Questions for Creating and Developing Character
- Dylan Day
- Mar 22
- 3 min read
This is a concise blog post detailing a series of questions for creating and developing character. This is particularly useful for actors and writers to dig into the mind of their characters, tease out new ideas, and ensure that either their performance or writing does not become a cliche. Let's get to it.
QUESTIONS FOR CREATING AND DEVELOPING CHARACTER
The four main (but rather broad) questions are as follows:
1. Who are you? (name, age)
2. What are you? (profession)
3. Where are you? (where in the world)
4. When are you? (what period in history)
5. Why are you in the play/film/novel? (what is the character’s purpose)
6. What do you NEED and how are you going to get it?
These are a great way to paint the shell of a character and understand their motivations. However, characters that only react to or pursue a plot can become emotionless and boring for the audience to watch or read. These next set of questions will probe deeper and potentially reveal some exciting idiosyncrasies that will make your character memorable. They are the ultimate set of questions for creating and developing character.
FURTHER QUESTIONS FOR CREATING AND DEVELOPING CHARACTER:
Birthplace?
Culture?
Childhood upbringing?
Parents?
Names
Jobs
Who did you have to become for them to love you?
Whose love did you crave the most?
Were they good to you?
Did you love them?
Describe the family culture in a sentence
Siblings?
What were they like?
How were they treated by your parents in comparison to you?
What do you find funny?
What are you afraid of?
Who are you in love with?
First sexual experience?
Major need in life
Partner?
How do they affect you?
What do you hide from others?
What animal would you be?
What is your philosophy?
Best & Worst parts of your personality?
Friends?
Job?
Workplace culture
Predominant emotional state
Life-changing moments
What would you change about your life?
Favourite colour
Favourite food
Favourite music
Favourite books or magazines
What do you find exciting?
What are you looking forward to?
What do you avoid?
What kind of house would you be?
What kind of car would you be?
What kind of material?
Whilst this isn't a prescriptive list of questions for creating and developing character, they should motivate some interesting creative decisions. That's what you should always think when asking yourself these questions: how can I translate that into performance? Or how will it serve the plot of the story that I am telling? (Two more questions to balance, I know!)
MORE ADVICE FOR CREATING AND DEVELOPING CHARACTER
I always find that the best way to create character is to talk about them in normal conversation as if they are a real person. That's what I have done for the cast of The Falling Sun. Often, I use Mr. Friston (the bristly proprietor of the Californian Friston Farm) as an illustration of morality, or compare him to characters on TV or in other novels. My sister does the same, and so anyone listening in would think that Mr. Friston was a tangible person who they could telephone or Google.
On that note, make your characters have online presence. Make them appear in the search engine with a fully fledged backstory (as crafted with help from the above questions), or set them up on social media. They need not post, but their sheer presence will be archived online, and they slowly start to become noticed, real.
I shall have to try this myself now!
Ultimately, find the humanity in your character. And if you're not playing a human, still find their humanity. This doesn't just mean their thoughts and feelings, but what they say, how they say it, how they carry themselves, how they laugh, how they cry - their tiny (or large) mannerisms. Dickens was a master at this, painting colourful, larger-than-life characters verging on caricature.
What makes your character human?
That's the greatest question for creating and developing character.
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