Character Development Sheet

For creative writing class I assigned a character development sheet.  The purpose of this assignment was to begin developing a character he will use in a future writing project.  This is meant to get him to think about his characters before he builds the story.  So he knows what motivates them to react to things and situations.  What motivates them to do something?

A good story is built on the foundation of good characters.   Think about the books you have read.  The characters you fell in love with.   Sometimes we relate to a character in a very emotional way when reading a piece of literature.  Millions of young ladies and women found something in Edward Cullen they wanted in their lives.  Or Jacob.  These young men came alive on the page for the readers.  They had clear motivations.  They behaved according to their personality.   Harry Potter, beloved by millions, changed and grew gradually over the course of his series.  He continued to work on the side of good in the age old battle of good versus evil but along the way there were times he wondered where he truly stood.   Where those around him stood.  He grew up and matured but retained his core values.

These are the characters every writer wants to build.  These are the characters we have to teach young writers how to build.  To help with this I have created a resource called the Character Development Sheet.  I have shared this and will give the link to download a printable version, it is a word file.

A quick look at what this sheet is:

Creative Writing

Character Development Sheet

Name of character:

Age of character:

Physical Description (be specific: hair color, length, eye color, skin tone, facial marks such as freckles, height, weight)

Personality (funny, sad, talkative, etc):

History of character:

Dreams, Desires, Goals of character:

How would this character express/feel happy?       

Sad?

Mad?

Surprise?

Click here to download and print this worksheet