trying to organize myself, to type finished stories into GDocs for editing, and unfinished ones for finishing, and ideas for storying. In the process I came across a grad school notebook and shared a bunch of marginal doodles -- and just now came across an undergrad notebook that has, among other things, some of the handouts from my first Creative Writing course with Dr. Naton Leslie.
One of those handouts, which I think a lot of writers might find very useful, is a pair of checklists for major/round characters and for minor/flat characters - things to understand and know about your character going into a story to help them be all fleshy and complex.
It’s looooong, like three printed pages long, so I’m tucking it behind the cut. Feel free to use it, share it around.
Flat and Round Characters
All characters need to be vividly rendered, but not all characters can or should be rendered with the same complexity. That’s why we make the distinction between flat and round; flat characters being those dominated by a single characteristic and round characters being those complex enough for internal contradictions -- like real people. We generally hope that our principal characters will have enough complications to achieve roundness, and we generally relegate our flat characters to minor roles. Likewise, round characters tend to change, and are therefore dynamic, while flat characters usually do not, and are static -- like cartoon characters, who don’t even get hurt when they are shot in the face with a cannon.
What follows is a fairly exhaustive checklist for your characters, both flat and round, major and minor. Before you write a story, you should be able to give all this information about a character, whether you use any of it or not in the story.
The Main Character Checklist (Round and Dynamic)
Name
Nickname
Reason for name or nickname
Physical Appearance
Age
Date of birth
Place of birth
Hair color
Hair style
Eyes
Glasses?
Skin tone
Type of skin
Shape of face
Facial hair/make-up
Weight
Height
Build
Special physical characteristics
General health
Specific health problems
First thing you’d notice
What the character considers his of her best characteristic
What the character considers his or her worst
Preferences/Tastes
Favorite Color
Favorite foods
Favorite drink(s)
Music
Favorite song
Reading
Favorite movie
Leisure activity
Clothing
Work
Play or relaxation
Favorite article of clothing
Shoes
Jewelry
Smoker?
Smokes what?
Drives?
Drives what?
What kind of driver?
Where do they live?
Live alone?
Roommate?
Family?
Reasons for living situation
Describe pets
Family and Personal Life
Married/Single
Previous marriages?
Sexual orientation
Living with lover?
Name and age of spouse/lover
happy/unhappy relationship
Children
Outside relationships
Previous romantic/sexual relationships
Childhood
Father’s occupation
Mother’s occupation
Relationship with character
Income group
happy/broken/dysfunctional home?
Siblings
Names and ages of siblings
Relationship of siblings with characters
Other significant family members living or dead
Background and Personality
Religious upbringing
Present religious practice
Education
Career/job
happy/unhappy in career
Income
Future hopes/plan
Fears
Worst problem
Special gifts or talents
Good traits -- acknowledged?
Bad traits -- admitted?
Philosophy
How is this character changing?
Friends
Same sex
Opposite sex
Attitude toward money
Who most influenced character’s life
Describe that person
Who does the character trust most?
Who does the character trust least?
What doesn’t the character understand?
What is the character’s greatest refret?
What is the character most proud about?
What are the character’s prejudices? -- admitted?
What is the character’s most valued possession?
Who is the public figure the character most admires?
What would the character write on their own gravestone?
Minor Character Checklist (Flat and Static)
Character’s name
Nickname
Reason for nickname
Age
Occupation
Religion
Most vivid physical characteristic
Most vivid psychological characteristic
What does this person want most?
What does this person fear most?
What would this character’s theme music sound like?
Choose five other questions/categories from the Major Character Checklist
These lists of attributes can be added to, or elaborated on. A good test of the usefulness of the list is to try to fill out the major character list using a good friend-- you should be able to do so. You should know your character at least as well as you know a good friend.
= name (a way to make character names special is by giving them a name that means something sentimental to them or telling of their personality in another language like a french name)
= age & birthday (you can also make certain characters birthdays dates that have sentimental meaning for example a character based of your friend could be the day you met them)
= motivations for their actions throughout the book/series a.k.a why the protagonist is on the 'good side' and why the Antagonist is on the 'bad side' (this is important in understanding the characters personality and how/why they feel in certain ways in some situations)
=backstory (this is supposed to truly show the readers how & why the Antagonist chose the 'bad side' and the protagonist the 'good side' it is also in a lot of cases the reason for their motivations)
