How to Make a Great Character

     So this weekend I went to a thing called Thespian Festival. Thespian Festival is basically a giant convention for acting and you can learn many things at it. From the technical side of shows, to how you can correctly portray your emotions, there was a lot of things you could learn. One major thing I learn was how to make your characters better in writing. As someone who really enjoys writing I feel that after going through that seminar I can now make my characters a lot more realistic and personal. Now I know I did a blog post on this topic a few weeks ago but now that I have learned a lot more I feel like this post can help expand on that idea.

                

     Well there was really only one major thing the speaker really talked about and it was something he called the “Questionnaire”.  The “Questionnaire” is a series of 77 questions to ask about your character, but you have to act like you’re asking your character these questions and not yourself. These questions can range from simple questions like Age, Gender, Education, and things of that mater, to questions that might seem a little strange like Vocal quality, What do they look for in a partner, stuff like that to questions you probably have to think really hard about and don’t even make a lot of sense like, do they think wrestling is real, do they believe in UFO’s, or even what position do they sleep in. Finally you get to the hard question, questions that even you yourself might not want to answer like, who do they hate, what is their greatest fear, to finally what is there biggest secret.  

     Now I know some of these questions don’t make that much sense to ask, but if you think about there important. Even though the questions may not portray to the story, if you don’t know the answers to them, then you don’t know your character well enough. And if you don’t know your character then what is the point of writing. I personally believe that this idea of the “Questionnaire” is amazing because it helps you find things about your character that you may have never thought to ask. So I would like to make the list available for people, but I don’t know if I am allowed to put it on the internet, so instead let me give you an idea, make a list of questions to ask your character. These questions from anything, serious, funny, stupid anything just make sure you know enough about your character before you write.