose.
A ghost watches over their living family members, unable to communicate with them.
A world-renowned surgeon loses the ability to operate and must find a new purpose.
A politician leads a double life as a vigilante by night.
A woman wakes up with no memory of her past and must piece together her identity.
A chef inherits a mysterious cookbook with recipes that have strange effects on people.
A homeless man discovers he has the ability to see the future.
A successful businesswoman is forced to confront her humble beginnings.
A soldier returns home from war and struggles to readjust to civilian life.
An alien disguised as a human falls in love with an earthling.
A parent’s worst fear comes true when their child goes missing.
A writer’s characters come to life and demand a different ending to their story.
A hitman falls in love with his target and must choose between love and duty.
A scientist accidentally clones themselves and must deal with the consequences.
A time traveler tries to change a historical event but makes things worse.
A doctor discovers a cure for a deadly disease but realizes it has terrible side effects.
A politician’s scandalous past catches up with them as they run for office.
A famous actor is haunted by a ghost who claims to be their biggest fan.
A detective falls in love with the main suspect in a murder investigation.
A therapist becomes too emotionally invested in a patient’s problems.
A con artist falls for their mark and must choose between love and money.
A journalist uncovers a government conspiracy and becomes a target.
A child befriends an AI and must keep it a secret from their parents.
A time traveler meets their future self and learns a shocking truth.
A spy falls in love with a fellow agent from a rival country.
A doctor discovers they have a terminal illness and must come to terms with their mortality.
A famous musician loses their hearing and must find a new way to create music.
A chef opens a restaurant that only serves food from their childhood.
A ghost helps a living person solve their own murder.
A therapist is stalked by a former patient seeking revenge.
A politician is blackmailed by a hacker who threatens to expose their secrets.
A scientist creates a device that allows them to communicate with animals.
A soldier is captured by the enemy and must rely on their training to survive.
An alien falls in love with a human and must choose between their home planet and Earth.
A parent’s child is switched at birth, and they must decide whether to keep the child they raised.
A writer’s fictional world becomes real, and they must navigate it to find their way back.
A hitman is hired to assassinate a public figure but begins to question the morality of their profession.
A detective is framed for a crime they didn’t commit and must clear their name.
A therapist is haunted by a patient who died by suicide.
A con artist falls for a mark who is also a con artist, and they must outsmart each other.
A journalist is embedded with a group of rebels fighting against a corrupt government.
A child discovers a portal to another world in their backyard.
A time traveler accidentally changes the course of history and must fix their mistake.
A spy is betrayed by their own agency and must go on the run to survive.
A doctor discovers a way to bring people back from the dead, but at a terrible cost.
A famous actor is forced to confront their own mortality when diagnosed with a terminal illness.
A musician’s songs start coming true, and they must find a way to stop it.
A chef is kidnapped and forced to cook for a dangerous criminal organization.
A ghost falls in love with a living person and must find a way to communicate with them.
A therapist discovers their patient is a serial killer and must decide whether to turn them in.
A politician is elected president and discovers a secret that could destroy the world.
A scientist creates a machine that can read people’s thoughts and struggles with the ethical implications.
A soldier is sent on a secret mission behind enemy lines and must rely on their wits to survive.
An alien comes to Earth to study humans and falls in love with one of their subjects.
A parent discovers their child has superpowers and must keep them safe from those who would exploit them.
A writer’s characters come to life and take over their life, forcing them to live out their own story.
A hitman is hired to kill a child and struggles with the moral implications of their job.
A detective investigating a murder begins to suspect that the victim is still alive.
A therapist becomes obsessed with a patient and begins to lose grip on reality.
A con artist is conned by their own mentor and must find a way to get revenge.
A journalist uncovers a secret society that controls the world from the shadows.
A child befriends a monster living in their closet and must keep it a secret from their family.
A time traveler falls in love with someone from the future and must choose between staying or going back.
A spy must go undercover as their own twin to infiltrate a criminal organization.
A doctor discovers a way to make people immortal but realizes the consequences too late.
A famous actor is stalked by an obsessive fan who will stop at nothing to get close to them.
A musician is cursed by a witch and must find a way to break the spell before it’s too late.
A chef opens a restaurant that serves magical dishes, but the magic comes with a price.
A ghost is tasked with helping a living person fulfill their destiny before they can move on to the afterlife.
A therapist begins to suspect that their patient is possessed by a demon.
A politician makes a deal with a powerful entity to win the election, but the entity has its own agenda.
A scientist accidentally creates a black hole and must find a way to stop it from destroying the world.
A soldier is sent to a war-torn country to rescue a group of civilians, but things don’t go as planned.
An alien crash-lands on Earth and must blend in with humans to survive.
A parent’s deepest fear comes true when their child is kidnapped by a supernatural entity.
A writer’s fictional world begins to bleed into reality, and they must find a way to stop it.
A hitman is hired to kill a wealthy businessman but discovers that the businessman is their long-lost father.
A detective is brought in to investigate a series of bizarre murders that seem to defy explanation.
A therapist’s patient claims to be from the future and warns of an impending apocalypse.
A con artist falls for their mark and must choose between their love and their freedom.
A journalist stumbles upon a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of the government.
A child discovers a magical amulet that grants wishes, but the wishes come with unintended consequences.
A time traveler is tasked with preventing a major historical event from happening.
A spy must go undercover as a member of the royal family to prevent an assassination attempt.
A doctor discovers a way to communicate with the dead, but the dead have their own agenda.
A famous actor is forced to confront their own ego when they are cast in a role that requires them to play a less attractive version of themselves.
A musician is given a powerful instrument that can control people’s emotions, but it comes with a terrible price.
A chef is tasked with creating a dish that can bring peace to warring nations, but the ingredients are nearly impossible to find.
A ghost is given a second chance at life but must live in someone else’s body.
A therapist begins to suspect that their patient is a werewolf and must find a way to help them control their transformations.
A politician discovers that they are the chosen one destined to save the world from a great evil.
A scientist creates a machine that can bring fictional characters to life, but the characters have minds of their own.
A soldier is sent on a mission to infiltrate a group of rebels, but begins to sympathize with their cause.
An alien falls in love with a human and must choose between their loyalty to their own species or their love for the human.
A parent discovers that their child has been replaced by a changeling and must find a way to get their real child back.
A writer is transported into the world of their own book and must find a way to change the ending to save the characters they love.

In conclusion, character-driven stories have the power to illuminate the human condition, fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. By placing characters at the heart of the narrative, writers can create stories that resonate on a profound level, touching readers’ lives and leaving a lasting impact. These 100 writing prompts serve as a catalyst for creativity, encouraging writers to explore the limitless possibilities of character-driven storytelling.

Crafting compelling characters is both an art and a skill, requiring writers to delve into the complexities of human nature and bring their creations to life on the page. Through the use of vivid description, authentic dialogue, and psychological depth, writers can create characters that feel as real as the people we encounter in our daily lives. By investing time and effort into character development, writers can elevate their stories from mere entertainment to works of art that inspire, challenge, and transform.

As you embark on your writing journey, remember that character-driven stories have the power to bridge the gap between writer and reader, creating a shared experience that transcends the boundaries of the page. By crafting characters that readers can relate to, empathize with, and root for, you have the opportunity to create stories that will be cherished for generations to come.

So, whether you’re a seasoned author or a novice writer, embrace the power of character-driven storytelling and let these writing prompts be your guide. Dive deep into the hearts and minds of your characters, and let their stories unfold with authenticity, vulnerability, and truth. Through your words, you have the ability to shape the world, one character at a time.

In the end, remember that writing is a journey of self-discovery and growth. As you explore the depths of your characters, you may just find yourself reflected in their struggles, triumphs, and transformations. Embrace the power of character-driven storytelling, and let your creativity flow freely. The world is waiting for the stories only you can tell.

If you enjoyed these writing prompts, we have many more on our site .

64 Captivating Unreliable Narrator Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Imagination

About Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) has worked for literary magazines and literary websites for the last 25 years. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology and Education. Richard has headed many writing workshops and courses, and he has taught writing and literature for the last 20 years.

In writing and publishing he has worked with independent, small, medium and large publishers for years connecting publishers to authors. He has also worked as a journalist and editor in both magazine, newspaper and trade publications as well as in the medical publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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Character Development Writing Prompts: With Free Worksheet

Explore the wonderful realm of character development writing prompts. Dig into a treasure trove of prompts we’ve made to help you construct your own characters. Prepare to be inspired by their appearance as well as their motivation. Grab a pen and join us as we explore the world of character development for your stories.

Download our Free printable character analysis sheets for students to craft their own characters. This is a simple yet powerful tool to spark deep character exploration and creative storytelling.

Physical Attributes

When bringing a character to life, describing their physical appearance is a crucial starting point. Just like painting a picture, vivid details help readers visualise your character and connect with them on a deeper level. Here are some prompts to kickstart your imagination:

Describe Your Character:

What does your character look like? Are they male or female? Are they tall or short, slim or muscular?
You can dive into specifics: What is their eye colour? Hair colour and style? Any distinguishing features like scars or tattoos?

Body Language and Expressions:

How does your character carry themselves? Are they confident, slouched, or fidgety?
Consider their facial expressions: Do they smile easily, frown often, or have a mysterious gaze?

Clothing and Accessories:

What does your character wear? Is their style modern, vintage, or quirky?
Are there any accessories that define them, like a signature hat or a necklace with sentimental value?
How old is your character? Are they youthful and energetic, or wise beyond their years?

Facial Features:

Dive into the specifics of your character’s face: Are their eyes almond-shaped, doe-like, or piercing?
Describe their nose: Is it button-shaped, aquiline, or perhaps slightly crooked?
What about their mouth? Do they have a wide grin, thin lips, or a mischievous smirk?

Hair Texture and Style:

Explore the texture of their hair: Is it silky smooth, curly, or wiry?
How do they style their hair? Is it neatly combed, tousled, or adorned with colourful hair accessories?

Height and Posture:

Consider your character’s height in relation to others: Are they towering over their peers, or do they blend into the crowd?

Personality Traits

While physical appearance sets the stage, it’s the character’s personality that truly steals the spotlight. Personality traits shape how characters think, feel, and interact with the world around them. Here are some prompts to help you delve into the depths of your character’s personality:

Core Traits:

Define the fundamental aspects of your character’s personality: For example are they brave, kind-hearted, or fiercely independent?
Explore contrasting traits: Are they shy yet fiercely loyal, or confident but prone to self-doubt?

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Identify your character’s strengths: What are they exceptionally good at, and how do these abilities benefit them?
Acknowledge their weaknesses: What are their limitations or areas where they struggle, and how do these vulnerabilities shape their actions and decisions?

Emotional Range:

Consider how your character experiences and expresses emotions: Do they wear their heart on their sleeve, or are they more guarded and reserved?
Explore a range of emotions: How do they react to joy, anger, sadness, fear, and surprise?

Values and Beliefs :

Reflect on what matters most to your character: What are their core values, and how do these beliefs influence their choices and relationships?
Explore any moral dilemmas they may face: How do they navigate ethical challenges and deal with conflicting beliefs?

Behavioural Patterns:

Observe recurring patterns in your character’s behaviour: Do they have specific habits, quirks, or rituals that define them?
Consider how they interact with others: Are they outgoing and sociable, or introverted and introspective?

Background and History

Every character has a story to tell, shaped by their past experiences, upbringing, and environment. Delving into your character’s background and history adds layers of depth and complexity to their persona. Here are some prompts to uncover the roots of your character’s journey:

Origin Story :

Begin with the basics: Where was your character born and raised?
Explore their family background: Who are their parents, siblings, or guardians, and what is their relationship like?

Early Memories:

Reflect on pivotal moments from your character’s childhood: What are their earliest memories, and how do these experiences shape their worldview?
Consider significant events that have shaped their identity: Did they encounter any challenges or triumphs that left a lasting impact?

Cultural Influences:

Explore the cultural context in which your character was raised: What customs, traditions, or values are ingrained in their upbringing?
Consider how their cultural background influences their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours.

Educational Journey:

Trace your character’s educational path: Did they attend formal schooling, receive homeschooling, or embark on self-directed learning?
Reflect on their academic achievements, struggles, and interests: How do they approach learning and intellectual pursuits?

Life-changing Events:

Identify significant milestones or turning points in your character’s life: What pivotal events have shaped their trajectory?
Explore how they respond to adversity: Do they emerge stronger and more resilient, or do they grapple with trauma and uncertainty?

Goals and Motivations

At the heart of every compelling character lies a driving force: their goals and motivations. These aspirations propel characters forward, shaping their actions and decisions throughout their journey. Here are prompts to uncover the driving forces behind your character’s quest:

Identify Goals:

What does your character aspire to achieve? Define their overarching goals, whether they’re striving for personal growth, seeking adventure, or pursuing a specific ambition.
Explore short-term and long-term objectives: What immediate challenges do they face, and what aspirations guide their future plans?

Uncover Motivations:

Reflect on the underlying motivations that fuel your character’s actions: What drives them to pursue their goals with determination and passion?
Consider external and internal motivations: Are they motivated by external rewards, such as fame or fortune, or internal desires, such as personal fulfilment or a sense of justice?

Explore Ambitions and Dreams:

Encourage your character to dream big: What are their wildest aspirations, and how do these dreams inspire them to overcome obstacles?
Consider how their ambitions evolve over time: Do they remain steadfast in their pursuits, or do their goals shift in response to new experiences and revelations?

Confront Obstacles:

Anticipate the challenges and obstacles your character will encounter on their journey: What hurdles stand in the way of achieving their goals?
Explore how they respond to setbacks: Do they persevere in the face of adversity, or do they grapple with doubt and uncertainty?

Align Goals with Values:

Ensure your character’s goals align with their values and beliefs: How do their aspirations reflect their core principles and moral compass?
Explore the ethical dilemmas they may face: Do they wrestle with conflicting desires or navigate the grey areas between right and wrong?

Relationships

No character exists in isolation; their journey is shaped by the relationships they form with others. Whether it’s friends, family, or foes, these connections add depth and dimension to your character’s story. Here are prompts to explore the intricacies of your character’s relationships:

Define Key Relationships:

Identify the significant people in your character’s life: Who are their closest friends, family members, or mentors?
Explore the dynamics of these relationships: What role does each person play in shaping your character’s identity and experiences?

Friendships:

Dive into the bonds of friendship: Who are your character’s closest companions, and what draws them together?
Explore the qualities that define their friendships: Do they share common interests, values, or experiences?
Consider how their friendships evolve over time: Do they face conflicts and challenges, or do they stand the test of time?

Family Dynamics:

Examine the complexities of family relationships: What is your character’s relationship like with their parents, siblings, or other relatives?
Explore the dynamics of their family unit: Do they have a close-knit family, or do they grapple with dysfunction and discord?
Reflect on the influence of family on your character’s upbringing and values: How do their familial ties shape their identity and worldview?

Rivalries and Conflicts:

Introduce adversaries and rivals who challenge your character: Who are their antagonists, and what motivates their conflicts?
Explore the source of tension and rivalry: Is it rooted in competition, jealousy, or differing ideologies?
Consider how these conflicts drive your character’s growth and shape their journey: Do they rise to the occasion and overcome their adversaries, or do they succumb to the pressure of their rivals?

Romantic Relationships:

Delve into the realm of romance: Does your character have a love interest, and what sparks their attraction?
Explore the dynamics of their romantic relationships: Are they filled with passion and romance, or do they face obstacles and misunderstandings?
Consider how love and romance influence your character’s decisions and choices: Do they find strength and support in their partner, or do they grapple with heartache and betrayal?

Unique Abilities or Skills

Every character possesses special talents or abilities that set them apart from others. These unique skills add depth to their personality and contribute to their role in the story’s narrative. Here are prompts to help you explore your character’s exceptional traits:

Identify Special Abilities:

Determine what makes your character extraordinary: Do they possess innate talents, magical powers, or acquired skills that distinguish them from others?
Explore a range of abilities: Are they gifted in the arts, skilled in combat, or endowed with supernatural powers?

Explore Origins of Abilities:

Delve into the origins of your character’s abilities: Are they inherited traits passed down through generations, or are they acquired through training and discipline?
Consider the source of their powers: Are they a product of science, magic, or divine intervention?

Develop Skills and Expertise:

Showcase your character’s expertise in their field: What skills have they honed through practice and dedication?
Highlight their proficiency in specific areas: Are they a master strategist, a virtuoso musician, or a skilled inventor?

Unique Traits and Attributes:

Consider unusual traits that set your character apart: Do they possess heightened senses, extraordinary agility, or the ability to communicate with animals?
Explore how these unique attributes shape their identity and role in the story: Do they use their abilities for good, or are they tempted by darker temptations?

Limitations and Drawbacks:

Acknowledge the limitations of your character’s abilities: Are there weaknesses or vulnerabilities that balance out their strengths?
Explore the consequences of their powers: Do they face challenges or moral dilemmas as a result of their unique abilities?

Moral Dilemmas

In the complex tapestry of storytelling, moral dilemmas add depth and nuance to your character’s journey, presenting them with challenging choices that test their values and principles. Here are prompts to explore the ethical conundrums your character may face:

Define Moral Principles:

Establish the moral compass guiding your character’s decisions: What values and principles do they hold dear, and how do these beliefs shape their worldview?
Explore their sense of right and wrong: Are they guided by a strict code of ethics, or do they navigate moral grey areas with uncertainty?

Present Ethical Challenges:

Introduce scenarios that force your character to confront difficult choices: What moral dilemmas do they encounter on their journey, and how do they respond?
Explore conflicting priorities: Do they prioritise personal gain over the greater good, or are they willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of others?

Explore Consequences:

Consider the consequences of your character’s decisions: How do their choices impact themselves and those around them?
Reflect on the ripple effects of their actions: Do they inadvertently cause harm or sow seeds of redemption through their choices?

Internal Struggles and Growth:

Dive into your character’s internal struggles: How do they grapple with conflicting desires and moral ambiguity?
Explore their journey of growth and self-discovery: Do they learn from their mistakes and strive to become better individuals, or do they succumb to temptation and regret?

Resolution and Redemption:

Reflect on how your character resolves moral dilemmas: Do they find redemption through acts of courage and selflessness, or do they wrestle with guilt and remorse?
Consider the lessons learned from their experiences: How do moral dilemmas shape your character’s evolution and contribute to their growth as individuals?

Character development writing prompts are here to help you with your character creation. Here we have examined every aspect of character development and creation, from their physical appearance to their motives. We have uncovered their backgrounds, investigated their relationships, and acknowledged their skills. Use these character development writing prompts together with the free printable character descriptions sheet. Numerous stories are just waiting to be told, and your characters are sure to spark the imagination.

Don’t forget to use these character writing prompts together with our free character development worksheet.

101 Creative Character Arc Prompts

Need some inspirational help in finding a new and exciting way to develop characters? Thankfully, character arcs aren't as difficult to develop as you might think. You just need a place to start.

A loser becomes a winner. A king becomes a pauper. The skeptic becomes a believer. Often, the best arcs start with a simple question or compelling traits that become the antithesis of the conflict your character is facing.

With that in mind, here are 101 character prompts that writers can test out on their characters — and their story concepts— to find compelling character arcs that can be explored within their stories.

Read More: Acceptance, Revelation, Contentment: Exploring Your Character's Inner Arc

101 Character Arc Prompts

1. What is your character's biggest fear?

2. What is your character's biggest regret?

3. What haunts your character when they stare off into nothing?

4. What, if anything, would your character kill for?

5. What is the most traumatic event from their childhood?

6. What is their most dangerous vice?

7. What is the one obstacle between where they are and what they want most in life?

8. Is your character religious?

9. Is your character anti-religion?

10. Who does your character love?

11. Who is their biggest influence?

12. Who in their lives is a bad influence?

13. What does your character see when they look at themselves in a mirror?

14. Why is the character in their ordinary world at the beginning of the story?

15. Why is your character the one dealing with the main conflict of the story?

16. How does the main conflict most conflict with the main character?

17. Is your character rich or poor?

18. Are they an optimist or pessimist?

19. Does your character have a handicap?

20. Do they have mental health issues?

Joker (2019)

21. What triggers their mental health issues?

22. Who did they hurt in their past?

23. Who hurt them in their past?

24. What does your character strive for most in their life?

25. What makes them laugh?

26. What makes them cry?

27. What makes them lose their temper?

28. What is the most selfish thing your character has done?

29. What is the most unselfish thing they've done for someone else?

30. Does your character have a lot of friends? If not, why not?

31. What is your character's favorite holiday? Why?

32. What is their least favorite holiday? Why?

33. What is your character's biggest flaw?

34. What is their biggest weakness?

35. What causes anxiety in your character?

36. What triggers them? Why?

37. Who is your character's biggest enemy?

38. Who is your character's best friend? Why?

39. Does your character believe in love at first sight?

40. Have they been in love at all?

The Woman King (2022)

41. What are their turn-ons?

42. What are their turn-offs?

43. What gender are your characters?

44. What race is your character?

45. What is your character's sexual orientation?

46. What is the greatest thing your character has done in their lives?

47. Who are their heroes in life? Why?

48. What types of people does your character look down on?

49. Who do they look up to and respect? Why?

50. Who are their mentors ?

51. Why would your character refuse a call to adventure ?

52. What tragedy most affected their life?

53. What tragedy could they have prevented, but failed to?

54. Who does your character need to make amends to?

55. What are they most grateful for in their lives? Why?

56. What causes them shame?

57. What would give them more confidence in life?

58. What would make them believe in God or a higher power?

59. What would make them not believe?

60. Do they work well with others? Why or why not?

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

61. Is your character a leader?

62. Is your character a follower? Why?

63. What is the biggest grudge your character is holding onto?

64. Does your character lie?

65. What do they lie about? Why?

66. Is your character a coward? Why?

67. Is your character heroic?

68. What's an ailment they are still trying to recover from?

69. What's an injury they haven't healed from?

70. What caused the injury?

71. What are your character's negative habits?

72. What is their favorite movie? Why?

73. What is their favorite book? Why?

74. Does your character belong to a particular organization?

75. What is their innate identity?

76. What new things would rock their world most? Why?

77. Does your character have a family? If not, why are they alone?

78. What is your character most stubborn about?

79. What taboos have they broken within their community? Do they regret it?

80. Does your character trust people?

Toy Story 4 (2019)

81. Is your character trustworthy?

82. Is your character tough?

83. If so, what caused them to be so tough?

84. What would finally "break" your character?

85. Who would your character give their life for most?

86. Is your character loyal?

87. What is your character's greatest bias or prejudice?

88. What is your character's worst nightmare?

89. What is their biggest dream?

90. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to your character?

91. What is your character's favorite place in the world?

92. What location scares them the most?

93. What item does your character treasure most?

94. What is your character's deepest physical scar? How did they get it?

95. Does your character fear authority?

96. Do they fight authority at every turn?

97. If your character could make one wish come true, what would it be?

98. What did your character want to be when they grew up?

99. Why did or didn't it work out that way?

100. What does your character want for their birthday?

101. Who does your character want at their wedding?

WANT MORE IDEAS? TAKE A LOOK AT OUR OTHER STORY PROMPTS !

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed , and many produced and distributed Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies

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Character-Driven Fiction Writing Prompts

by Melissa Donovan | Apr 23, 2024 | Fiction Writing Prompts | 13 comments

Creative writing prompts for creating characters.

Most authors agree that fiction is primarily driven by characters. Authors will often talk about characters who take over the story, who have their own separate and independent consciousnesses. Outlines and plans for plot go out the window as characters insist on moving the story in a direction of their own design.

Because characters are central to most stories and because their primary function is to explore the human condition, it’s essential for characters to be believable. In other words, characters may not be real, but they most certainly should feel real.

It’s not easy to write believable and realistic characters. People (and therefore characters) are highly complex and layered, full of contradictions and flaws. Because writing imposes space-time limitations, we can never craft a character that is as complicated as a real person, but we can certainly try.

Today’s creative writing prompts encourage you to explore the characters in your writing. By working outside of your project on a series of exercises that force you to explore and engage with your characters, you will get to know them better. You’ll also get to use techniques for creating characters that have depth and dimension.

Character Writing Prompts

These character writing prompts are grouped into categories. You can mix and match the prompts according to which ones are most appealing to you, or choose the ones you think will help resolve character problems that you’re struggling with.

Feel free to let these character writing prompts inspire new prompts — in other words, you don’t have to write exactly what the prompt says. One set of prompts deals with character fears and flaws. These might inspire you to write about your character’s strengths and virtues.

Be creative, have fun, and keep writing!

Background and Family

Unearth your character’s roots. What is the character’s ancestry or cultural background? How does ancestry shape your character? Is the character at odds with family or cultural traditions?
Write a series of short paragraphical biographies of each of the character’s closest family members: spouse, children, parents, grandparents, siblings, close friends, etc.
Write a monologue in which your character summarizes his or her life story; be sure to write it in the character’s voice.

Motivations and Goals

What motivates your character? Money? Love? Truth? Power? Justice?
What does your character want more than anything else in the world? What are they searching for?
What other characters or events are interfering with your character’s goals? What obstacles are in the way?

Flaws and Fears

What is your character’s single greatest fear? Why is your character afraid of this? How did your character acquire their fears?
What are your character’s flaws and weaknesses?
How does the character’s fears and flaws prevent them from reaching their goals?
What does your character look like? Make a list and include the following: hair, eyes, height, weight, build, etc.
Now choose one aspect of the character’s appearance, a detail (bitten nails, frizzy hair, a scar) and elaborate on it.
Write a short scene in which your character is looking in the mirror or write a short scene in which another character first sees your character.

Personality

How does your character feel on the inside? What kind of person is your character and what does the character’s internal landscape look like?
We don’t always present ourselves to others in a way that accurately reflects how we feel inside. We might be shy or insecure but come across as stuck-up and aloof. How do others perceive your character?
Write a scene with dialogue that reveals your character’s external and internal personalities. Good settings for this dialogue would be an interview, an appointment with a therapist, or a conversation with a romantic interest or close friend. Write the scene in third-person omniscient so you can get inside your character’s head as well as the other character’s head; this will allow you explore how your character feels and how he or she is perceived.

If you tackle these creative writing prompts, come back and tell us how they worked for you. What did you write? Did you learn anything new about your character or how to write about your character? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

13 Comments

Great ideas! Answering all these questions I really think can make the difference between a round, motivated character and a flat one. Thanks for your ideas 🙂

Thanks, Sarah. Good luck to you!

Yes, I agree with Sarah. I will make use of these suggestions while writing new books as well as in the film scripts I am presently writing.

(Meant to comment yesterday when I stumbled on this!) Great exercises. Helped me to elaborate more on another character I’m beginning to explore for another novel. I’m in the middle of my first novel now! Thanks for this mini-workshop!

Thanks, Tonya! My goal is to come up with exercises and prompts that help writers learn new concepts and techniques, gain experience through practice, solve problems within their own writing projects, and inspire new ideas. I’m thrilled that these prompts helped you solve a particular problem. Your comment totally made my day!

Great suggestions! Dissection or hotseating your character in many different ways is an excellent way of finding out who this person is who’s appeared in your story. I find myself talking through possible conversations as I walk, helping me round out who they are – even if all that information doesn’t end up in the story.

I always imagine character conversations when I’m trying to fall asleep. Sometimes they keep me up all night!

Excellent tips about creating believable characters. I think you did a great job here. The more authors can delve into their character’s background, the better writer they will be and it all gets down to how much the reader likes the book.

In most cases, I think it’s the characters that make stories so compelling. That’s why it’s so important to know your characters well.

This is amazing! Thanks for putting it together! I need writing prompts like this for class. A marketing class at a Polytechnic in Canada, these will be perfect.

Keep up the great work!

You’re welcome! I’m glad you found these helpful.

Thank you Mellissa for this. It is extremely helpful. I am going to relook at the characters I’ve created based on this.

You’re welcome.

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How to Develop a Fictional Character: 6 Tips for Writing Great Characters

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Sep 8, 2021 • 8 min read

Whether we’re discussing Hamlet or Harry Potter , the best stories are not just about an interesting series of events: they’re about characters. While a mastery of plot can help you develop exciting twists and turns, great character development draws readers in by giving them strong characters with whom they can identify.

Characterization: 6 Revealing Prompts to Know Your Character Better

by Ruthanne Reid | 6 comments

Hi, fellow writers! I'm currently in New York City in the middle of a move, so this post will be short, sweet, and (hopefully) helpful. I now present six prompts to help you tackle characterization and get to know your characters better.

Characterization: 6 Revealing Prompts to Know Your Character Better

6 Revealing Characterization Prompts

Here's the underlying principle: your characters are people. People are complicated; I suspect you might know a few. Characters are much the same way. Your reader will relate to them if they behave like people, and for characters to behave like people, they need to be built like people.

You need to know your characters like you do other humans, and these six prompts will help you pull that off.

Prompt One: Parental Relationships

Write about your characters as children responding to parental authority.

It doesn't matter if your characters are children, adults, orphans, witches, fairies, or warriors. It also doesn't matter if the “parents” are actual parents or just nuns and teachers, or military generals, or even just the Village Wise Woman Who Knew Everything And Had Old Gnarled Hands.

The relationship your character developed with those in loco parentis goes a long way toward determining how they respond to authority figures for the rest of their lives.

Did your character respect authority? Resent authority? Obey authority or rebel against authority? Were there some authority figures your characters loved and others they hated? Why? Why not?

Figure this out, and you'll have an idea why your characters mouth off to their boss, or cringe away from the local magnate, or absolutely insist on treating the prince like just another guy.

Prompt Two: Sibling Relationships

Write about your characters as children responding to peers closer than friends.

Your character may be an only child, but that doesn't matter; this is about always-there relationships, the other youths who influenced their lives. Siblings can be best friends or best enemies. They can be mild bullies, only to turn protector when real bullying is at stake.

They are a constant presence, and the development of that relationship influences the way your characters respond to people in their lives as adults.

How quickly do your characters let people in? Sibling relationships have a lot to do with whether they think anyone else can be trusted.

Prompt Three: Enemy Relationships as Children

Write about your characters as children responding to a bitter enemy.

Enemies look very different from childhood to adulthood, but that makes them no less serious. Kids have very distinct ideas about bad people . Those may be serious bullies, or terrible schoolmates, or even someone in their home. This is the person who would, your character knew, leave them to drown in an accident.

The way your character dealt with enemies in their youth has a lot to do with how they deal with them as adults because it involves assumptions about other people's thoughts and emotions.

It also involves how your characters prepare to defend themselves, emotionally and physically, which is a whole other kettle of fish. “They always___” what? What does your character assume?

Prompt Four: First Love (or Near Miss)

Write about EITHER the first time your character fell in love OR the moment your character realized romantic love was not for them.

Did your character fall in love? Did it end badly or well? Was it returned? What did your character make of that whole mess?

Ah, but not everyone falls in love. Some folks are aromantic or asexual; it's important to consider that when developing your character's emotional path. Did your character not fall in love, in spite of expectation? How did that make them feel? What conclusions did your character draw from the experience?

Figuring this out will help you see how and why your characters respond to other people.

Prompt Five: First Grief

Write about your character's first experience with death.

This doesn't have to be a person, but it needs to include finality . The shock of being mortal; the loss of whoever or whatever died. The way your character wrestles with this can affect everything from their view on God to their personal level of paranoia or fear.

Knowing this will show you what your characters fight to avoid or run toward without hesitation.

This can be a hard topic to write about. Don't pull away; let your character swim deep.

Prompt Six: Counting the Cost

Write about the moment your character realized what it would take to get the thing they want.

The goal itself can be as simple as a high school diploma or as complicated as another human being's affection, as big as control over a country, or as small as a single blue diamond. This is the crossroads: when your character has the choice to pay the price and go after their goal, or not pay the price, leaving that goal behind.

This is important to know—especially since your character might not have thought this through before embarking on the quest.

Jumpstart Your Characterization

These six prompts are hardly all there is to your knowing your characters, but they're a start, and if you follow them, you'll have a much easier time writing a vibrant, relatable story. You can check out our guide to stronger characterization here . Remember, characterization is revealed through what your characters do , so put them in these tough situations and see how they respond. Good luck!

How do you get to know your characters? Let me know in the comments section.

You have six characterization prompts to choose from today! Pick one, write for fifteen minutes , and w hen you’re finished, share your work in the Pro Practice Workshop here . Not a member yet? Join us here !

Ruthanne Reid

Best-Selling author Ruthanne Reid has led a convention panel on world-building, taught courses on plot and character development, and was keynote speaker for The Write Practice 2021 Spring Retreat.

Author of two series with five books and fifty short stories, Ruthanne has lived in her head since childhood, when she wrote her first story about a pony princess and a genocidal snake-kingdom, using up her mom’s red typewriter ribbon.

When she isn’t reading, writing, or reading about writing, Ruthanne enjoys old cartoons with her husband and two cats, and dreams of living on an island beach far, far away.

P.S. Red is still her favorite color.

This will really help me with my characters. Thank you for posting this. Can I use this for my villain?

This would be more helpful than some things I’ve read you should ask your characters, which is material things. This gets to the soul of the character. I love it.

Humans are definitely fascinating beings. Thank you.

Thank you for your post; it helps me building my caracters (my antagonist) which is a quite complex guy… 🙂

Thanks – I can see how you used some of these ideas in your book “Half-Shell Prophecies.” I read the book a few weeks back so it is fresh in my mind. You used some of these ideas with Katie Lin to make her more “human” and to make her and the story more interesting, That made the article all the more meaningful for me as I could relate it to something you did.

Good prompts, all of them. I’m currently working on a story and I’m not exactly sure what drives my character. He’s a rebel, that much I know, but his intentions are somewhat noble. I think taking the time to write a character sketch based on one of these prompts will go a long way.

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Home / Book Writing / 17 Character Development Exercises for Writers

17 Character Development Exercises for Writers

Character development exercises are short forms of deliberate practice to improve your writing skills and round out your characters.

They are typically not used in the final novel, but are little extras that help you understand the personalities that you are writing.

Because for some of us, nailing down that perfect character can be hard. And to help with that, we’ve assembled 17 different exercises to improve your characters.

Why character exercises are important
A list of 17 different exercises that you can implement today
Examples and advice to improve your characters

Why Are Character Development Exercises Important?
Exercise #1: Write a FULL Description
Exercise #2: Play Dress Up
Exercise #3: Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes
Exercise #4: Practice Showing Emotion
Exercise #5: Write a “Slice of Life” Episode
Exercise #6: Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character
Exercise #7: Write a Progression Short Story
Exercise #8: Draw the Character
Exercise #9: Create a Character Profile
Exercise #10: Conduct a Character Interview
Exercise #11: Play the “Why” Game
Exercise #12: Create a Character Based on Someone You Know
Exercise #13: Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel
Exercise #14: Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)
Exercise #15: Create a Timeline
Exercise #16: Do a Little Fan-fiction
Exercise #17: Use Character Writing Prompts

So why use a character development exercise in the first place?

This may be a valid question, especially for authors like myself, who just want to dive into the writing and let the characters unfold as I write.

But honestly, a little work up front can save you a load of headache afterward.

Running through a handful of these exercises will help you to:

Understand your character’s emotions
Give you practice writing in their voice and from their point of view
Find out what sets them apart from other characters
Flesh them out to create round and dynamic characters
Establish the relationship between your characters and the setting, or other characters
Deliberate practice of the process to create complex and well-written characters

In short, it’s a great way to deliberately practice writing and reduces the need to go back and do extensive revisions on your characters.

That said, this might not be the best thing to do if you’re a pantser and just want to dive in and discover your characters along the way. But it can be a great tool in your author tool belt.

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So without further ado, here are 17 of our best picks for character development exercises.

Exercise #1 : Write a FULL Description

When it comes to writing characters, most of us focus on the facial features, things like hair color, eye color, etc.

A great way to begin getting to know your character is to do a full description of them. In a book, we might not do this to the extent you might in a creative writing exercise, which is why it’s good to practice here.

Here are some things to consider:

Skin/hair/eye color
Do they have any warts or moles?
What is their hair style?
What is their build?
Do they have any scars, tattoos, etc.
What is their general complexion. Is their skin smooth and silky, rough and calloused, or even bruised and battered?
What default facial expression do they have?
What does he/she smell like?

Exercise #2 : Play Dress Up

What we choose to wear says a lot about a person. Someone wearing an extravagant French-style outfit from the 18th century will give you a completely different impression than a cut business suit from the 21st century.

The problem is that most authors, when they’re writing about their characters, often forget to add a lot of detail about the clothes they are wearing. It’s easy to see these things in your mind and forget that your readers don’t see what you see. They see what you write.

One way to help overcome this oversight is to continue the exercise above, but focus on clothing.

And don’t just focus on any one type, because your protagonist will most likely use several types of clothing throughout the course of your novel. Here are just some examples:

Travel clothing
Clothes for a night on the town
Clothes for wilderness survival
Combat wear

Exercise #3 : Write a Description Scene Through the Character’s Eyes

Ideally, every character should experience the same thing differently, depending on their background, their wants and desires, and their tastes.

Additionally, great prose is often written from the perspective of the character making the observation.

For example, let’s say you have two people, one who has grown up in a desert their whole life, where water is scarce, and the other who grew up in a place where water was plentiful.

Imagine these two people on a hot day, observing a third person splashing water on their face. If you’re writing from the first character’s perspective, you could describe this as “and the man took a handful of water and wasted it on his face.” The second person might describe it this way, “I watched as the man poured the cool liquid and splashed it all over his face. I wish I were him right now.”

Do you see the difference there? In one, the character sees using water in one way as a waste, and for the other, it’s something to be sought after.

Exercise #4 : Practice Showing Emotion

We’ve all heard the adage to “show, don’t tell,” but what does this really look like for most characters?

This is something that really only comes with practice. Once you’ve done it enough times, you’ll recognize instances where you’re saying things like “he felt hungry,” and can replace them with something like “He winced and put a hand to his stomach as it growled, and he swallowed hard.”

Character emotion is one of these areas where showing rather than telling can really enhance your novel.

Exercise #5 : Write a “Slice of Life” Episode

There are a lot of scenes in a book, and most of them have a purpose. That said, there are many scenes that probably occur in that character’s life, but that we don’t talk about because they’re not important for the story.

However, you as the author should have an idea of what happens in these less important moments.

Some examples of a “slice of life” episode might include:

Having dinner with family
Going to the bathroom
The morning routine
A conversation with a co-worker
Late-night conversations with a spouse
Cooking a meal
Going on vacation
Playing with their kids
Coming home a little too drunk
Visiting a museum

Exercise #6 : Write Other People Gossiping About Your Character

Very often, we learn more from others about ourselves that we might not have known on our own. Others can provide unique perspectives, and in some cases expose huge biases (on both sides).

For example, a proud character might not realize that he/she is proud, but it’s easy for an outside observer to spot this.

Exercise #7 : Write a Progression Short Story

In real life, people change a lot, and characters should change in stories too (most of the time).

A great way to show this is to write a short story that examines the character at different parts of her/his life. You can focus on key moments in their life, but you could also just follow exercise #5 and focus on a few more everyday events.

The purpose of this exercise is to show how that person may have changed. Do they view the world differently as a working adult, vs as a teenager? A child? An elderly person?

What about before or after experiencing some kind of trauma?

Exercise #8 : Draw the Character

I’ll be honest, I’m not an artist. But I am a visual person, and getting some solid visuals of the character can be a huge boost in helping me understand them.

If you’re like me and really have no design skills , then finding a few photos is fine.

I’d recommend several photos though, since one might not be enough. You could have some for their face and general appearance, one for their clothes and how they look, etc.

If you know a program like Photoshop, you could even crop these together to get an even better sense of what you character looks like.

This is a great exercise for understanding the feel of a character, which is often harder to put into words.

Exercise #9 : Create a Character Profile

Imagine you work for the FBI, and you have to draft up a dossier about your character. What might that look like?

Fortunately, we’ve done a whole article about this topic, so you should definitely check that out, and also don’t forget to pick up our character profile template, which can easily help you through this process.

If you want a thorough process to identify the character’s appearance, personality, background, and more, this is the way to go.

The best aspects to focus on are the flaws, motivations, and fears of your character. What prompts them to action? Understanding these things will help you get at the core of your character’s personality traits.

Exercise #10 : Conduct a Character Interview

Imagine you sat in a darkened room, across the table from you is your character. You can ask them anything, they won’t be offended, and they will understand the question.

What do you ask them about?

Writing a character interview is almost like writing yourself into a short story where you get to personally meet your character and ask them questions.

This is huge for helping you understand the character’s voice, but also a good strategy for building solid character backstory and character traits.

To help, we’ve already assembled over 200 character development questions that can aid you in this process.

Exercise #11 : Play the “Why” Game

This goes along with the idea of an interview, but sometimes in order to dig really deep into the motivations of your character, you’ve got to ask why.

Is your character aggressive? Ask them why.

From there you might find out that his mother shouted at him as a kid, and he saw his parents fight a lot. Ask why.

You might learn that his father had a drinking problem and it meant that his mother took it out on him. Ask why.

From there, it might come out that his father had lost a lot of money in a business deal, leading him to turn to drink.

I hope you get the idea. The more you ask why, the more you’ll dig deeper into your character’s past, and the better you will understand them.

Exercise #12 : Create a Character Based on Someone You Know

This can be a little dangerous, because to be honest, most of the people we know are not that interesting. And we also want to avoid lawsuits for defamation if the comparison is too obvious.

That said, the people we know can be a huge inspiration to pick and choose ideas to incorporate into your characters.

For example, my own father and uncle have a really fun way of talking to each other. They’re always ribbing on each other and calling eachother weird, made-up names. You can tell that they love each other, but it’s an uncommon way of showing it.

This might make a good relationship between two people in a book.

Exercise #13 : Imagine What Happens Before and After the Novel

The writer is mostly concerned with what happens during the plot of her novel. But if written well, a character will feel like they exist long before and long after the pages of the book.

So it’s a good idea to try dreaming up what happens to these characters in that time.

It can be dramatic, or it can be mundane. Impactful, or ordinary. It doesn’t matter much. All that matters is that you have a past and future in mind for that character (unless you plan to kill them off of course).

And who knows, you might even come up with some good ideas for other books involving those characters.

Exercise #14 : Put Them in Horrible Situations (Muahahahahah)

I’ve heard it said that you should basically put your characters through hell in a story, and never let up.

While this is good advice, it’s not always practical. That said, putting your characters through the meat-grinder is a great way to learn how they react to conflict.

These scenarios don’t have to be trials you will actually use in your novel. These are just different ways to put your character in pain and see how they react (I know I sound like a very unethical scientist, don't @ me).

Here are some possibilities:

The loss of a loved one
A diagnosis of cancer
The loss of a limb
Getting tortured
Breaking up with the love of their life
Losing everything they own
Being betrayed by a friend

Exercise #15 : Create a Timeline

Sometimes it’s hard to keep every part of a character’s life straight. That’s where a timeline can be helpful.

A timeline is a simple list of events in the character’s life, though they can get more complex and interesting, and you can even put some design skills to work if you want.

But timelines only have to be a simple list of events. They can include events from before their birth to their death, or they can be focused on a specific period of their life.

It will depend on the character and the story you will want to tell.

Exercise #16 : Do a Little Fan-fiction

When we’re writing a story, we might not have a full grasp on it yet, and that’s where writing fan fiction can help.

Imagine your character interacting with characters from a story you already know? Imagine the ultimate crossover between your story and your favorite franchise.

For example, what Hogwarts house would your character belong in? What might it look like when he/she is sorted and interacts with other characters in that house or other characters from the Harry Potter books.

It’s a great way to lean on characters you already know, to help unveil more about the characters you’re trying to discover.

Exercise #17 : Use Character Writing Prompts

There are a bunch of character-related creative writing prompts out there, and many of them can be quite helpful in getting your brain to think outside of the box.

In theory, we could have a list much longer than 17 if we wanted to include more of these prompts, but that would end up being too much.

Instead, I recommend this post , or checking out our list of character questions to give you ideas.

Final Thoughts on Character Development Exercises

If you’ve made it far, first of all, well done.

Second of all, you might be a little overwhelmed, but don’t worry. This list is not meant to be a checklist for everything you should do to expand on your characters.

Instead, this is a handful of ideas that you can take (or leave) and use them to better understand your characters.

As you apply these exercises, I can pretty much guarantee that you will grow as a writer, become more familiar with your characters, and increase your chances of having a great dynamic character in your books.

Let us know how it goes!

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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20 Character Development Writing Prompts (Part I)

There are a great many lists out there of personality traits and favorite things and so on that you can use to invent a character. I have tried using some of them but they don’t usually end up being that helpful. Knowing your character’s favorite color or food doesn’t often play into your story. And labeling him/her as surly, intelligent, and afraid of heights may or may not mean anything when it comes to creating character arcs and plot points. These are somehow specific and too general at the same time. Furthermore, many of them aren’t relevant or need tweaking when writing fantasy and science fiction stories. A method that I find helpful is to imagine a number of situations and how my character would handle them. This gives me a method of developing the character while defining him/her. I can practice writing him/her into a scene (or just going over it in my head works too) and get a feel for how s/he will interact with the world I am about to put him/her into. It ends up feeling much more organic than trying to write a list of personality traits into my book. And I can use the appropriate genre and even real settings from my story to bring the whole thing to life. Take a look at this list of character building prompts and see if they help you unlock any new aspects of the people in your story.

1) If your character was betrayed by her closest companion, whether friend, romantic interest, or business partner, how would she react? Would she confront him/her or avoid him/her? Would she retaliate or forgive and move on? Are there any characters in your story likely to betray another?

2) If your character was traveling and his vehicle broke down in the pouring rain, what would he do? Would he get out and try to fix it or stay inside and wait for the weather to calm? Would he curse his terrible luck and pout or not take it personally and just deal with it? Would he berate himself for some action that may or may not have led to this situation or blame someone else?

3) Think of your favorite book or movie. Now take your character and put her in that book/movie. What different choices would she make? How would her emotional and mental state handle the challenges of the other story? Would the ending be different or the same? How and why?

4) Imagine your character is suddenly thrown into the future. Would she panic and cry over her situation or be excited at the prospect and try to explore? Would she want to gain new knowledge and try to take things back with her or just survive? Would she establish herself and become a member of the community or hide and wait for an opportunity to return to her own time?

5) And what if your character was thrown back to the past?

6) If your character won the lottery what would she do with the money? Shopping spree, charity, hoard it, or be very concerned since she would never play the lottery in the first place?

7) If your character was a different gender how would they approach the unique challenges of that gender? Would any of their main traits need to change and if so, why? How does their gender influence who they are and how they approach the world and its problems?

8) After your story is done and your character achieves, or doesn’t achieve, the goals you’ve laid out for him, what will he do? Five, ten, twenty years from the end of your story, what will he be doing? Assuming he survived your story, of course.

9) How would your character react to losing her most cherished possession? Would she move on and try to live with the disappointment or search high and low to the detriment of whatever else she should be doing? Would she post a reward and hope for the best or replace the item if possible? And then what would she do if it were returned, both with the object and with whoever returned it?

10) If your character was in a near-fatal accident, what methods of recovery would he use? Trust himself to rehabilitate himself or hire the best health care professionals available? Languish and die or work day and night to get better and return to his normal life? Would he use it as an excuse to take it easy for the rest of his days or use it as motivation to work harder and motivate other people while he’s at it?

11) What kind of near-fatal accident is your character most likely to get herself into? Would it be a car/spaceship/vehicle collision, wild animal attack, bandits, honorable battle between warriors, hate crime, self-inflicted, freak accident involving an everyday situation, magic or technology related high jinks?

12) If your character found himself in a physical trap, like the classic hole-in-the-ground-covered-with-grass, what would he do? Would he try to get out until he succeeded or was captured/killed/died of exposure? Would he sit and wait to see what happened next? Would he rethink all of the recent decisions he made that land him here? Would he try to figure out who might have laid the trap for him and devise a plan for when the enemy returned?

13) If your character found herself in a more metaphorical trap, like blackmail, how would she handle it? (All the same questions apply.)

14) If your character drank too much, or became otherwise intoxicated, how he act? Would he be chatty and say things he never would otherwise or clam up and brood? Would he be more fun or more violent? Would be stay relatively normal and just fall asleep early?

15) How does your character handle parties? Does she enjoy them but not get very involved? Does she eat and drink and dance the night away? Does she avoid everyone and count down the time until she can leave? Does she stick with one or two close friends and have fun as long as she doesn’t loose track of them? Does she meet new people and spend the whole time talking and making connections?

16) How does your character handle death? Does he go into a depression if it was someone close to him or recognize that life goes on and he must continue? If it was not someone close to him does he feel awkward around the grieving friends and family or does he offer comfort and support? Does he constantly live in denial and run away or work hard to confront his feelings and complete the grieving process? Has your character faced death before?

17) How would your character deal with religious zealots? Would she join in because she is one or avoid them at all costs? Would she try to convince them of her beliefs and argue with them relentlessly? Would she not care about them unless they got too close to her?

18) How would your character solve a murder? Would he approach the problem methodically, collecting and examining the clues until he reached a logical conclusion? Would he suspect the first person who crossed his path and not let go even if others present contrary evidence? Would he hire a professional? Would he go into hiding in case he was next? Would he examine it from the murderer’s prospective trying to guess how he would have done it because he has experience with such things?

19) Imagine your character is forced to marry someone s/he doesn’t love. Does s/he try to make it work, assuming s/he isn’t abused etc? Does s/he try to get out at all costs? Does s/he try to sabotage the marriage so the other person leaves first? Does s/he wait to be rescued by his/her true love?

20) What would your character do if he met a person meeting his exact requirements for the perfect romantic interest? Be too shy to strike up a conversation or boldly approach and risk ruining it with his bravado? Would he work his way slowly into the person’s life and try to make sure s/he was for real or immediately ask to be introduced and try to get a date? (What is the perfect match for your character anyway?)

I hope these prompts were helpful! I’ll be sharing some more soon. Share with your friends if you think they could use a new approach to character building. Leave a comment with your own favorite scenario to test your characters.

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10 Writing Prompts from Irish Mythology

These are quite thought-provoking. They got me off my block! My favourite scenario has to be either three or eleven. However, one minor thing- instead of alternating between she/he pronouns or using ‘s/he’, it it grammatically correct, and even encouraged, to use ‘they/them’ when a character or person of a nonspecified gender is referred to. Cheers! 🙂

QuixoticQuill

I’m so glad to hear that they helped!

I actually did start using the “them/they” pronouns. In my other articles. Not sure what I did it the other way for this. Maybe I’ll go back and change it some time.

Character Development: How to Create Fan-Favorite Characters in 5 Steps

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Dario Villirilli

Editor-in-Chief of the Reedsy blog, Dario is a graduate of Mälardalen University. As a freelance writer, he has written for many esteemed outlets aimed at writers. A traveler at heart, he can be found roaming the world and working from his laptop.

In fiction, character development is the process of writing a character who feels as complex and real as a person. This means sketching the character’s inner world 一 their wants and needs, strengths and weaknesses 一 as well as their outer appearance and behavior. It also means showing how the character changes throughout the story — their arc.

In this article, we will guide you through a step-by-step process to create multi-faceted characters that readers will care to read about. You can also download our free character development template to start crafting your own protagonist.

How to develop a fictional character:

1. Give the characters wants and needs

2. identify their strengths and flaws, 3. sketch out their antagonists, 4. develop their look and behavior, 5. research their trade and culture.

FREE RESOURCE

Reedsy’s Character Development Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

First, it’s important to point out that your main character will be inextricably linked to your book's plot. As author Tom Bromley teaches in his course on writing novels , “the protagonist should shape the plot, and the plot should shape the protagonist.”

In this regard, the most important character building blocks are their Wants and Needs. As Bromley explains, a Want is what the character thinks will make them happy, a goal they are motivated to pursue, that propels them on an inner and outer journey.

A character’s Need, on the other hand, is something deeper, more fundamental. It’s a truth they must learn about themselves or the world around them. Most of the time, a character’s internal story arc sees them realizing that their Want was fuelled by a lie they told themselves — and coming to understand a new truth (their Need) that is the secret to unlocking their success:

A character might want to be famous, but what they need is to be heard.
They might want to get married, but what they need is love.

For an example, think of Joy in Pixar’s Inside Out :

Want : Joy wants to ensure that Riley is always happy and only experiences positive emotions. This is because she believes that emotions like sadness and anger are harmful and unnecessary.
Need : Joy needs to realize that all emotions have their place and are important for Riley’s psychological development and a healthy emotional life.

Image of Joy and the other emotions in Pixar's Inside Out movie

Or take Jay Gatsby (who actually doesn’t learn what he needs , and has a negative arc):

Want : Gatsby wants to be reunited with Daisy, his long-lost love. He believes that by attaining wealth and status, he can win her back.
Need : Gatsby must learn that happiness cannot be bought and that living in the past or for another's affection is self-destructive.

Now it’s your turn..

📝 Exercise:

What does your character think they want?
What do they actually need in order to feel fulfilled?

Mapping your character’s wants and needs 一 two key components of their character arc 一 will help you figure out what psychological space they’re in at the beginning of the story and in what direction they should move as the plot progresses. But to figure out whether they’ll have a smooth ride or not and what type of obstacles they might encounter, we have to know their strengths and weaknesses.

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Much of the intrigue in your story will stem from how your character responds to the external and internal conflicts they face in the pursuit of their Goal. Every type of character — from superheroes to lovelorn accountants — will need both strengths to draw upon and flaws that threaten to drag them down.

If in The Lord of The Rings Frodo walked up to Mount Doom unbothered, dropped the ring in the lava, and made it back in time for a second breakfast, he’d be a dull protagonist. It’s the obstacles he faces — Sauron’s army of orcs and the ring’s power over his spirit, to name a couple — that force him to make decisions and evolve as a character.

The iconic characters we know and love tend to have a nuanced mix of positive and negative traits. Consider Woody from Toy Story : he's a charismatic figure and a natural leader among the toys, known for his loyalty to Andy. However, he can be vain and petty, so the arrival of Buzz Lightyear causes him to feel jealous and insecure.

While Woody’s charisma is admirable, it's his flaws that make him relatable. We may not all relate to being the leader of the pack, but we all know the fear of being overshadowed and replaced, as well as feeling jealous and insecure.

So many of the challenges Woody faces are meant to test his strengths and flaws, from his face on the wall and bed cover being replaced with Buzz’s, to the other toys questioning his leadership and morals when he kicks him out of the window. Ultimately, he has to overcome his jealousy, cooperate with Buzz, and learn that they can both have a place in Andy's heart.

Some other common examples of character strengths are courage, intelligence, resilience, integrity, perseverance, and creativity, whereas character flaws are qualities like bitterness, arrogance, greed, selfishness, deceitfulness, and pessimism. You can find more examples of interesting flaws in this post .

What are your character’s best qualities?
What are some of their negative traits?

Pick a mix of both to give your readers something to root for. Your character should be plausibly able to overcome the challenges the plot throws at them, whether that’s destroying the ring or saving the wizarding world. At the same time, there should be a real risk that your character will fail — whether they fall prey to the ring’s power at the very edge of Mt. Doom, or die in a burst of green light from the Dark Lord’s wand.

This brings us to another key piece of character development, which is sketching out your hero’s main antagonist.

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An important point to make is that you can’t create a character in a vacuum. You need to define them in relation to other people and the world they inhabit. As John Truby writes in The Anatomy of Story , “[to] create great characters, think of all your characters as part of a web in which each helps define the others. To put it another way, a character is often defined by who he is not.”

Of particular importance, according to Truby, is your primary antagonist. “The relationship between the hero and the opponent is the single most important relationship in the story. In working out the struggle between these two characters, the larger issues and themes of the story unfold.”

It bears noting that the main antagonist doesn’t have to be another character (or even have evil intent). As we explain in our post on types of conflict, your hero might be up against nature, technology, society at large, or other forces that keep them from achieving what they want. Regardless of the form your story’s opposing force will take, Truby reminds us that it’s crucial to develop their morals or logic in parallel to your hero’s.

Harry Potter and Voldemort staring hard at each other, still from the movies

“The main opponent is the one person in the world best able to attack the great weakness of the hero. And he should attack it relentlessly. The necessary opponent either forces the hero to overcome his weakness or destroys him. Put another way, the necessary opponent makes it possible for the hero to grow.”

Think of Voldemort: an orphan and a brilliant wizard, he deeply understands Harry. He also knows his main weakness 一 the death of his parents 一 because he’s responsible for it. And he keeps putting his finger in the wound: from (indirectly) killing Sirius Black and other people he loves, to pervading his mind with fear, to literally trying to kill him. Ultimately, it’s his evil competence that forces Harry to grow into the wise and selfless man he needs to become.

Who is your hero’s antagonist?
What is their background? What are their motivations?
How do they relentlessly attack the hero?

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And other secondary characters

While the antagonist is the most important other character in the story, you can also craft your hero by sketching out secondary characters 一 other enemies or allies who contrasts with the hero in order to highlight some qualities of their personality.

In Tarantino’s Django Unchained for example, both Django and Stephen display high intelligence and adaptability in dealing with enslavement. But their paths couldn’t be further from each other. Django uses his wit and skills to free himself and others, while Stephen embraces racism and even participates in its practices in order to gain protection and comfort for himself. The juxtaposition between Django's quest for freedom and justice and Stephen's acquiescence to the status quo of slavery sharpens Django's resolve and moral stance.

Django and Stephen from Django Unchained

For another quick example, think of Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird : despite him remaining relatively unchanged , his steadfast belief in justice allows Scout to evolve from an innocent child into a girl with a strong sense of right and wrong.

As Truby explains, each secondary character can make the hero confront the central moral problem of the story, either by providing support and new perspectives or throwing obstacles at them trying to tear him down.

Who are the allies your hero will need on their path to achieve their goal?
Which other enemies (or false enemies) can force them to grow?

Alright, after mapping the inner life of our main characters, it’s now time to look outwards..

An infographic showing the 5 steps of character development

Yes, the internal goals and motivations are the "heart" of a character. But that doesn't mean that their external characteristics should just be an afterthought. Sure, the fact that your protagonist has blonde hair may not impact the plot — but it might color how other characters respond to them. So, early in your character development, put a bit of time into sketching out your protagonist's physical features.

Appearance : What do they look like? Does their look play a role in the story?
Voice: What do they sound like? Does their voice match their look?

Remember that people’s looks don’t always match who they are inside. Some of the most compelling characters are baby-faced killers and brutes with a heart of gold. So try and play around with interesting contradictions.

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Physical traits don’t end with eye color and voice type. To make your brown-eyed alto stand out from similar characters in the literary canon, you’ll want to round out that physical profile with some distinctive behavior quirks .

After all, a character’s physicality takes so much more than describing their static body in isolation. It’s about how they move through space — and about how they interact with everything around them, from objects to other characters. By focusing on their mannerisms, you take a step towards showing instead of telling: big, bold movements imply confidence so you don’t have to spell it out, whereas frantically moving or fidgeting suggests a nervous nature.

To achieve this, you’ll want to reflect on how your character consciously and subconsciously responds to the world around them.

Communication style : How do they engage in dialogue? How does the way they communicate shape their relationships? Does their speech have any idiosyncrasies or quirks ?
Gait : How do they make their way around their environment, and how does this impact how they’re treated?
Tics and tells : What do they do when they’re nervous, uncertain of how to proceed, or telling lies?

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Some character mannerisms will be situationally dependent and can serve as a shorthand for describing a character’s emotional state. For example, Nynaeve from the Wheel of Time series tugs on her braid when she's agitated, and Bond villain Le Chiffre bleeds from his eye when under intense pressure.

James Bond villain Le Chiffre's character development includes a nervous tic

Other mannerisms, however, are part of a character’s default state — as essential to our view of them as their coloring. Just think of Draco Malfoy’s permanent sneer: it’s as much a part of him as his pale blond hair.

To make your character truly memorable, you’ll want to consider adding both these types of mannerisms to their behavioral repertoire. Anger shouldn’t look the same on everyone: someone might flare up like an inferno, going red in the face, while others turn icily polite, smiling insincerely.

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When it comes to character development, imagination will only take you so far. Unless you’re intimately familiar with your protagonist’s world, you’ll need to work to get the details right.

If your hero is a NASA astronaut or a veteran of the Vietnam war, there are readily available resources that will let you find out what their life might be like. You might uncover small details that are key to bringing them to life — perhaps some slang they used back in the seventies, or some unusual morning routine astronauts go through.

The research doesn’t stop at your character’s main trade, but it can include everything else about their culture 一 their ethnicity, social class, political and spiritual views, education, interests, and language.

Say you’re writing a British character when you’ve never set foot outside of Florida, you’ll want to do a bit of research when scripting his dialogue. Perhaps you could search “croydon slang” on YouTube or watch a British-made TV show set in the character’s hometown to collect some helpful examples of speech .

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By now, you will have chiseled away at the blank marble and uncovered enough about your character to have a good sense of them. You can now work on the fine details — those subtle psychological touches — by putting them through these eight character development exercises or by getting character feedback from groups such as CharacterHub .

If you’re not sure how your characters might be received by people from different backgrounds consider engaging the services of a sensitivity reader. Think of them as research assistants, committed to making your character development as authentic and nuanced as possible.

Be patient with yourself. Character development is hard. It will take a little time (and a lot of refining) before you’ll create a protagonist as complex and real as a person, but when you do — you’ll know it and your readers will thank you for it. With a fully developed character by your side, your story will almost start writing itself.

2 responses

Diane says:

07/06/2018 – 09:01

Indeed Indeed Indeed. Brilliant article. Everything is simple and difficult in the same time. But with this tips it is easier to create your full tutoriage character.

16/04/2020 – 19:50

clearly the writers of star wars episodes 7, 8, and 9 never read this article.

Comments are currently closed.

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For any work of fiction to resemble real life, it has to portray real character development with a convincing character arc. Additionally, those characters need to have believable character traits, which evolve as the character grows.

Stories are about people—even if your main character is a cat, a tree, or some other nonhuman entity. Great storytellers will capitalize on great character development, because a story’s humanness is what any reader will relate to. Great character traits and an enjoyable character arc bring a story to life, creating windows for the reader to watch through.

So, what is character development? And for that matter, what are character traits, and what are some good character arc examples? In this article, we’ll look at each of these items and more. Creating real, flesh-and-blood people is essential to great storytelling , so let’s explore the alchemy of turning words into real people—creating characters from characters.

Character Development: Contents

Character Development Definition: What is Character Development?

Character arc definition, 5 character development examples, 10 character development questions to ask each of your characters, what are character traits, character traits list, advice for selecting character traits in your work.

Conflict and Character Development (from Instructor Jack Smith)

1. Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

How She Starts: Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age story (also called a bildungsroman) that charts the life of its eponymous character from childhood to adulthood. We are introduced to Jane as someone who is strong-willed and independent, but also impulsive and unloved.

Main Goals: Jane struggles to find love, acceptance, and a place she can truly call home.

Main Conflicts: Jane Eyre is populated with many different antagonists, including her adopted family, her headmasters, and occasionally her own love interests.

Key Dilemma: Jane’s situation is never wonderful, but to overcome her poor situations, she must learn to be self-sufficient —a fantastic proposition, given this was published in Victorian England. This includes acquiring work and entering adulthood, but most important to Jane’s character development, she must learn to maintain her own self-worth and independence, even in the face of true, altruistic, two-as-one love.

How She Ends: One Jane is truly self-sufficient, everything else falls into place, including her financial situation and her marriage to Rochester. With self-sufficiency comes the love and acceptance she desires, and the safe home she has always been without.

2. Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

How She Starts: Janie Crawford has much in common with Jane Eyre: she is strong-headed, independent, rebellious, and has a complex inner world that no one can see. Janie is of mixed race, and constantly encounters an inability to fit in with both white and black communities, but she is very defiant of any labels assigned to her and constantly chalks up the prejudice she encounters as a lack of perspective among others.

Main Goals: Janie’s primary desire is a marriage of equal partnership: a love that’s not unbalanced because of wealth or gender or position.

Main Conflicts: Most of Janie’s relationships are, in fact, unbalanced. First her marriage is arranged to a man who doesn’t love her, then she marries a man who excludes her from her community’s social life. Though Janie desires an equal marriage, she may have to accept that her independent spirit is incompatible in the long-term with another man, especially given the gender roles of 1920s America. This forms the core of her character development.

Key Dilemma: Janie is often treated as either a trophy wife or a domestic worker, but never as an equal, always feeling disconnected both from the people she loves and the communities around her. When she meets and falls in love with Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods, she moves to the Everglades with him, only to lose him in the aftermath of a deadly hurricane.

How She Ends: Janie returns to one of her previous homes, still the object of other people’s gossip and disapproval, but satisfied, if weary, having once known real love.

3. Ethan Allan Hawley in The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

How He Starts: Ethan Allan Hawley is a grocery store clerk in New Baytown, a fictional city on Long Island, NY. His family used to be a member of the local aristocratic class, before Ethan’s father lost all of the family’s money; despite this, Ethan values honesty and integrity above all else.

Main Goals: Ethan wants to live a life of virtue and integrity, garnering respect from others simply by being a kind and honest person. He has no problem with his position as a grocery clerk, and wants only to provide a good life to his family.

Main Conflicts: Ethan’s family, however, is not satisfied with their life: money always seems to be a problem. In addition to his family’s continued dissatisfaction, members of Ethan’s local community frequently mention his family’s lost wealth and what Ethan should do to reclaim it.

Key Dilemma: Ethan’s character arc centers around his commitment to virtue and his conflicting desire for wealth. If he wants to reclaim his family’s fortunes, he must sacrifice his integrity and honesty, which he does—he turns his boss into the INS, he acquires his best friend’s land by (essentially) killing him, and he almost robs a bank. Ethan’s inner dialectic between his virtues and his actions prompts him to consider suicide, as a result of sacrificing integrity for money.

How He Ends: The novel ends ambiguously. Ethan commits to killing himself, but then finds that his daughter replaced his weapon of choice with a family talisman, prompting him to reconsider his decision and choose life, if only for his family.

4. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

How He Starts: Holden Caulfield is a depressed 17 year old who is about to fail out of private school. He frequently feels alienated from his classmates, family, and society at large, and while he refuses to plan for the future, he dreams of escaping somewhere that no one he knows will ever find him.

Main Goals: Holden is desperate for connection, feeling alienated from every person he talks to. While he puts on a show of being superior to the many “phony” individuals around him, he also hopes that one of those phonies might actually connect with him on a deeper level.

Main Conflicts: It seems that everyone in The Catcher in the Rye is a source of conflict for Holden. He is not on speaking terms with his parents, he frequently gets in fights with his peers, and his attempts at relationships are always spurned, which only leads to more fighting.

Key Dilemma: To put it simply, Holden is not a likable person. He is a collection of mostly negative character traits. He’s rash, annoying, and often comes off as both immature and pretentious. At the same time, he’s deeply aware of society’s superficiality, which he tries to push past by talking to people about deep, meaningful subjects. Holden’s character arc is defined by this conflict between self, others, and society ; in order for him to connect with people, he must find a way to hold both his love and criticism for people side-by-side, and also learn how to talk to people properly.

How He Ends: The Catcher in the Rye is a story in which the main character rejects his character arc . In other words, Holden ends the same way he begins, because he has not committed to the growth he has to undergo in order to find meaningful connections. He has not accepted that he is part of the problem. Nonetheless, the novel ends on a somewhat optimistic note, and Holden forgoes running away from society and enrolls to finish school.

5. Macon “Milkman” Dead III in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

How He Starts: From childhood, Milkman feels alienated and disinterested in his family, as well as most of society. He feels disconnected from his father, estranged from his aunt and sisters, and has a complicated relationship with his mother, who loves Milkman but uses him as an escape from her monotonous, loveless life. In adolescence, he strikes up a brief but fleeting sexual interest in one of his cousins.

Main Goals: Milkman is sent on a quest to find a bag of gold coins from his father’s young adulthood. Perhaps by finding this bag of coins, he can also find his father’s approval, something he secretly yearns for yet openly detests.

Main Conflicts: Milkman’s search for those gold coins raises many of the novel’s central conflicts. At one point, he breaks into his aunt’s house in search of the money; at another, he is hunted by Guitar, a former friend who believes that Milkman has found and stolen the gold. Milkman’s life is also threatened once a month by Hagar, the cousin he had a fleeting relationship with. But the most important conflict is Milkman’s relationship to himself and his family, both of which have been marred by his father’s wealth and negligence .

Key Dilemma: Milkman’s character development stems from his search for his father’s gold. While searching for clues as to where this gold might have ended up, he comes to learn more about his family history, learning to appreciate and even love the complex foundation his life rests upon.

How He Ends: Milkman eventually gives up on the gold to bury the remains of his grandfather whom Milkman discovered by accident, unburdening himself from the weight of his familial hatred. Guitar, still in pursuit of the gold, kills Milkman’s aunt and attacks Milkman, perhaps suggesting the enduring wickedness of greed. The novel ends ambiguously regarding Milkman’s life.

Character Development Examples: Summing Up

Each protagonist in the above character development examples endures their own set of conflicts. Those conflicts force the protagonist to grow and change in certain ways, adopting new outlooks on life or making difficult moral decisions. It is through loss, hope, sacrifice, change, and a commitment to one’s own beliefs that each character rises to their challenge.

It is through loss, hope, sacrifice, change, and a commitment to one’s own beliefs that each character rises to their challenge.

As you learn to write and develop characters, pay attention to the character arcs in the novels you read, and how certain challenges are paired directly against certain character traits. For example, Jane Eyre and Janie Crawford are both strong-willed and independent, which are undoubtedly positive character traits, yet these traits also expose them to their senses of alienation, and they must resolve the conflict between their selves, their desires, and society at large. This resolution forms the arc of the character’s journey, which also lays the foundation for a compelling plot.

Tips for Nuanced, 3-Dimensional Character Development

Every writer approaches character development a different way. While there’s no singular formula for crafting believable characters, all writers have tools at their disposal to get in the minds of their characters. Above all, remember to give each character depth, relatability, and flaws, and to provide specific details and backstories that bring those characters to life.

Remember to give each character depth, relatability, and flaws, and to provide specific details and backstories that bring those characters to life.

Have your characters take personality tests . No, personality tests aren’t comprehensive, and most aren’t scientifically accurate, but the practice of answering questions like your character will help you get into their mindset, potentially generating new ideas for plots and conflicts. Here’s a free directory of personality tests you can use .
Consider regionality . Where someone is from influences the way they speak and think , so language should directly reflect character traits.
Do some sketches . You don’t need to be a good artist, just do your best to pen down how you envision them. How tall are they? What is the size and shape of their eyes, lips, nose, and ears? What style of hair do they have? How do they like to dress, and where do they buy their clothes from?
Think about point of view . 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person points of view each have their strengths and weaknesses, and each affects how your character is written. Spend some time considering POV, and build the story’s setting and sensory details based on your character’s observations. Remember, how your character observes the world reflects their personality, making this a key component of character development.
Create interiority . Show us your character’s thoughts, flashbacks, inner conflicts, and deep desires. Tell us what your character does and doesn’t know about themselves. We are all messy, imperfect, and constantly growing. Your characters are, too!

Another method is to ask yourself certain character development questions, like the ones we’ve listed below.

Character Development Questions

Good characters have depth, experience growth, have flaws—they’re real people. Asking yourself a defined set of character development questions is one way to develop these kinds of characters, who jump off the page with realistic and compelling personalities.

Use the below character development questions to plan, write, or edit your story. Read on for some interesting character development questions to ask yourself, and do this exercise person by person for anyone in your story that you’d like to know better.

Ask your character…

1. Who are you?

Think of the “who” of your character as the firm foundation with which you will bring your character to life. This “who” might take the form of one or two honest sentences that really tap the essence of the character. Starting with a strong “who” can help you add depth to your character throughout your story, as well as inform their primary character traits.

2. What are your strongest motivations?

What, fundamentally, drives your character? To be accepted by their peers? To create something new and beautiful? To protect their loved ones from a dangerous world? To find perspective on mortality? What are the core, underlying drives that shape this character and the actions he or she takes? This will form the core of the story’s conflict and provoke its character arcs.

3. What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

What world does your character hope to see? What would fulfillment look like for your character? What is your character doing to reach toward these hopes—or do they seem too far out of reach?

4. What are your biggest fears and/or regrets?

Your character certainly has a future he or she doesn’t want to end up in. What is it, and why? What are the darkest secrets and the biggest failures from your character’s past? What haunts him or her?

5. What are your greatest strengths?

What comes easily to this character? What makes this character strong, and why? Your answer can simply be a positive character traits list, but try to go more in depth, fleshing out what informs this character’s morals.

6. What are your greatest weaknesses?

Every good character has weaknesses. What puts your character out of place, out of their comfort zone, vulnerable? Why? Your answer can simply be a negative character traits list, but try to go more in depth, fleshing out what informs this character’s flaws and achille’s heel.

7. What are you like socially?

How does your character view other people? Are they very social and extroverted, or a little more on the quiet, shy, introverted side? Thinking about how your character acts in social situations can help you “beef” up your character and add depth.

8. What is your role in the story?

Consider your character’s role in the development of the story. Why does your character exist in your story? Is the character a protagonist, antagonist, or secondary character? How does your character change the story? And how is the character changed by the story—what is their character arc?

9. What is your connection to the overall storyline?

This is the important link between your character and your overall storyline. What specific impact will your character have on the overall progression of your story?

10. What sort of dynamic exists between you and the other characters?

Consider the relationships your character will have with other main or supporting characters. How do they interact? How do their personalities and motivations bounce off one another? How do they come away feeling upon interacting with each other?

Create Your Own Character Development Questions list

Creating your own questionnaire can be extremely useful in the writing process and enhance your understanding of your characters, prompting you to develop new, unique elements of their personalities. It’s a great tool for figuring out what makes your characters tick, and it can help align your storyline and plot with your character’s overall personality.

As you work to create your own questionnaire for characters, you can search for existing examples. The ten questions above are one example, and here are a few others:

160+ Questions on ThinkWritten
Creating a Memorable Character Worksheet from Lee White
Character Profile Template on Reedsy

Lastly, as you look for questions to ask your character, it may be useful to take a hint from the “self-help” section of your bookstore. The same sort of self-inquiry that is important in our own lives can be applied to the development of your characters.

Character Traits

Lastly, let’s examine character development from the lens of character traits, as this will help you define and refine your characters as you start and finish your stories. First, what are character traits?

Character traits are recurring features of a character’s personality that shape how that character responds to their world. Those traits will show themselves whenever someone reacts to their surroundings, engages in conversation, has private thoughts, takes action, or makes a decision.

Character traits definition: recurring features of a character’s personality that shape how that character responds to their world.

Many great novelists have studied human psychology so intently that every of their character’s actions is defined by one of their traits. Even the minutest actions, such as making dinner or brushing one’s teeth, can in some way reflect a set of character traits. Many of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s characters, for example, reflect an intimate understanding of human psychology, and his work greatly informed Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis which, though scientifically outdated, continue to impact modern literary analysis .

As you develop your characters, you can remember their personality by boiling them down into a character traits list. Because these traits are often detrimental in face of the story’s conflict, they’re an essential component of your story’s character arcs, and your characters will often have to push back against certain traits to undergo necessary character development.

Without further ado, let’s look at common character traits in literature.

Take note that many positive character traits can also be negative character traits, and vice versa. For example, while a strong sense of independence is generally considered positive, it can also lead to a character’s sociopathy, hatred of society, and disinterest in family.

Many positive character traits can also be negative character traits, and vice versa.

Alternatively, while “disobedient” is generally seen as negative, disobedience can also bring about positive changes in society. Terms like “positive” and “negative” relate to society’s perception of those traits, but in actuality, most traits can be both positive or negative depending on that character’s circumstances.

Lastly, remember that a protagonist does have negative traits, and an antagonist does have positive traits.

Positive Character Traits List

In the below character traits chart, we’ve listed positive character traits and characters with those traits in literature.

Character Traits	Definition	Examples in Literature
Ambitious	Having a strong desire to achieve something and an active will to achieve it.	Macbeth in by William Shakespeare.
Benevolent	Kind, good-willed, and invested in the health and wellness of everyone.	Alexei “Alyosha” Fyodorovich Karamazov in by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Courageous	Brave; willing to act valiantly in the face of fear.	Lucy Pevensie in by C. S. Lewis
Curious	Inquisitive; prone to asking many questions and investigating everything.	Hercule Poirot in many of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery novels.
Dependable	Able to be relied upon, especially in times of crisis, but also in day-to-day matters.	Samwise Gamgee from by J. R. R. Tolkien
Dutiful	Characterized by a sense of obligation; committed to doing what needs to be done.	Desdemona in by William Shakespeare
Forgiving	Being able to look past someone’s flaws or transgressions without resentment.	Bishop Bienvenu in by Victor Hugo
Generous	Willing to give to others. One can be generous with money, but also with their time, emotions, advice, attention, etc.	Elinor Dashwood in by Jane Austen
Honest	Truthful; telling the whole truth, without deceit, in every situation.	Ethan Allan Hawley in by John Steinbeck
Intelligent	Knowledgeable and insightful, showing a strong sense of reasoning and problem-solving.	Quentin Compson in by William Faulkner
Independent	Able to think, act, and feel for oneself; uninfluenced by others’ opinions and beliefs.	Janie Crawford in by Zora Neale Hurston.
Lively	Active, outgoing, and energetic, often infectiously so.	Elizabeth Bennet in by Jane Austen
Open-minded	Willing to consider new ideas and other people’s experiences; receptive to change.	Huckleberry Finn in by Mark Twain
Passionate	Feeling, showing, and acting upon strong feelings and beliefs.	Jane Eyre in by Charlotte Brontë
Patient	Showing an ability to wait without getting tired of waiting.	Oshima in by Haruki Murakami
Purposeful	Determined; acting with a sense of purpose; marked by an absence of aimlessness.	Meg Murry in by Madeleine L’Engle
Respectful	Demonstrating regard for other people’s needs, feelings, and comfort.	Elizabeth “Beth” March in by Louisa May Alcott
Selfless	Altruistic; willing to act for other people’s benefit without expecting anything in return.	Grandpa Joe in by Roald Dahl
Sincere	Genuine; speaking and acting without trying to deceive, impress, or sway others.	Atticus Finch in by Harper Lee.
Wise	Discerning and insightful; Exercising a deep understanding of the world, of others, and of oneself.	Old Major in by George Orwell

Negative Character Traits List

In the below character traits chart, we’ve listed negative character traits and characters with those traits in literature.

Character Traits	Definition	Examples in Literature
Aloof	Cold and distant in demeanor; unfriendly.	Ivan “Vanechka” Fyodorovich Karamazov in by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Arrogant	Acting or believing in one’s own superiority to others.	Holden Caulfield in by J. D. Salinger
Callous	Emotionless and unsympathetic towards others.	Patrick Bateman in by Bret Easton Ellis
Coarse	Crude and tasteless.	Gargantua and Pentagruel in by François Rabelais
Cowardly	Not brave; gracelessly showing fear in the face of conflict.	Baron Danglars in by Alexandre Dumas
Deceitful	Dishonest, often with the intent to mislead or manipulate.	Iago in by William Shakespeare
Devious	Cunning, sneaky, and manipulative; using unfair tactics or arguments to win.	Rebecca “Becky” Sharp in by William Makepeace Thackeray
Erratic	Unpredictable; making decisions with no clear pattern or reasoning.	Toad in by Kenneth Grahame
Foolish	Lacking common sense; making poor judgments and decisions.	Romeo in by William Shakespeare
Greedy	Demonstrating a selfish and excessive desire for wealth and material goods.	Ebenezer Scrooge in by Charles Dickens
Hateful	Showing disdain for everyone and everything, often including one’s own self.	Heathcliff in by Emily Brontë
Ignorant	Uneducated or lacking comprehension, as demonstrated in one’s actions.	Bob Ewell in by Harper Lee
Insincere	The opposite of sincere; dishonest in words and actions; hypocritical.	Mr. Collins in by Jane Austen
Manipulative	Skillful in controlling others, often for selfish means.	Cathy Ames in by John Steinbeck
Obsessive	Persistently occupied by something, to the point of acting with disregard for both others and oneself.	Humbert Humbert in by Vladimir Nabokov
Power-hungry	Obsessed with gaining power and wielding it over others.	Nurse Ratched in by Ken Kesey
Pretentious	Expressing an exaggerated amount of self-worth or intelligence, often to garner admiration and respect.	Ignatius J. Reilly in by John Kennedy Toole
Reckless	Carelessly destructive; irresponsible.	Alaska Young in by John Green
Selfish	Having concern only for one’s own needs and wants, often to the detriment of others.	Daisy Buchanan in by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Vain	Obsessed with appearances, aesthetics, and superficialities.	Dorian Gray in by Oscar Wilde

Which character traits should my protagonist, antagonist, and secondary characters have? Does it matter?

When writing the people that populate your stories, it’s important to have a balance of character traits so that no two people are the same. Additionally, it’s important that everyone has both positive and negative character traits since, like people in real life, no one is perfect.

Remember that stories are, above all else, about people. Even if those stories are set on different planets, in magical realms, or between alternate universes, it’s your cast of characters that matter most because people drive plot . Your characters are the ones making decisions, reacting to situations, and embarking on journeys; they define their own character arcs, so having a strong set of character traits is essential.

Here are three tips for selecting the best set of character traits in your story:

For protagonists , give them positive traits to strive for and negative traits to overcome. The best conflicts occur when a protagonist has to overcome their own negative character traits to achieve something.
For antagonists , think about traits that will make them perfect obstacles against the protagonist. A protagonist who is kind and respectful, but conflict-avoidant, might have a hard time overcoming an antagonist who is loud, coarse, and arrogant.
For secondary and tertiary characters , consider their purpose in the story, and give them traits that help them uphold that purpose. For example, a secondary character that exists to support the protagonist should be helpful and generous; someone who misleads the protagonist might be well-intentioned but foolish.

Conflict and Character Development

Here are instructor Jack Smith’s thoughts on using conflict to deepen your character development.

Characters become interesting when they undergo conflict . A character without conflict is a dull character. Conflict gets the reader interested, as long as the conflict is important to the character in a way we can relate to—and in a way that motivates the character to take action.

This takes us to motivation. What prompts your character to do what they do?

What are the protagonist’s stakes? What is the protagonist’s goal?

You can always go back and rethink motivation later, but if your character just seems to be doing something for no apparent reason, it might be harder to fix. Get inside your protagonist. Be your protagonist. See what happens. Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, you’ll do well to identify with the protagonist and become that protagonist.

Think story : What’s happening? Where is this character going? What is the main conflict the protagonist faces?

Let the conflict build. Think about foreshadowing, about hinting at something that will occur down the road—for instance, a marital break-up, a run-in with the law, a loss of job. Little things mentioned early on plant seeds of things that will bloom later.

The earlier you hook your reader with interesting conflict, the better for character development. Just set the stage for what is to follow. But don’t treat these pages like a “thesis statement” for the novel; your reader wants to experience the novel, not be told what it’s about. That’s like reading a plot summary instead of the story itself.

Think of conflict as worked out in plot threads. What are the main plot threads in your novel? Assuming you have one main plot thread, what are the subplots that will thread their way through your novel? Watch for these.

A few things to keep in mind:

Fiction thrives on conflict : Not every conflict can be resolved, but avoid dead spots in your fiction—particularly scenes that go nowhere, ones that lack friction.

How about this one?

“How are you?” “Doing pretty well. You?” “Doing pretty well.” “Good.” “Great.”

It’s hard to say. If this is the mindless chatter that most people engage in just to be polite, that might work if you’re satirizing small-town life. But otherwise, cut it.

Weed out extraneous conflicts and plot threads: Do they contribute in some way? Are they like streams flowing into a river? Do they contribute to or parallel the main plot in some way or ways? Consider this: Paul, a police detective, wants to solve a major wave of murders in his small city. He’s been running into some problems, including false leads. Paul has a background in music; he was planning to be a professional violinist, but that didn’t pan out. He’s still conflicted about that goal. My thought is that, unless you can find some connection between his wanting to be a violinist and his being a detective—perhaps something similar in the way he approaches conflicts that sometimes seem insurmountable—I wouldn’t get into his goal in music. Including his music aspirations might help create a complex character, but might seem irrelevant, especially to his character development. Do everything you can to create a unified novel. Perhaps music is his way of reducing stress from a very stressful job.

Let’s say your pantser side comes up with this musical background and that dream to be concert violinist. Follow it up. See where it goes.

Be sure that the main plot thread, as well as those plot threads that relate to the main thread, are sufficiently developed and credible : What does this take? Ask yourself if your protagonist’s character arc is satisfying to a reader. Is more needed? Is that arc believable? It’s been said that the ending needs to be “surprising” but “inevitable.”

See my article on endings at this URL: https://www.writermag.com/improve-your-writing/fiction/ending-your-novels/2/

Incidentally, be sure that you don’t end up with everything tied up in a neat bundle, but don’t just stop either. What questions does the protagonist’s arc answer? As you write through your novel, be aware, at least, of the direction of your overall plot. If you’re a plotter, you know what it is. If you’re a pantser, you’re discovering it as you go along.

The following articles take a deeper look at the specific kinds of characters you might develop a story around.

Character Development Advice
How to Write Dialogue
Crafting Your Protagonist
Writing An Antagonist
Foil Characters
Static Vs Dynamic Characters
Round Vs Flat Characters
Anti Hero Characters
Unreliable Narrator

Craft Compelling Character Arcs at Writers.com

Looking for feedback on your characters, their journeys, and the worlds they occupy? Get feedback on your work in a Writers.com course! Take a look at our upcoming fiction courses and receive detailed, personalized feedback on your characters-in-progress.

Great content, it will help in my business Thank you for sharing useful information. Respectfully, David from https://deteced.com/

To what extend does the content apply to Characters in non-fiction memoir book?

Hi Maneo, great question! Because the people in nonfiction are real life human beings, they aren’t “characters” in the same way fictional characters are. However, no piece of literature can encompass the ENTIRETY of a single person. So, these character development questions are great starting points if you’re struggling to write about real life people. What do you want your reader to know? How can you make this person seem like a flesh and blood human?

If you’re interested to learn more about the dichotomy between fiction and nonfiction, check out this article: https://writers.com/fiction-vs-nonfiction

Happy writing!

Very comprehensive! A thorough and very helpful exposition. I love the examples used, as many of those stories informed my childhood. Thank you for an incredible resource.

[…] onto character development, which is defined as “the process of creating fictional characters with the same depth and complexity as real-life huma… to me and many other fans is an important aspect of any story. Crafting a character that people can […]

[…] Character Development Definition and Examples | Writers […]

Writing a Character Analysis Essay | Step-by-Step Guide

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

I’m also going to give you a ton of examples.

This post is split into four parts for easy navigation:

What is a Character Analysis Essay?
What is the best Format to Use?
11 Character Analysis Example Ideas
Template, Checklist and Outline for Your own Piece

In this post, I’m going to explain to you clearly and in a step-by-step way how to conduct a character analysis.

1. What is a Character Analysis Essay?

Let’s get you started with some really simple details about what a character analysis is:

A Quick Definition: A character analysis essay zooms-in on a character in a book, movie or even real life. It provides what we sometimes call a ‘sketch’ of a character.
The Purpose of a Character Analysis: The purpose of a character analysis is to reveal interesting details about the character that might contain a broader moral message about the human condition. For example, Atticus Finch is not just a lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird. Rather, he provides us with a moral message about the importance of doing what you believe is right even though you know you will likely fail.

2. What is the best Character Analysis Essay Format?

Character analysis essays do not have just one format.

However, let me offer some advice that might act as a character analysis essay outline or ‘checklist’ of possible things you could discuss:

1. Start with the Simple Details.

You can start a character analysis by providing a simple, clear description of who your character is. Look at some basic identity traits such as:

Race (if relevant)
Social class (if relevant)
Protagonist or Antagonist? A protagonist is the character who is our central character in the plot; the antagonist is often the protagonist’s opponent or challenger.
Major or minor character?

2. What are the character’s distinctive personality features?

Your character might have some really clearly identifiable character traits. It’s best to highlight in your character analysis the exact traits that this character possesses. Some common character traits include:

I recommend you take a moment to write down what you think the top 3 to 5 words are that you’d use to explain your character’s personality traits. These will be important to discuss throughout your character analysis.

Sometimes a character may start out with some personality traits, but change over the course of the text. This is quite common; and one clear example of this is Lady Macbeth she deteriorates from a cutthroat power player to a guilt ridden shell of a person roaming the halls of the castle. This dramatic character change is something that makes her very interesting, and is worthy of discussion!

3. What are the character’s key relationships?

Does your character have a close relationship with a certain person in the storyline?

You might want to discuss the character’s relationships as a part of your character analysis. These relationships may reveal some key personality traits of your character.

For example, in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Horatio is the loyal offsider to Hamlet. Through his actions in staying by Hamlet through thick and thin, we learn that he is a deeply loyal character.

Examining the character’s relationships with their friends and foes therefore is very useful for digging deeper into who this character actually is, and what personality traits they have when they are put to the test within the narrative.

4. What are the character’s motivations?

Another thing you might want to examine are the character’s motivations . What do they desire most in the world? Some common motivations for characters in stories are:

A simple life
To serve others

This list really could be endless, but I hope the above examples give you a bit of an idea of the sorts of traits to look out for. By mentioning and examining the motivations of the character, we will come closer and closer to learning exactly what moral message this character might be able to tell us.

5. What are the character’s key conflicts?

Stories tend to have a beginning, a complication, and a resolution.

The complication involves conflicts and challenges that need to be overcome. For Edmund in Narnia, it’s cowardice. For Romeo and Juliet, it’s the conflict between love and family loyalty. Here’s some other common conflicts for characters:

Whether to stay loyal to a friend;
To overcome obstacles to love;
To seek a way out of a challenging situation;
To escape war or poverty;
To persevere through imprisonment;
To overcome personal fear

Again, this list is endless.

Knowing the character’s core conflict gets us even closer to knowing the moral that the character is trying to teach us.

For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the challenge of Romeo and Juliet being together despite their families’ objections teaches us something. Personally, I believe it teaches us the importance of letting go of old grudges in order to let love bloom.

This moral lesson was taught to us through conflict: namely, the conflict that Romeo and Juliet were right in the center of.

6. What are the character’s epiphanies?

Sometimes a character has an epiphany. This often happens towards the end of the story and helps the character overcome the challenge or conflict that we discussed in the point above.

Here’s an example of an epiphany:

In the Lion King, Simba runs away from his tribe to live in exile. After a chance encounter with his childhood friend Nala, he has an epiphany that he has a duty to his tribe. This leads him back home to fight Scar and return freedom to Pride Rock.

Not all characters have an epiphany. But, if they do, I strongly encourage you to write about it in your character analysis.

7. Examine the moral message the character teaches us.

Finally, conclude by examining the moral message behind the character. Nearly every character has something to teach the reader. Authors put a lot of thought into creating complex characters with whom we can relate. We relate to the character and say “wow, they taught me a lesson about something!”

The lesson might be something like:

Money doesn’t buy happiness;
Loyalty to family comes above all else;
Love gives life meaning;
Honesty is always the best policy

This is the core of your character analysis essay. If you can pick out exactly what moral message the character teaches you, you’ll be well on your way to writing a strong character analysis.

Below I’m going to give you some examples to help you out. I know it can be hard to really get your head around a character, so sometimes the best thing is to look at some samples!

3. Here’s 13 Example Character Analysis Essay Ideas.

Most times when we create a character analysis, we’re exploring the deeper moral stories / aspects of humanity. Here’s some example ideas. I’ve tried to outline in less than a paragraph exactly what your key point will be about each character:

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird: A character who teaches us a lesson about standing up for what’s right, even if you know you’re likely to lose.
Huckleberry Finn from Huckleberry Finn: A character who reveals our inner desire for freedom from the elements of society that constrain us.
Dudley from Harry Potter: A character whose personality tells us a cautionary tale of the perils of middle-class narcissism, parents’ desire to wrap their children in cotton wool, and the lack of discipline we perceive in contemporary childhoods.
Jack from Lord of the Flies: A character who represents the innate desire for power that seems to lurk not too far from the surface of the human condition. When social structures are stripped away, he quickly reverts to violence and superstition to assert control over his peers.
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth: Lady Macbeth teaches us a valuable lesson about the perils of contravening our own morality. She starts out a cutthroat killer but is increasingly consumed by the guilt of her own actions. While we may be able to escape full punishment from outside forces, it is the inner guilt that might eat us away to our last.
The Boy who Cried Wolf: The boy who cried wolf is a character whose fatal flaw is his desire for attention and adulation. His repeated attempts at gaining the attention of others leads the townspeople to no longer take him seriously, which causes him harm when he actually needs the villagers to take him seriously to save his life. He teaches us the virtue of honest and humility.
Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby: Nick shows us all the inner conflict between the trappings of wealth, glamor and spectacle; and the desire for simplicity, honesty and community. He is drawn by the dazzling world of East Egg, New York, but by the end of the novel sees live in East Egg as shallow and lacking the moral depth of his former life in small town Minnesota.
Alice from Alice in Wonderland: In many ways, Alice represents the child within all of us. She is a character of goodwill to all and who looks upon the world (or, rather, Wonderland) with awe. Travelling with a cadre of flawed characters, she learns with them the importance of seeking strength from within.
The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet: Like many Shakespearian characters, the nurse’s role is both as loyal confidante to a central character and comic relief. Shakespeare uses minor characters to regale his crowd and sustain viewer interest between scenes.
Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Lucy represents a surprising character whose youthfulness and small stature make her an underrated character by all around her. Nonetheless, she possesses within the bravery and loyalty necessary to carry out the quest for Aslan. Lucy represents the goodness in children and, by extension, all of mankind.
Anne in Anne of Green Gables: Anne occupies the typical literary role of young girls in many classical novels: she represents innocence and wonder, and her contraventions of rules are seen through a prism of childhood innocence. This frames Anne not as a deviant but as a precious soul.
Simba from The Lion King: Simba’s story follows his struggle with growing up, embracing his destiny and duty to his family, or fleeing towards freedom and a ‘no worries’ lifestyle. Simba flees Pride Rock and goes through an existential crisis with his existentialist friends Timon and Pumba. When he runs into an old childhood friend, he realizes how shallow his new carefree life has become and reflects upon his obligation to his community back home.
Woody from Toy Story: Woody starts out Andy’s favorite toy, but when Andy gets a new flashier toy, Woody’s status amongst the toys falls apart. Woody’s key character challenge is to learn to be humble and inclusive living within the group. By the end of the movie, Woody realizes his duty to love and serve Andy is more important than his own status within the group.

4. Here’s an Example Template for your own Character Analysis Essay

Feel free to use this brainstorming template to get you started with your character analysis essay. I recommend filling out as many of these key points as you can, but remember sometimes you might have to skip some of these points if they’re not relevant to your character.

Once you’ve brainstormed the ideas in Table 1, follow the character analysis essay outline in Table 2 to stay on track for your character analysis essay. Do remember though that each assignment will be different and you should adjust it based on your teacher’s requirements.

Here’s Table 1, which is a brainstorming template for your character analysis essay:

Question	Your Thoughts
1. What is the character’s: · Age · Gender · Race · Social Class
2. What sort of character are they: · A protagonist · An antagonist · Major character · Minor character
3. What are the character’s major personality traits? Try to come up with five. Here are some examples: · Loyalty · greed · honesty · dishonesty · fearful
4. What are the character’s key relationships to other characters? Here are some examples: · Best friend to the protagonist · love interest · daughter · heir apparent · mother
5. What are the character’s motivations? Some examples: · Love · power · revenge · greed
6. What conflicts or challenges does the character face? Some examples: · Overcoming loss · learning a lesson · defeating an adversity · passing a test · completing a quest
7. What epiphanies and / or moral message does the character teach us? Some examples: · Money doesn’t buy happiness · power corrupts · love conquers all · do not lie

And here’s Table 2, which is an example character analysis essay outline. This is for a 1500 word character analysis essay. Change the word count according to how long your essay should be:

	Explain: · Who the character is; · What text they are from; · What you are going to discuss (See also my post on writing )
	Show: · What the character’s key personality traits are; · Scenes / chapters where the character’s traits are revealed; · How / if the character’s personality traits change throughout the story
	Show: · The character’s motivations; · The character’s central conflicts and challenges
	Show: · If the character has an epiphany; · What moral messages the character can teach us
(150 words)	Summarize: · The character’s personality; · The character’s role in the story; · The character’s moral message (See also my post on )

Read Also: 39 Better Ways to Write ‘In Conclusion’ in an Essay

Character analyses can be really tough. You need to know your character really well. You might even need to re-read (or watch) your book or movie a few times over to get to know the character really well.

I recommend when you re-read or re-watch the text before you write your character analysis, have the checklist I provided above handy and take notes. Then, use the essay outline I provided above to put all of those notes together into a clear and thorough final character analysis essay.

Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
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Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
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How to Write a Character Analysis Essay

A character analysis essay is a challenging type of essay students usually write for literature or English courses. In this article, we will explain the definition of character analysis and how to approach it. We will also touch on how to analyze characters and guide you through writing character analysis essays.

Typically, this kind of writing requires students to describe the character in the story's context. This can be fulfilled by analyzing the relationship between the character in question and other personas. Although, sometimes, giving your personal opinion and analysis of a specific character is also appropriate.

Let's explain the specifics of how to do a character analysis by getting straight to defining what is a character analysis. Our term paper writers will have you covered with a thorough guide!

What Is a Character Analysis Essay?

The character analysis definition explains the in-depth personality traits and analyzes characteristics of a certain hero. Mostly, the characters are from literature, but sometimes other art forms, such as cinematography. In a character analysis essay, your main job is to tell the reader who the character is and what role they play in the story. Therefore, despite your personal opinion and preferences, it is really important to use your critical thinking skills and be objective toward the character you are analyzing. A character analysis essay usually involves the character's relationship with others, their behavior, manner of speaking, how they look, and many other characteristics.

Although it's not a section about your job experience or education on a resume, sometimes it is appropriate to give your personal opinion and analysis of a particular character.

What Is the Purpose of a Character Analysis Essay

More than fulfilling a requirement, this type of essay mainly helps the reader understand the character and their world. One of the essential purposes of a character analysis essay is to look at the anatomy of a character in the story and dissect who they are. We must be able to study how the character was shaped and then learn from their life.

A good example of a character for a character analysis essay is Daisy Buchanan from 'The Great Gatsby.' The essay starts off by explaining who Daisy is and how she relates to the main character, Jay Gatsby. Depending on your audience, you need to decide how much of the plot should be included. If the entire class writes an essay on Daisy Buchanan, it is logical to assume everyone has read the book. Although, if you know for certain that your audience has little to no knowledge of who she is, it is crucial to include as much background information as possible.

After that, you must explain the character through certain situations involving her and what she said or did. Make sure to explain to the reader why you included certain episodes and how they have showcased the character. Finally, summarize everything by clearly stating the character's purpose and role in the story.

We also highly recommend reading how to write a hook for an essay .

Still Need Help with Your Character Analysis Essay?

Different types of characters.

To make it clear how a reader learns about a character in the story, you should note that several characters are based on their behaviors, traits, and roles within a story. We have gathered some of them, along with vivid examples from famous literature and cinema pieces:

Types of Characters

Major : These are the main characters; they run the story. Regularly, there are only one or two major characters. Major characters are usually of two types: the protagonist – the good guy, and the antagonist: the bad guy or the villain.
Protagonist (s) (heroes): The main character around whom most of the plot revolves.

For example, Othello from Shakespeare's play, Frodo from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and Elizabeth Bennet from 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen.

Antagonist (s): This is the person that is in opposition to the protagonist. This is usually the villain, but it could also be a natural power, set of circumstances, majestic being, etc.

For example, Darth Vader from the Star Wars series by George Lucas, King Joffrey from Game of Thrones, or the Wicked Queen from 'Snow White and Seven Dwarfs.'

Minor : These characters help tell the major character's tale by letting them interact and reveal their personalities, situations, and/or stories. They are commonly static (unchanging). The minor characters in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien would be the whole Fellowship of the ring. In their own way, each member of the Fellowship helps Frodo get the ring to Mordor; without them, the protagonist would not be a protagonist and would not be able to succeed. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, minor characters are Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. They consistently help Harry Potter on his quests against Voldemort, and, like Frodo, he wouldn't have succeeded without them.

On top of being categorized as a protagonist, antagonist, or minor character, a character can also be dynamic, static, or foil.

Dynamic (changing): Very often, the main character is dynamic.

An example would also be Harry Potter from the book series by J.K. Rowling. Throughout the series, we see Harry Potter noticing his likeness to Voldemort. Nevertheless, Harry resists these traits because, unlike Voldemort, he is a good person and resists any desire to become a dark wizard.

Static (unchanging): Someone who does not change throughout the story is static.

A good example of a static character is Atticus Finch from “How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. His character and views do not change throughout the book. He is firm and steady in his beliefs despite controversial circumstances.

Foils : These characters' job is to draw attention to the main character(s) to enhance the protagonist's role.

‍ A great example of a foil charact e r is Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle.

How to Analyze a Character

While preparing to analyze your character, make sure to read the story carefully.

Pay attention to the situations where the character is involved, their dialogues, and their role in the plot.
Make sure you include information about what your character achieves on a big scale and how they influence other characters.
Despite the categories above, try thinking outside the box and explore your character from around.
Avoid general statements and being too basic. Instead, focus on exploring the complexities and details of your character(s).

How to Write a Character Analysis Essay?

To learn how to write a character analysis essay and gather a more profound sense of truly understanding these characters, one must completely immerse themself in the story or literary piece.

Take note of the setting, climax, and other important academic parts.
You must be able to feel and see through the characters. Observe how analysis essay writer shaped these characters into life.
Notice how little or how vast the character identities were described.
Look at the characters' morals and behaviors and how they have affected situations and other characters throughout the story.
Finally, observe the characters whom you find interesting.

Meanwhile, if you need help writing a paper, leave us a message ' write my paper .'

How Do You Start a Character Analysis Essay

When writing a character analysis essay, first, you have to choose a character you'd like to write about. Sometimes a character will be readily assigned to you. It's wise to consider characters who play a dynamic role in the story. This will captivate the reader as there will be much information about these personas.

Read the Story

You might think that if you already have read the book, there is no need to do so again; however, now that you know the character you would like to focus on, reading it again will have plenty of benefits. It will give you an opportunity to be more precise while reading the scenes that relate directly to your character and are important for his/her analysis. While reading the book, pay attention to every tiny detail to make sure you grasp the whole array of your character's traits.

Consider the following things:

What specific descriptions does the author provide for each character?

For example, when J.K. Rowling describes Harry Potter for the first time, she describes his clothes as old and oversized, his hair untidy, and his glasses as broken. It might seem just like a simple description, but she expresses compassion and pity for an orphan neglected by his only relatives.

What kinds of relationships does your character have with others?

Think about how Harry builds up his friendships with others. First, he and Ron do not like Hermione because she acts like a know-it-all, but when she gets stuck in the dungeons with a horrendous troll, he rushes to save her regardless.

How do the actions of the character move the plot forward?

In 'The Philosopher's Stone,' Harry is very observant of any events taking place at school. He analyzes people's actions, which builds up the plot around the stone and its importance for the magical world.

Get help with your character analysis from our experts.

Choose a Dynamic Character

Choosing a dynamic character is a great idea. This does not necessarily have to be the protagonist, but a character that undergoes many changes has grown throughout the story and is not boring and/or static. This gives you a perfect advantage to fully show the character and make your paper entertaining and engaging for the reader. If you choose a character that is not very dynamic, your essay might seem monotonous because your character will not end up doing much and will not be very involved in the story.

While you are reading, it is useful to take notes or highlight/underline any of the critical elements of the story. This will add depth to your character description(s). By providing vivid and specific examples, you connect your reader to the character, and the character comes alive in their eyes. Review your notes and formulate the main idea about your character when you're finished reading with your character in mind.

Make an initial draft while taking note of the character analysis essay outline provided by your instructor. You may follow the recommended character analysis essay format if you have not been provided with a sample.

Choose a Main Idea

While reading the story, make sure you keep track of your notes. It is a good idea to look at them, choose the ones that are the most representative of your character and find patterns. This will be your thesis. Then, you must support this idea with examples and situations involving your character.

If your character were Jem Finch from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, the main idea would be how his personal character is shaped through racial conflicts, social inequalities, and internal struggles between public opinion, his own views, and what is actually right. Essaypro offers you history essay help. Leave us a notice if you need to proofread, edit, or write your essay.

Character Analysis Questions

Now that you have jotted down some main concepts about your character, here is a list of questions that can help you fill in the blanks you might still have:

Where do the events involving your character take place?
What are the relationships between your character and other significant characters?
What is the primary change your character has gone through throughout the story?
What is your character's background?
What is your character's occupation?
What kind of emotions does your character go through?
What are your character's values?
What is your character's value?
Does your character have friends?
Is there a lesson your character has learned by the end of the story?
Does the character achieve the goals he/she has set for himself/herself?

Make a Character Analysis Essay Outline

When you're unsure how to write a character synopsis, remember that creating a literary analysis outline is one of the most critical steps. A well-constructed character analysis outline will keep your thoughts and ideas organized.

Character Analysis Essay Introduction:

Make the introduction to your paper brief and meaningful. It should hold together your entire essay and spark your audience's interest. Write a short description of the character in question. Don't forget to include a character analysis thesis statement which should make a case for the character's relevance within the narrative context.

Character Analysis Essay Body:

Subdivide your body paragraphs into different ideas or areas regarding the character. Look at your professor's rubric and ensure you'll be able to tackle all the requirements. You should also be provided with questions to be answered to formulate your analysis better. The body should answer the following questions:

What is the character's physical appearance, personality, and background?
What are the conflicts the character experiences, and how did he/she overcome them?
What can we learn from this character?
What is the meaning behind the character's actions? What motivates him/her?
What does the character do? How does he/she treat others? Is he/she fair or unjust?
What does the character say? What is his/her choice of words? Does he/she have a rich vocabulary?
How does the character describe themself? How do others describe him/her?
What words do you associate with the character? Perhaps a word like 'hope,' 'bravery,' or maybe even 'freedom'?

Character Analysis Essay Conclusion:

It's time to master the secrets of how to write character analysis essay conclusions. Your ending should also hold your ideas together and shape a final analysis statement. Mention things about the character's conflicts that we could experience in real life. Additionally, you can write about how a character should've reacted to a certain situation.

Character Analysis Essay Example

Read our blogs ‘Character Analysis of Jem Finch', 'The Great Gatsby Book Through Daisy Buchanan Character,' 'Analysis of Characters in Beowulf,' or simply use these character analysis essay examples to reference your paper. You might also be interested in a synthesis essay example .

Now that you know what is character analysis, it might be time to choose a character to write about. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to type ' do my homework for me ,' you should contact our writers. You also get a free plagiarism report, formatting, and citing when buying an essay from us!

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How To Write A Character Analysis Essay?

How to start a character analysis essay, how to write an introduction for a character analysis essay.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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Journal Buddies Jill | September 9, 2024 September 9, 2024 | Teacher & Parent Resources

33 Powerful Character Education Writing Prompts

Character Education Writing Prompts for Middle School— Character education helps kids learn more about basic morals and values and their importance in this world and in their personal lives. Character-building is often included in character education curriculum, both of which are widely taught in classrooms across our country.

Middle School Character Education Writing Ideas

Many schools have a set of chosen values that get incorporated into a specific character education curriculum. These are often the most important values chosen to teach to the student body so as to cultivate these values. Some typical character traits that are taught in many middle school classrooms include lessons on caring, fairness, responsibility, respect, and trustworthiness.

Also, character education about citizenship is an important subject as well because of the importance of teaching good character to our nation’s youth and of ensuring that future leaders possess essential life-skills such as honesty and integrity.

Below is a list of character education writing prompts you can use to support your character education efforts in your classroom. We hope you and your students find them useful!

33 Character Education Writing Prompts

As stated above, some common character education topics taught to middle school students include citizenship, caring, fairness, responsibility, respect, and trustworthiness. What follows are writing prompts centered around these character education themes.

Are you a good citizen and why?
What makes a person a good citizen?
Do you and/or your family participate in community service? How?
How do you do your share to make the world a better place?
Are you a caring person?
Explain in detail how do you treat people kindly.
How do I know when someone cares about me?
How do you help people who are in need?
Do you think about how your actions will affect others?
If you hurt someone’s feelings by accident (or on purpose), what can you do to make it up to them?
Do you treat others the way you would like to be treated?
I always play by the rules because…
Fairness means treating people…
Why is fairness important?
I know when someone is being unfair when they…
How does it feel to be treated unfairly?

Character Education Writing Topics for Middle School Writers

Being a fair person is important to me because…
What does it mean when someone tells you to take responsibility for your actions?
What happens when you behave irresponsibly?
How does taking responsibility affect your relationship with others (friends, parents, teachers…)
Are you a responsible person? What makes you a responsible person?
Others can depend on me because…
I do what needs to be done because…
I demonstrate respect to others by…
What actions and behaviors make me respectful?
How do you honor differences in others?
What does it feel like to be respected?
Why is respect important in my life?
I know I can trust someone when they…
I show others they can trust me by…
How do you benefit from being trustworthy?
What does it mean to trust someone?

I hope you enjoyed this list of character education writing prompts for students.

“ People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built .” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Teaching Character Education to Middle Schoolers

Beyond writing and journaling, below we briefly outline a few additional methods for teaching character education in your classroom.

First, literature is a wonderful and highly effective tool to demonstrate morals and values to children because story-telling helps them to understand these types of deep concepts.

Books with colorful pictures and entertaining stories have been used by teachers for many years to inform and pique childrens’ interest in a particular subject. Character education books may be used in many different ways with children, but the most effective method is through stories combined with experiential learning activities.

Secondly, role-playing is a great teaching technique for supporting character education. Role-playing activities give children the opportunity to place themselves in a hypothetical situation where they experience things from another’s perspective. They can also put common character education themes into action which is experiential education at its best if you ask us!

Finally, after reading a story and discussing it, educators may have students perform a variety of activities that help children fully understand the values they have just learned.

Interactive activities encourage students to identify more profoundly with the characters and the dilemma they were facing. Additionally, group discussions and story expansions, as well as written exercises, are some of the more powerful and effective ways to elicit understanding and comprehension of character education in children.

Of course, we think that journaling is a great character teaching tool. If you need even more character education writing ideas, see our What Is Good Character post that includes 9 more prompts you can use in your classroom. And, check out these Character Building Activities for Kids .

There are many great thoughts for kids to ponder and to write about in their personal journals.

Until next time, journal on…

“ Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking .” ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

If you enjoyed these Character Education Writing Prompts , please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. I appreciate it!

Sincerely, Jill journalbuddies.com creator and curator

Middle School Character Education Writing Prompts

PS Check out this excellent student character resources .

Tap to See Prompts What is Good Character and How to Develop It 53 Writing Ideas about Random Acts of Kindness 27 Amazing Picture Writing Prompts for Kids Search Search Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7-8 Grade 9-12 All Ages ------------End of Om Added --------- Tags character , character building , character education , character traits , children , children character , class , community , curriculum , education , Grade 6 , Grade 7 , Grade 7-8 , Grade 8 , lessons , literature , Middle School , morals , role playing , school , traits , values div#postbottom { margin-top: 12px; } Search Now Offering You 19,000+ Prompts!

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How to Write a Character Analysis Essay: Examples & Outline

A character analysis is an examination of the personalities and actions of protagonists and antagonists that make up a story. It discusses their role in the story, evaluates their traits, and looks at their conflicts and experiences. You might need to write this assignment in school or college. Like any other essay, your character analysis should contain an introduction, a conclusion, and a thesis.

Want to know how to write a character analysis essay? Not sure how to start? We understand. Whichever piece you choose – Lady Macbeth, A Rose for Emily, or something else, – analyzing a character for the first time might be challenging. No worries, we are here to help! In this guide by our custom writing experts, you will find a step-by-step guide, outlining and writing tips, as well as a number of character analysis examples.

📔 Character Analysis Definition
🧙 Types of Characters
📝 Writing Guide
🖥️ Formatting Tips

📑 Character Analysis Essay Examples

📔 what is a character analysis essay.

A character analysis essay is an assignment where you evaluate a character’s traits, behaviors, and motivations. It requires critical thinking and attention to detail. Unlike descriptions, analyses focus on a character’s personality and internal drives. It explains how those factors shape the narrated events.

The picture shows the definition of character analysis.

So, what you need to do is to see the characters as if they were real people who feel and act just as we do. Ensure there are no baseless assumptions and interpretations: the ideas you present should be supported by quotes from the text.

Character: Definition (Literature)

How do you define a character? It is a person, a creature, or an animal that makes up the story’s world. A character can be based on a real-life person, or it can be entirely fictional. It is someone who thinks, feels, and acts.

We use the word “character” in many different contexts. For instance, it can denote someone eccentric or worthy of our admiration. In both contexts, the term “character” means a distinctive personality. Similarly, in an analysis, your task is to show what makes a character stand out.

Characterization: Literary Definition & Examples

Characterization is the process by which a character’s personality is revealed. It presents characters’ traits, feelings, and motives to the reader. For this reason, characterization is closely connected to character analysis. It helps us to understand the characters better throughout the reading process.

Characterization can be direct and indirect .

Direct characterization is when the narrator directly tells the audience what the personality of a character is.
In contrast, indirect characterization shows things that hint at a character’s nature.

Here are some examples of direct characterization taken from Patti Smith’s Just Kids :

“But he always suppressed his real feelings, mimicking the stoic nature of his father.”

Here we see a direct description of a character. The author straightforwardly talks about Robert’s feelings. In comparison, look at the description of a woman taken from John Steinbeck’s The Snake :

“He looked around at her again. Her dark eyes seemed veiled with dust. She looked without expression at the cat’s open throat.”

These lines don’t directly reveal anything about the woman, but the reader can understand that she is cold and dangerous. It’s an indirect characterization that focuses on looks and actions to convey the message to the reader.

🧙 Types of Characters for Your Essay

When it comes to characters, they can be divided into several groups. For example, characters can be:

Protagonists or antagonists,
Static or dynamic,
Flat or round.

These types define how much the characters change through the course of the story and their role in it.

Character Type: Definition

In psychology, a character type is defined by a combination of personality traits that coexist in an individual. Authors incorporate different types of characters into their works to convey the message and make the story more exciting or relatable to the reader.

There are three ways to categorize a character type:

by archetypes,
by their role in the narrative,
by their ability to change throughout the story.

If you are about to write a character analysis essay, being familiar with character archetypes is essential. They have been categorized by a generation of writers, including the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and the American literary theorist Joseph Campbell. A lot of characters we see in today’s literary works are rooted in them.

Archetypes include the Trickster, the Ruler, the Lover, the Sage, and others. The Hero is one of the most notable archetypes. Hercules or Achilles can be good examples of heroic protagonists. They are strong and courageous; they meet challenges and save the day by helping others.

Main Character: Definition & Examples

The main character and the protagonist often get mixed up. Most narratives also have the figure of the antagonist , whose actions affect the plot and stimulate change. Let’s have a look at the similarities and differences between these types.

The main character is central in the narrative. We experience the story through their eyes. They don’t necessarily have to be protagonists, though it happens in many cases.

The crucial difference between the main character and the protagonist is that the protagonist goes through changes throughout the story. The main character, however, is there to guide the reader through the experience. Often they help to show a different, darker side of the protagonist.

To understand the difference better, let’s turn to some examples.

Literary Text	Main Character & Protagonist
by William Shakespeare	The main character and the protagonist are one person. The reader sees the story from Hamlet’s perspective. He is also the one who undergoes the change and faces the antagonist—Claudius.
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What’s a Static Character?

Now that we’ve learned about the main character and the protagonist, we will closely look at other types of character classifications. One of the ways to categorize a character is by their ability to change throughout the story.

A static or simple character is someone who undergoes little or no significant changes. They often exist for comedic purposes. Here are some examples:

Static Character	Explanation
Jim from Mark Twain’s	Throughout his journey, his personality remains the same. He stays loving, caring, and intelligent.
Polonius from Shakespeare’s	He remains sneaky and superficial throughout the story. His role in the play is largely comedic.

Complex Character: Definition & Examples

Complex or dynamic characters are the opposite of static characters. Characters of this type change as the book progresses. They display different qualities, emotions, and motives. They become more complicated and interesting to the reader as the story unfolds.

Check out these examples of dynamic characters:

Dynamic Characters	Explanation
Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain’s	His personality changes a lot. The boy grows up and becomes an individual who strives to think for himself towards the end of the book.
Macbeth from Shakespeare’s	He changes throughout the play. At first, we see him as a brave warrior, but by the end, he falls victim to greed and ambition, which leads to his downfall.

Other Kinds of Characters

You already know about several ways to define a type of character. Now, let’s go over some other types, starting with flat and round characters.

Similar to dynamic and static ones, round and flat characters represent two different ends of a spectrum. Round characters usually come with an in-depth background. They are traditionally protagonists, antagonists, or those close to them. In contrast, flat characters are two-dimensional, and there is not much depth to them.

For the examples, we will turn to the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Character	Type	Explanation
Mr. Collins	Flat and static character	Throughout the narrative, Mr. Collins remains essentially the same. The only thing he strives for is to please others, especially those of a higher social status. He represents the fault in society and the hierarchy that exists within it.
Mr. Darcy	Round and dynamic character	The man undergoes a tremendous change. At first, Mr. Darcy is depicted as someone who lacks courtesy and looks down on the lower class people. However, as the novel progresses, we see him grow and become a better person. Towards the end of the story, he learns to acknowledge his faults.

Finally, here are some bonus character types for you:

Stock characters have a fixed set of traits and are flat. Most of the time, they exist for comical relief.
Symbolic characters represent a concept or a theme that goes beyond them. They can be round and flat as long as they symbolize a particular notion or phenomena.
Sidekick is a secondary character who supports the protagonist.
The love interest is someone with whom the main character is infatuated.
Foil is someone who’s set in contrast with the protagonist, thus putting more emphasis on the latter’s qualities.

Characterization Essay: Which Character Type to Choose

Before you start writing a paper, it essential to decide on the character you’re going to analyze. There are different types of characters in every story, so you need to choose which one suits your essay topic the best.

Usually, it’s best to choose a dynamic and round character . With static and flat ones, there may not be enough substance for you to analyze. However, some such personalities can be interesting to work with. For instance, a flat character such as Mr. Collins can be symbolic of something. Then, you can talk about how it embodies a specific idea or notion. You can also look at how they affect other characters in the story.

📝 How to Write a Character Analysis Step by Step

Now, we’re going to discuss how to write your paper step-by-step. But first, here are some pre-writing steps for you to consider:

Choose a character for analysis.
Take notes while reading;
Define the type of the character and their role in the story;
Pay attention to their descriptions and actions.

How to Analyze a Character: Description Examples

Knowing how to organize your work is an essential skill. Certain things need special attention if you are describing a character:

physical appearance,
emotional state,
how the character speaks,
behavior and personality traits,
relationships with other characters.

When you analyze a character, try to look at them as if they were a real-life person. You want to know their motive, learn about how they feel, and understand why they think in a certain way. Ask yourself:

How did the character change throughout the story (if at all)?
What do other characters say about them? Can their words be trusted?
Where is the character physically and emotionally? What brought them here?
What is the character ready to do to achieve their goal?

Now, let’s look at the character of Franklin from the short story Just Before the War with the Eskimos by J.D. Salinger:

Lines from the story	What do we learn about the character?
“A young man wearing glasses and pajamas and no slippers lunged into the room with his mouth open.”Oh. I thought it was Eric, for Chrissake,” he said. Without stopping, and with extremely poor posture, he continued across the room, cradling something close to his narrow chest.”	Franklin seems to be someone who doesn’t care about his appearance or what other people think of him. We can say that because the young man comes out of his room in only pajamas and no slippers. He also has poor posture and uses curses. Even when Franklin realizes it is not his friend in the room, he doesn’t feel embarrassed. In fact, he seems not to care at all.

Character Profile Template for Writing

When writing your essay, use this character analysis template:

The picture shows the main steps in writing a character analysis essay.

In the following sections, we’ll discuss each step in detail.

Character Analysis Outline: How to Start a Character Analysis

The beginning of your essay is its crucial part. It sets the mood and grabs the reader’s attention. There are many different ways to write a character analysis introduction, but here are the most effective ones:

Use a quotation. It’s a great way to make a catchy hook. If it relates to the character and reflects their nature, it can also help to set the tone for analysis. In case you are using a quotation from somewhere else, mention the source in parentheses.
Talk about the book or story. Mention the author, the name of the story, and the genre. Briefly describe the main events that are taking place in the story.
Introduce the character. State their role in the story (define whether they are a protagonist, an antagonist, etc.) Then, explain whether the character is static or dynamic. Finally, describe them in 2-3 sentences.

The final part of an introduction is a thesis statement.Read on to learn how to write one!

Character Analysis Thesis Statement & Examples

A thesis is the key component of every essay, and character analysis is not an exception. It’s crucial to develop a good and clear thesis statement that includes all the aspects of your paper. For instance, if you plan to write a 4-paragraph body, including 4 points in your thesis.

What should a character analysis thesis include? Well, try to think of any trait that the character possesses that has to do with their downfall or somehow influences the story. Think about how this trait affects the character’s relationship with others or how it contributes to their motive or aspiration.

Take a look at the following examples:

	Thesis Example	Explanation
❌	Oedipus Rex is prideful, and he searches for the truth; he is also a character that experiences the downfall towards the end of the play.	It’s a weak thesis statement. This sentence doesn’t make the connection between the character’s traits and the outcome. It also contains unnecessary information about the end of the play.
✔️	Oedipus Rex is a man of pride who persistently seeks the truth, and in the end, it is his pride and the truth that determine his downfall.	This is a strong thesis statement. It explains that the character has two main traits: he is prideful and seeks the truth. It then states that these qualities are the reason for his downfall.

How to Write Character Analysis Paragraphs for the Main Body

The main body of your essay can include as many paragraphs as you need. In this part, you introduce the character and analyze them. We have already talked in this article about what kind of questions should be answered in these paragraphs. The most important points are:

Describe the character and their role within the story.
Give the audience an explanation of the character’s motives.
Show what message the author wanted to convey through this character.

Keep in mind that every paragraph should have a topic sentence that captures its main idea.

Tsukuru Tazaki’s spiritual rebirth also affects his physical appearance.

Character Analysis Conclusion: How to Write

The conclusion part of your essay summarizes all the information you have mentioned and restates the thesis. Here is some advice for your conclusion paragraph:

✔️ Dos	❌ Don’ts

🖥️ Character Analysis Essay Format

Most college assignments and essays are written according to the APA or MLA format. Both styles have the same formatting, which requires:

a double-spaced paper with 1-inch margins,
a page header with page numbers flush right,
an 11-12-point font.

While writing an essay on characters, pay special attention to quotations. Here are some tips for APA in-text citations:

When you summarize or paraphrase the information, mention the author’s name and publication date in brackets. Example: According to Collins (1997.)
When you quote directly from the source, add the number of the page, as well. Example: “There is a view that…” (Collins, 1997, pp. 134-135.)
If the source includes three or more authors, use the abbreviation “et al.” after the first author’s name. Example: (Collins et al., 1997)

As for MLA format:

You can write the author’s name in the sentence. Example: As Collins mentions in his essay<…>.
You can mention the author’s name in the parentheses at the end of the sentence. Example: (Collins, J.K.)
The last option is to use either footnotes or endnotes.

Below you’ll find a collection of character analysis essay examples and a downloadable sample to inspire you even more.

The Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Character Analysis
Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman: Character Analysis
Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway: Character Analysis
Prospero in The Tempest: Character Analysis
Agamemnon in the Iliad: Character Analysis
Lord Pococurante in Candide: Character Analysis
Andromache in the Iliad: Character Analysis
Character Analysis of the Knight from The Canterbury Tales
Essay on Soldier’s Home: Analysis of the Characters

Character Analysis Example (Downloadable)

Roald Dahl’s Matilda is one of the most famous children’s novels of the 20th century. The protagonist of this tale is Matilda Wormwood, a five and a half-year-old girl with a brilliant and lively mind that distances her from the rest of the family. Matilda’s character is particularly interesting as she has a powerful personality with extraordinary mental abilities, and she manages to overcome all the obstacles that surround her.

Character Analysis Essay Topics

Character analysis of Abbas from A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge .
Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Beowulf and Hamlet: similarity and diversity of the characters.
Personal and social failures of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
Character analysis of Othello.
Analyze the characters of Stanley and Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire .
The tragedy of Mathilde Loisel from The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.
Character analysis of Huck Finn from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .
Moral force of Kate Lipton from Double Helix by Nancy Parker.
Character analysis of Thorvald and Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House .
Discuss the character of king Creon in Antigone .
Analyze the personality of Lydia from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice .
Compare Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Describe the peculiarities of Lord Pococurante in Candide .
Sarty Snopes in William Faulkner’s Barn Burning : character analysis.
Analyze the character of Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman.
Personality of Nora in A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen.
Examine the main characters of The Yellow Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Personality change of the main character in Edgar Alan Poe’s The Black Cat .
Analyze the characters of E. Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place .
Describe the main characters of the novel The Overstory by Richard Powers.
Controversial personality of Vladek in Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman.
Character analysis of Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Discuss the character of Creon in Oedipus the King .
The manipulative character of Iago in Willian Shakespeare’s Othello .
Analyze the characters of Nil and Kristine in A Doll’s House .
Eccentricity of Grendel’s character in Beowulf .
Describe the main characters of Four Summers by Joyce Carol Oates.
Examine the characters of Harold Krebs and his mother in Ernest Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home .
Analyze common and different traits of the characters in The Monkey’s Paw .
Character peculiarities of Rostam and Sohrab in Shahnameh by Ferdowsi Tousi.
How does the character of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen differ from the rest of her family?
The behavior and meaning of the characters in Nicholas Rowe’s The Tragedy of Jane Shore.
Compare the characters of Victor Frankenstein and the monster in Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
Discuss the differences of main characters in Everyday Use by Alice Walker.
Examine the character of Connie in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates.
The influence of social pressure on the characters of Chopin’s Desirée’s Baby and Sedaris’ A Modest Proposal .
Dynamic feminist characters of Delia and Jig in Sweat by Z. Hurston and Hills Like White Elephants by E. Hemingway.
Analyze the personality traits of Emily in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily .
Examine the characters of The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
Henry ΙV by William Shakespeare : analysis of main characters.

Now you know everything necessary for writing an excellent character analysis. What character would you like to analyze? Let us know in the comments!

IMAGES

Character Development Writing Prompts for High Schoolers
20 Character Development Writing Prompts (Part I)
The Character Building Through Character Education Personal Essay
What is Good Character and How to Develop It
Building Character Free Essay Example
Writing Prompts For Making Characters

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Paragraph on Women in Development
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How To Write Self-Destructive Characters
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Here we have examined every aspect of character development and creation, from their physical appearance to their motives. We have uncovered their backgrounds, investigated their relationships, and acknowledged their skills. Use these character development writing prompts together with the free printable character descriptions sheet.
101 Creative Character Arc Prompts
A loser becomes a winner. A king becomes a pauper. The skeptic becomes a believer. Often, the best arcs start with a simple question or compelling traits that become the antithesis of the conflict your character is facing. With that in mind, here are 101 character prompts that writers can test out on their characters — and their story ...
Writing Character Development: 45 Questions to Ask Your Characters
Writing Character Development: 45 Questions to Ask Your Characters. Do you know what your main character would do if all of their friends forgot their birthday? What about if they found a hundred-dollar bill on the ground? These kinds of questions (often called "character development questions") are a great way to help you breathe life into ...
Character-Driven Fiction Writing Prompts
Creative writing prompts for creating characters. Most authors agree that fiction is primarily driven by characters. Authors will often talk about characters who take over the story, who have their own separate and independent consciousnesses. Outlines and plans for plot go out the window as characters insist on moving the story in a direction ...
How to Develop a Fictional Character: 6 Tips for Writing Great
Whether we're discussing Hamlet or Harry Potter, the best stories are not just about an interesting series of events: they're about characters. While a mastery of plot can help you develop exciting twists and turns, great character development draws readers in by giving them strong characters with whom they can identify.
Characterization: 6 Revealing Prompts to Know Your Character Better
6 Revealing Characterization Prompts. Here's the underlying principle: your characters are people. People are complicated; I suspect you might know a few. Characters are much the same way. Your reader will relate to them if they behave like people, and for characters to behave like people, they need to be built like people.
17 Character Development Exercises for Writers
Clothes for wilderness survival. Combat wear. Exercise #2: Identify a few different outfits your character might use, then describe them wearing those things. As with Exercise #1, be sure to be thorough in your details and really show how your main character could interact with those clothes.
15 Quick Writing Prompts To Bring Your Character To Life
Would you like to learn how to: Create life-like characters with purpose. Make your story come alive. Understand why characters are so important. Create characters based on their motivation and desires. Link characters to your story structure. Build your characters through a step-by-step process.
20 Free Character Writing Prompts » JournalBuddies.com
These 20 character writing prompts will help your middle school and high school students get started: Think of real people who inspire you. Base your main character on your role model. Consider writing a memoir, but make one of the main characters fictional. Use your experiences to shape the personality of the character.
20 Character Development Writing Prompts (Part I)
And I can use the appropriate genre and even real settings from my story to bring the whole thing to life. Take a look at this list of character building prompts and see if they help you unlock any new aspects of the people in your story. 1) If your character was betrayed by her closest companion, whether friend, romantic interest, or business ...
Character Development: How to Create Fan-Favorite Characters ...
1. Give the characters wants and needs. First, it's important to point out that your main character will be inextricably linked to your book's plot. As author Tom Bromley teaches in his course on writing novels, "the protagonist should shape the plot, and the plot should shape the protagonist." In this regard, the most important character building blocks are their Wants and Needs.
Character Development Definition and Examples
Character development is the process of creating fictional characters with the same depth and complexity as real-life human beings. Throughout the story writing process, the author will develop any number of character traits to fully flesh out the people that populate their stories. Good character development often includes the following elements:
Writing a Character Analysis Essay
Character analysis essays do not have just one format. However, let me offer some advice that might act as a character analysis essay outline or 'checklist' of possible things you could discuss: 1. Start with the Simple Details. You can start a character analysis by providing a simple, clear description of who your character is.
92 Fun Character Questions for Student Writers
Character Development: Writing Prompts for Students . Good characters are the backbone of any good story plot—but creating an interesting, complex character out of thin air is easier said than done. ... 103 Argumentative Essay Topics for Students; 33 Powerful Character Education Writing Prompts; 31 Funny Dialogue Prompts for Writing Hilarious ...
How to Write a Character Analysis: Outline, Examples
One of the essential purposes of a character analysis essay is to look at the anatomy of a character in the story and dissect who they are. We must be able to study how the character was shaped and then learn from their life. A good example of a character for a character analysis essay is Daisy Buchanan from 'The Great Gatsby.'.
33 Powerful Character Education Writing Prompts
33 Powerful Character Education Writing Prompts. Character Education Writing Prompts for Middle School— Character education helps kids learn more about basic morals and values and their importance in this world and in their personal lives. Character-building is often included in character education curriculum, both of which are widely taught ...
How to Write a Character Analysis Essay: Examples & Outline
If the source includes three or more authors, use the abbreviation "et al." after the first author's name. Example: (Collins et al., 1997) As for MLA format: You can write the author's name in the sentence. Example: As Collins mentions in his essay<…>.

47 Character Development Prompts To Flesh Out Your Book Characters

Key Benefits of Character Development Exercises

47 Character Development Prompts

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50 Character Development Writing Prompts

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Character Development Writing Prompts: With Free Worksheet

Physical Attributes

Personality Traits

Background and History

Goals and Motivations

Relationships

Unique Abilities or Skills

Moral Dilemmas

101 Creative Character Arc Prompts

101 Character Arc Prompts

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How to Develop a Fictional Character: 6 Tips for Writing Great Characters

Characterization: 6 Revealing Prompts to Know Your Character Better

6 Revealing Characterization Prompts

Prompt One: Parental Relationships

Prompt Two: Sibling Relationships

Prompt Three: Enemy Relationships as Children

Prompt Four: First Love (or Near Miss)

Prompt Five: First Grief

Prompt Six: Counting the Cost

Jumpstart Your Characterization

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