Character Development — Part E
Mental Information is essential to know what goes on in the head of your characters. It helps you to find out how they will react in certain situations. Of course, sometimes characters write themselves as the story progresses. But at times you’ll probably find yourself stuck and in that case it is helpful to have something to go back to and find a clue as to resolve your problem. Also, since Mental Information and Emotional Information are really close to each other in terms of the source, I will cover them both in this post.
Mental Information
Type of Childhood How did the character grow up? Were they sheltered, neglected, or often scolded? How we are brought up shapes us to a great extent, so if your character had i.e. a really tough childhood, then there are surely some problems that will arise for them as an adult.
Education Self-explanatory. How far did they advance in their studies? Did they only compulsory education (however far this is in your specific story), did they go to university? Maybe they were completely home-tutored for some reason?
Dream Job as a Child This point is mostly for fun, but can also can come in handy at some time. What job did your character dream of as a child? It can be casually mentioned in a conversation but can also be a starting point for a job change of your character.
Personality as a Child Of course, no one is going to be the same as an adult as they were as a child. But we often keep our most prominent characteristics even if we grow up. So, to keep it reasonable, you could list three adjectives that are describe your character's character as a child.
Favorite Place as a Child A favorite place as a child, which could be anything, can induce a sense of nostalgia and sometimes even a sense of peace of mind in a character. This point could be a place they go to i.e. if they need to be alone or when they need to think.
Hobbies in Their Childhood As with the personality, hobbies from our childhood sometimes tend to stay with us even as we advance to adulthood. This point is more of a device to compare the child and teenager/adult character.
Role Models Who were their role models in their childhood? Role models often shape the way we view the world or who we strive to become. i.e. if someone's parent is a doctor and also their role model, as a child, it is not exactly uncommon that this child would dream to be a doctor as well. Even if that can change while growing up.
Past Regret What event in the past did they regret the most? What has been such a huge blow to them that they'd travel back in time to change it?
Major Turning Point Which event in their childhood hat the greatest impact on them? This could be, for example, someone who firmly believed he would be able to save the world realizing that he is actually powerless.
Earliest Memory (*) Really self-explanatory. What is the earliest thing in their life they remember prior to the beginning of your story? This can also be a vague memory, it hasn't to be clear up to the tiniest detail.
Saddest Memory (*) As above. What is the saddest memory they have from before the story started? This can be, depending on the age of your character, i.e. the death of a loved one, a friend who moved away, a failed entrance exam, etc.
Happiest Memory (*) Also self-explanatory. What was their happiest memory up until now? This is great to be used in comparison. For example, the wedding day is said to be the happiest day in her life for a woman (yes, I know this is mostly cliché), so it could be used in a comparison like "…, I felt even happier than on my wedding day."
Clearest Memory (*) Same as above. What memory does your character remember the most vividly? This would be a memory they remember even to the smallest details like the exact time, the facial expressions of the people involved, etc.
Advice to Their Younger Self If they could somehow give advice to their younger self, what would it be? What would they want their younger self to know or to do differently?
Practical Advice Who do they turn to for practical advice? Which person around them is most qualified to give them advice to solve their problems?
Mentoring Who do they look for when they feel stuck in their life? Who is most likely to give them tips regarding their life?
Emotional Support If they feel overwhelmed or confused by their emotions, who is the person they would depend on?
Moral Support Which person would the character turn to if they feel their morals being compromised?
Personality Type This can actually be anything you could think of. Pick a synonym you can relate to the most. For example, you could put nouns like bully/saint/jock/… in here or adjectives like shy/overbearing/active/…
Type of Knowledge What do they know the most about and where did the character acquire their knowledge? i.e. someone who only reads books and never socialized with people will probably know a lot of things you can learn from books, but will have problems interacting with other people and reading the atmosphere/understanding their emotions/…
Outlook on Life Rather simple: are they an optimist or pessimist?
Attitude Toward Politics Rather self-explanatory as well. Are they interested in politics? Maybe they are indifferent to them? Do they actively take part in it? This is often relevant in fantasy stories.
Criminal Record Do they have a criminal record? What did they do? Where they put into prison for it? Is the character at risk of committing the same crime again?
Biggest Accomplishment What do they feel is the greatest accomplishment of their life prior to the beginning of the story? This can be anything from getting rid of their bad habits to saving a country.
Biggest Flaw Same as above. What does the character think is their biggest flaw? Is it the same that others would name?
Current Favorite Place As with the Favorite Place as a Child, this can be any place you want. It can act as a safe haven or a place they would bring their significant other.
Current Favorite Sound This point also seems very random, but it can also tell a lot about a person. For example, someone who prefers the quite might be someone who tends to solitary or who's life is so hectic that they need the quiet to balance out their stressful (and probably loud) everyday life.
Secrets What do they keep a secret? This, too, can be anything from certain hobbies to a crime they committed.
Skeletons in the Closet In contrast to the point above, this point covers secrets that they don't want to be found out no matter what. So, what secret(s) would they take to their grave?
Ambition Is your character ambitious? If they are, are they keeping it in moderation or are they overdoing it? And if not, are they belittling people for being ambitious?
Power Does your character place importance in power? Do they have power or do they want to achieve it? Would they be the type to abuse their power?
Love How do they approach love? Is it important to them or do they tend to push it aside? Are they awkward in handling love or are they confident?
Change How does your character handle change? Do they adapt to it well and go with the flow? Or are they completely thrown off and crumble under the sudden need to re-adjust?
Mental Illnesses Self-explanatory. Does your character have any mental illnesses? If yes, you can go into more detail here. If not, you could note down if they are understanding of the topic or maybe regard it as ridiculous because it is something that cannot be seen.
Favorite Quote Also self-explanatory. What is their favorite quote? Which sentence has inspired them? Or maybe, which quote did the character find pleasing to the ear? This can be anything that suits the character
Morals How strong is their moral compass? Do they stick to their morals even in difficult situations? Or do they maybe compromise? A good example of this would be a quote from the classic movie Star Trek III – The Wrath of Khan. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one." So, taking this into consideration, the example for compromising would be someone who is completely opposed to killing, but would readily kill someone who threatens the life of many (people important to them).
Pet Peeves What rubs your character the wrong way? This point overlaps a bit with Anger, but in this case it doesn't necessarily need to induce anger. They could also trigger confusion, annoyance, and the like.
Compliments How do they handle compliments? Do they often get some? And do the compliment others? If they do, do they get flustered themselves? What is the best/nicest compliment they ever received?
Goals What do they want to achieve? This can be a short-term or a long-term goal and as small or big as you see fit. This point can also act as the starting point for your story.
Motivation What spurred them on to pursue their goal in the first place? Do they have motivation in general or do they lack it?
Dreams What does your character dream of? This can be any kind of dream, i.e., a happy family, a stable job, a big house, etc.
(*) = This, of course, excludes cases of people who suffer from any kind of amnesia or any other memory-related illness.
Emotional Information
Greatest Desire What do they want most in their life? Here goes whatever the character wants to achieve the most. This could be anything you could think of: Money, fame, power, love, etc.
Biggest Fear What does your character fear the most in the entire world? This doesn’t necessarily need to be a fear of a certain type of animal, etc., but can also be a very specific fear. i.e., for a passionate artist, what they fear the most would probably to lose their ability to create something in their specific field like art/music/…
Humor Here goes what makes them laugh. You can list either specific things/situations or keep it generic, like they laugh about anti-jokes, slapstick, etc.
Indifference What does your character not care about? This point isn’t about not hating something but about the things that induce absolutely no emotion in them.
Anger Rather self-explanatory. What makes them angry? This can be really anything, from dog-eared pages to violence against defenseless people.
Sadness The same as above. What makes them sad? This can also be general or specific situations. Be careful though, because people can, for example, cry because they see other people crying, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the person also feels sad. Something like that is most likely due to empathy.
Happiness Also self-explanatory. What makes your character happy? Don’t add too much to this point, though. As with sadness, people can be pleased about things but don’t necessarily need to feel real happiness about it. i.e., I would be pleased if the gap between rich and poor would shrink, but it’s not like I would feel genuine happiness because of that, since it wouldn’t affect me directly.
Most Important Possession A comparison I like to use for this point is a widely known one: If you moved to an uninhabited island and would only be allowed to take three items with you, what would it be? Or, if this is too abstract for some, what would the character rescue from their burning home if they could only take three things?
Days Alone at Home This seems like a random point, but can say a lot about a person. If they spend one or multiple days at home, completely alone, what would the character do? The answer not only shows if the character is capable of living without socializing for some time, but also shows if they can entertain themselves. It tells a lot about which role a character would take in a group.
Greatest Need Please don’t confuse this with the point Greatest Desire. What someone needs isn’t necessarily something they want. It is, for example, an emotion their life is void of even though they don’t realize it. Or it could be something that would better them as a person in any way. If I had to give a rather extreme example: Someone who grew up without knowing love probably won’t directly miss it even as an adult. But that wouldn’t mean that they don’t need it, because not knowing love also means that they most likely don’t show care or compassion for others.
Mental and Emotional Information are both very vast fields and you could expanded indefinitely. I think, though, these points are the most necessary ones. Next time we will cover the last points, namely Social Information.
