Writing and Completing an Efficient Character Development Sheet for Your Books and RPG's

Hey fellow writers! Are you looking for a great Character Development Sheet to help develop with your amazing characters? Here is how I made a Character Development Sheet, and how you can make your own!

Step 1: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step One: the Basics

To start creating a Character Development Sheet we need the 'basics', or facts we probably already know. The 'basics' I used are: Name/Nickname, Reason for Name, Birthday, Age, Gender, Race, Birthplace, Residence, and Job. You can add any other basic facts to this section.

Remember, as you are creating your 'basics' section, make sure this is information you and/or the reader probably already know.

Step 2: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Two: Direct Contact

The next step in creating our Character Development Sheet is to add 'Direct Contact' The next three on my Character Development Sheet are the character's direct contacts, or family and people (Or animals) they rely on, or personally know. You could also add enemies, employees, partners, or any other contacts your character may have.

Step 3: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Three: Digging Deeper

Our third step is what I call 'Digging Deeper'. This section is made of the character's more personal feelings and skills. You could add more personal/emotional information about your character such as: Your (Character's) vices, virtues, typical attitude, quirks, habits, etc.

Remember, this is were the details about your character will begin to develop.

Step 4: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Three-and-a-half: Personality

Another very important part of 'digging deeper' is the character's personality. Personality is a huge part of a character. In fact, the personality is what makes a character a character. Every author has a different way of tackling personality. Often times in a story, the character's personality changes, so you could have a 'personality before' category, followed by a 'personality after' category. I just use the word personality as my category, and change what I wrote for my character as it feels necessary.

Step 5: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Three-and-three-fourths: Personality Musts

As I began writing this step, I discovered the most efficient way to show what should be included into personality was an example. So, before I share my example, let's establish a few things: the character in the example, let's call him Joe, is a 13-year-old student going to an American middle school, he has a friend named John who does everything with him, and a horribly boring history class. Got it? Here's the example:

Happy-go-lucky and a little forgetful, Joe is carefree and pretty laid back. Though he comes off as dumb at first glance, he knows a lot more than you would think, and is quite a prankster. He also is one of the only students who can stay awake through History (Believe it or not, he usually is the one who lends John notes, as well as the rest of his class). When in a troubling circumstances, Joe is the kind of guy who stands and stares in disbelief.

Now, to show how to tell what must be in a character's personality, I'm going to break down the example.

"Happy-go-lucky and a little forgetful, Joe is carefree and pretty laid back." - This first sentence shows the true and first glance qualities of Joe.

Step 6: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Four: Appearance

Fourth, we need to add one of the most important parts of a Character Development Sheet: appearance. Next to personality, appearance is essential to a character. When writing an appearance section of your Character Development Sheet, you have mainly two choices: either to have specific categories, like in my example, or a vague category such as only using the word appearance. Usually, the more categories the better, because you have more to go off on. This stays true with most steps, but if you are not going to give your character a very specific appearance, just using one word goes a long way, like the personality section.

Step 7: Creating a Character Development Sheet: Step Five: Finishing Touches

Finally, to conclude your Character Development Sheet, you can add any finishing touches. Finishing touches can be anything from the character's most prized possession, to languages they can speak, to quotes they've said, to anything you feel would belong on the Character Development Sheet.

Thanks for reading my Character Development Sheet instructable!

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments!

Thanks!