Building Character

Guess the Character Red Riding Hood This character is a young lady. She lives with her mother and likes to visit her grandmother nearby. She often takes her cake, especially when she’s unwell; perhaps stopping for flowers on the way. She frequently wears a red coat with a hood… Red Riding Hood

Guess the Character Harry Potter This character is a teenage boy, but no ordinary boy. Although he lives with his aunt and uncle during the holidays, his school – a rather special school – is far away, and can only be travelled to on a special train. At school he is extremely well-known, not least because of a rather prominent scar on his forehead… Harry Potter

Guess the Character James Bond This is a man who loves danger. He works for Her Majesty’s Government as a secret agent, and travels extensively across the world, fighting with terrorists and criminals to protect Britain’s interests. He is often referred to by his code name: 007… James Bond

Guess the Character Peter Pan The boy who never wanted to grow up, this character wears green and loves to fly around the magical land of Neverland, playing with faries and mermaids. Peter Pan

Lesson Objective To understand how to build character

What makes a good character? All stories need to have credible characters. What do you think this means? Readers need to be able to understand a character’s thinking, and feel as if they can relate to them. They need to feel they can picture them in their minds, and they need to care about them enough to keep reading.

Characters in short stories Short stories will usually have just one main character. Why do you think this is?

Before a writer starts writing a story, it is important that he or she has a clear idea of who their main characters will be. Many people mistake characterisation as simply a physical description of the main characters, but this is not enough. Characters must have a back-story. You can only make your character believable if you know them inside out. A writer might decide things about their character which aren’t even used in the story; but those facts may have helped the writer shape the character’s actions or description in the story.

Draw a table like this one into your books Character’s name: Physical Description Summary of their life to date Personality Values / beliefs Relationships

Choose one of your characters. Picture the following scene. Your character wakes up from a bad dream, and is getting ready to face the day ahead. Write two paragraphs introducing them to the reader and explaining what’s going to happen, and how they feel about it.