If you’re looking for something other than boring academic worksheets, character-building worksheets can be your best option. As a writer, you want to make your characters shine, and the quickest way to do that is to involve them in activities that really engage them. As they work, learn, grow, and become better, the reader will feel closer to their world, and the story will flow much more naturally.
Even if you already have some idea of what kind of characters you want to create, it’s always important to outline your story, characters, and events so that you can focus on making things as clear as possible. Even before you start your first draft, you should start writing up outlines. Some people use these as guides, while others just use them as a reference for the writing process. Whatever works for you.
When you’ve finished outlining, consider taking it one step further and incorporating your characters into your writing. Of course, you don’t want to go too far, but it can still be fun to incorporate your characters into your work. For example, you might consider using some of your characters as characters in a short story. This gives you a chance to see how they will react in the real world, as well as how they will interact with others who have varying personalities.
Don’t get too excited about using your characters in writing though; you need to remember that they are just there to serve the plot. Don’t let your characters lead the plot, or get all emotional over anything. Let your characters react to what is happening around them, and let the plot keeps moving forward.
The beauty of working with character-building worksheets is that they give you the opportunity to take some characters that you’ve built up in the story and move them into something completely different. They may even start off as members of the supporting cast in the beginning, but if you need a bit of something different for the story, then why not use them as the lead characters? You’ll see that the character can still be developed while you’re working on the story, and the impact will be just as good.
When you use character-building worksheets, make sure you include at least two choices. One is where the character will begin the story, and the other is where they’ll end. Having this distinction will allow you to get a good idea of the progression of your story, and determine which character is going to move forward the fastest.
Once you’ve chosen your characters, there are some other things that you should consider. Whether you’re starting from scratch or revising an existing story, you should keep in mind that the main goal of character-building worksheets is to enhance the story. Try to think of them as plot guides, and as such you should be sure to include your character as supporting characters in your story.
When you start writing, you should spend a little time thinking about each character. Be sure to discuss how the character fits into the story, what kind of relationship they have with other characters, and how they will be affected by certain events. Then, you can build on that in the first draft and allow your characters to continue to develop as you go along.
