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Kokiri-frantic

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:33 pm


I got these questions from someone at the writers forum, I do not take credit for them:

The first thing you do is a "character sketch," which is a basic overview of your character. You look at your character's mental traits, physical traits, behaviour, emotional traits, and motivations. Answer the following questions:
1 ) How well adjusted to others is my character?
2 ) Is my character shy or uninhibited?
3 ) In what ways has environment influenced my character?
4 ) What are my character's particular problems?
5 ) Is my character meeting or avoiding responsibilities.
6 ) How does my character react to all of the other characters in the story?
7 ) Does my character unknowingly avoid the main issues and situations?
8 ) Is my character cynical, talkative, rowdy, tense, aggressive, charming, friendly, fearful, envious, courageous, or idealistic? Why?

...And then after you've done that, you can go on to score your character, which is a more in-depth look into how your character is portrayed and relates to the story.

1 ) How does the title relate to your character?
2 ) What is your character's main sense of urgency? (What strong impulse motivates your character to act?)
3 ) If your character has a secret, what is it?
4 ) What rhythm might you associate with your character? (A faster one? A slower one?)
5 ) What sound might you associate with your character?
6 ) What is your character's master gesture? (A master gesture is their signature movement. For example, Captain Jack Sparrow does that hand thing when he talks.)
7 ) What is your character's leading center? (From where do they walk? Does their head lean forward toward where they are going, or is it their chest or pelvis?)
8 ) What color might you associate with your character?
9 ) What object might you associate with your character?
10 ) What animal might you associate with your character?
11 ) What are your character's two primary senses?
12 ) Does your character mask feelings and behaviours?
13 ) Does your character have a sense of humor? Is it used positively or negatively?
14 ) In real life, would your character be your friend?
15 ) What is your character's most positive trait?
16 ) What is your character's status in the world. Does he/she have money and power?
17 ) What are your character's major wants and desires?
18 ) What is your character's major objective in each scene that he/she appears in?
19 ) How does your character go about achieving those objectives?
20 ) What is your character's life objective?
21 ) How does your character go about achieving that life objective?
22 ) Has your character changed by the end of the story? How?
PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:54 pm


I'm going to use it first as a test, I'm using it on my NaNoWriMo MC

1 ) How well adjusted to others is my character? Well adjusted. Jack is open minded. He get's along well with people once the ice is broken. He can get along in life but he as trouble getting out from dependence and leaving on his own. He acts a lot like his father.
2 ) Is my character shy or uninhibited? My character is pretty shy.
3 ) In what ways has environment influenced my character? Jack lives in the suburbs of the year 2049. He grew up in this crowded area but hadn't noticed how crowded it was. He loved his childhood, saw it as a dream. Now that he's at work in the big city he sees how even more crowded the cworld is. He's having trouble going off on his own (other than working, which he works at a very important Space agency).
4 ) What are my character's particular problems? People won't listen to Jack except for his family. He is very young in the working agency and people don't take him seriously. He's also struggling with the dillema of following his passions or settling for a family (his father tried both and divorced)
5 ) Is my character meeting or avoiding responsibilities. My character takes every responsibilty given to him but he wish he could get out of that habit and start his own projects.
6 ) How does my character react to all of the other characters in the story? He is very loving and cares for everyone. If someone mistreats him or someone else he will feel no respect towards that person. He's open minded and close minded people frustrate him.
7 ) Does my character unknowingly avoid the main issues and situations? He wants to hit them face first but he thinks he doesn't have the power to.
8 ) Is my character cynical, talkative, rowdy, tense, aggressive, charming, friendly, fearful, envious, courageous, or idealistic? Why? My character is quiet in public, chatty at home. He's quite a joker and sometimes when he's lucky he comes up with good comebacks. He get's this attitude from his father. He's also quite the dreamer, he gets this from his childhood looking up at the stars.



1 ) How does the title relate to your character? I don't have a title yet, but it will probably reflect on his accelerated growth (not literal but on the timeline) and how Earth is tiny in the universe, and the new planet made of ice full of vile killing aliens. yup something symbolical that links them.
2 ) What is your character's main sense of urgency? (What strong impulse motivates your character to act?) Anything that's fun and interesting or privileged. When he can get his name out there (just like his dad)
3 ) If your character has a secret, what is it? He wish he could steal a spaceship and go in space, yes not o big, he also wishes his parents would get back together.
4 ) What rhythm might you associate with your character? (A faster one? A slower one?) he is medium, yup he not black or white, he sees both sides of things.
5 ) What sound might you associate with your character? their dog, representing his loyalty, honestly I don't know
6 ) What is your character's master gesture? (A master gesture is their signature movement. For example, Captain Jack Sparrow does that hand thing when he talks.) He smiles a lot, often when he jokes. He looks up to the sky.
7 ) What is your character's leading center? (From where do they walk? Does their head lean forward toward where they are going, or is it their chest or pelvis?) his whole body
8 ) What color might you associate with your character? a soft beige
9 ) What object might you associate with your character? stars
10 ) What animal might you associate with your character? scorpion (it's his astrological sign)
11 ) What are your character's two primary senses? his eyes and his nose
12 ) Does your character mask feelings and behaviours? no because he's not eccentric to an embarrassing matter. He is shy though and wont know how to show how he feels at first. When he has an idea though most often he will bottle it in thinking he doesn't have the power to make things change.
13 ) Does your character have a sense of humor? Is it used positively or negatively? He really does. He doesn't use it to hurt anyone's feelings. The only time it's a little bit mean is when he is being sarcastic to reply to someones insult. In general he pulls off pranks on people, especially his mother.
14 ) In real life, would your character be your friend? nope, he's 20 years old. I would probably find him too goody, but perhaps I would, sometimes we never know.
15 ) What is your character's most positive trait? His passion
16 ) What is your character's status in the world. Does he/she have money and power? He has a job at an important space agency but hes new and has no power. He's well payed but he's not a millionaire. He might be going back to school to eventually become an astronaut.
17 ) What are your character's major wants and desires? He wants to go in space and land on a new recently discovered planet. He also wants his parents to fall in love again.
18 ) What is your character's major objective in each scene that he/she appears in? He wants to open up space for everyone.
19 ) How does your character go about achieving those objectives? he talks about space, dreams about it, etc.
20 ) What is your character's life objective? Live a great and adventurous life. Get his name in history.
21 ) How does your character go about achieving that life objective? He is becoming an astronaut and landing on a seemingly dead planet.
22 ) Has your character changed by the end of the story? How? Yes, he has started from a fetus to a 50 years old man, and he dies from aliens. But honestly he goes from more passionate to fearful. But in all he is always glad of what he's doing.

Kokiri-frantic

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