Get Ready for 10 Days of Character Building

October 18, 2007 by John Hewitt

The audience has spoken. Our next group project will be 10 Days of Character Building. The project will officially start on October 20th and run through October 30th. This means that it will be completed in time for anyone who wants to join in the fun and excitement of National Novel Writing Month to have their characters ready.

The 10 Days of Character Building project will consist of daily articles about different ways to develop characters for stories. The general way to participate will to be to craft a different character with each method and post your results.

If you want to take part in this project as it moves along I suggest that you:

Decide on a single story (novel, play, screenplay or other work) that you will develop characters for.
Spend some time thinking about the genre, plot and other aspects of your story so that you know what you are working toward.
Think in general about what characters you will want for your story.

Ideally, the methods we will discuss will help you flesh out your characters, but they aren’t designed to have you create a character from scratch. As we go along, it will be helpful if you post your work so that others can see how you approached each method. As a way of getting started, feel free to use the comments here to discuss your general story idea.

Note: The more people we get to work together on this, the more useful it will be, so I encourage to tell your writer friends!

Here are some of my older articles to help get you get in the mood:

Update:

Here are links to the ten character building articles:

Share and Enjoy:

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Comments

28 Responses to “Get Ready for 10 Days of Character Building”

Rianon Rose on October 18th, 2007 2:20 pm

Yeah, I was kinda hoping that you would choose this one. My idea wasn’t that great just thought that I would pitch something in. This is going to be exciting, count me in. I’ll ask my boyfriend to join in as well. He joined not to long ago, his name is Josh Sulkers.

P.S
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS
this is exactly what I need. I am in a creative writing class and I am to write a story. This will be perfect for me. Thank you so much.
Rianon Rose on October 18th, 2007 2:23 pm

P.S.

It’s 5:24 PM here
Josh Sulkers on October 19th, 2007 7:40 am

Fun Fun!!!
Michael J. Welch on October 19th, 2007 9:10 am

Count me in. I have an idea for a story that we may turn in to a video game. I’d love to make sure we have good characters in it.
Rianon Rose on October 19th, 2007 10:09 am

Michael J. Welch,

That is awsome, I definatly have to know what kind of video game your making. My sister loves video games and my boyfriend as well. I will be the first to buy it!!!! If you would like, I think I might have an idea or two for you if you would like.

Peace
Nicole Service on October 19th, 2007 11:06 am

Hey, I am new to this, but would love to participate in this. Just tell me how.
Sandra Cano on October 19th, 2007 5:05 pm

Bring it on John/Maestro, bring… it… on. ; )
Rosemary Nissen-Wade on October 20th, 2007 2:31 am

This isn’t like our Maestro to be this late (even allowing for time difference with Australia). Hope you and yours are OK, John!
Josh Sulkers on October 20th, 2007 6:44 am

Michael,

What You Are Doin Makin A Game Sounds Really Interesting, If You Ever Need A Character Or A Story Line Ask Me And I Will Try To Help How I Can
10 Days of Character Building: Defining Characters By Their Roles | Writer’s Resource Center on October 20th, 2007 9:23 am

[...] This is Day 1 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
John Hewitt on October 20th, 2007 9:26 am

Rosemary,
I posted day one on
Saturday, October 20th, 2007, at 9:21 am. I’m afraid all times are my times, not freaky Australia times. I spent the last day working on the character project, but I will post a poetry assignment tonight.
Rosemary Nissen-Wade on October 20th, 2007 12:55 pm

Oh, OK, glad nothing’s wrong. ‘Scuse my impatience in the face of all your hard work! I know it also depends where in the USA you are; you must be the other side of the country from most people I know. 5.54am here, to give you an idea of the (ahem!) Aussie time. I’m not usually up so early but we have a market stall today and I shouldn’t even be doing this…. Cya later.
Rosemary Nissen-Wade on October 20th, 2007 1:07 pm

That’s Sunday 21st, of course!
10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life | Writer’s Resource Center on October 21st, 2007 9:29 am

[...] is Day 2 of 10 Days of Character Building The day in the life approach to developing a character is focused on describing a normal day in the [...]
Rianon on October 22nd, 2007 7:54 am

Michael,

Josh is amazing at writing, So I wouldn’t hold back on asking for some help from him if you ever need any help. He’s amazing
10 Days of Character Building: Posessions | Writer’s Resource Center on October 22nd, 2007 9:01 am

[...] This is Day 2 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
John Hewitt on October 22nd, 2007 2:02 pm

I took a few days to start posting my own answers to the assignment because I needed to settle on a story idea for NaNoWriMo. I have several story ideas that I have been mulling over, but I felt I needed to choose one that was right for the competition. I didn’t want to go with a heavily plotted story because, I felt that writing quickly enough to finish a novel in a month means that I will need some flexibility regarding the direction of the story, just in case I start writing and things come out differently than I expect. If I had already mapped out every point of the plot, I feel I might run into trouble if at some point what I’m writing veers off course. Also, because of the character building assignment, I wanted a story with at least ten characters that I would care enough about to develop in detail. That let out a couple of my more intimate story ideas.

The basic story I settled on revolves around five high school friends who have been brought back together after twenty years. Some of the friends have remained in touch (including a couple who married) but one has had very little contact over the years and has returned only because of a family crisis. Each of the friends has at least one significant issue that they must deal with as a result of the reunion and those issues influence the lives of the other people. The viewpoint will jump between each of these people, and quite possibly one or two more people who are drawn into the plot at various points.
Rianon Rose on October 23rd, 2007 6:21 am

John,

That sounds Great!!!
10 Days of Character Building: Biography | Writer’s Resource Center on October 23rd, 2007 8:22 am

[...] This is Day 3 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
10 Days of Character Building: Interview | Writer’s Resource Center on October 24th, 2007 5:45 am

[...] This is Day 5 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
10 Days of Character Building: Brainstorming | Writer’s Resource Center on October 25th, 2007 1:39 pm

[...] This is Day 6 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
Rosemary Nissen-Wade on October 26th, 2007 1:19 am

Yes John, sounds like a great plot and a book I’d like to read.
Building a Character Using Multiple Perspectives | Writer’s Resource Center on October 26th, 2007 10:39 am

[...] This is Day 7 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
10 Days of Character Building: 12 Questions | Writer’s Resource Center on October 27th, 2007 11:52 am

[...] This is Day 8 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
10 Days of Character Building: Basing Characters on Real People | Writer’s Resource Center on October 29th, 2007 4:04 pm

[...] This is Day 9 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
10 Days of Character Building: Character Bio Sheets | Writer’s Resource Center on October 30th, 2007 8:37 am

[...] This is Day 10 of 10 Days of Character Building [...]
WF Vincent on October 30th, 2007 11:18 pm

Err, just wondering what happened to day 4 of 10. The dates mesh, but the day 4 assignment seems to be missing.

Sorry for the late post, just found you.
John Hewitt on October 31st, 2007 6:45 am

Hi Vincent. Its there when I look