Michael Patrick 8. What colour are their eyes?

Exercise to create character inspira- 9. What colour is their hair?

10. What colour is their skin?
tion 11. How is their posture?
Two pages. 12. How is their personal care?
On one page, pick a word which pleases you or 13. What is their vocal quality?
a word you like or a word which gives you pos- 14. How attractive are they?
itive connotations. On the other page pick a External world
word which annoys you or a word you dislike 1. Is their mother still alive? What was her oc-
one a word which gives you negative connota- cupation? Are there any special characterist-
tions. ics about their mother? What was the nature
With 3 minutes per page, play a stream of con- of their relationship with their mother as they
sciousness logical connections game: what is were growing up, and what is their relation-
the first word that comes into your head on ship now?
reading the previous word? E.g.: Dog, cat, tiger, 2. Same as above for father.
balm, weather, storm, thunder, strike, baseball 3. Do they have any siblings? How many? Do
etc. Keep going, go as fast as you can, do not they share the same parents? Where are they
think about it! in the order of things?
Spend 3 min on the first page and three min on 4. Are there any other important relations in this
the second page. person’s life, either now or in the past? Who
Look at each sheet and see if any of the words was that relation and what was the nature of
inspire you to create a character. It could be a
their relationship?
single word you use for inspiration or it could
5. What was the character’s lifestyle while
be a lot. E.g.: From the list above, we might
growing up? Where did they grow up and
have a baseball player who is scared of thunder
what was it like?
and keeps a tiger as a pet. Try and create two
6. Did they have any hobbies or interests?
separate characters; one from each list. Try and
7. Does your character carry any emotional
think of what their relationship could be to each
other – do they know each other? What might scars from past family life experiences?
bring them together in the space of a play? What 8. What is the character’s marital status? If they
are their wants and needs? Can they have con- are married, for how long? If they’re di-
flicting wants and needs? vorced, for how long and how did the split
affect them?
Character Description Questions 9. Do they have any children? What are their
Creating characters – here is a list of questions names, ages, genders? What is the nature of
you can use to cement the idea of a character in their relationship with their children?
your head. This can be done very slowly and 10. Do they have any close or long-term friends?
methodically, really taking your time over it. A Who are they? Describe the nature of their
more fun way is to do it as fast as possible and relationship and briefly describe those
try not to think too much. Just get answers down people? How important a role do these
as fast as you can – this will force you to make friends play in their life?
decisions about your character. Afterwards, you Place in the community
can go through all your answers again slower 1. Occupation: what do they do and how long
and edit anything which doesn’t make sense or have they been doing it for? How does the
which contradicts other things. But often when
character feel about their job?
writing very fast, we can make more surprising
2. What is the character’s relationship like with
discoveries.
their boss or co-workers?
Physical characteristics 3. Where was your character educated? How
1. What is their name? much education did they get?
2. What is their gender? 4. What is their economic class? What is their
3. What is their ethnicity? annual income?
4. What is their age? 5. Does your character have any political affili-
5. What is their date of birth? ations?
6. What is their height? 6. Does your character have any religious affili-
7. What is their weight? ation? If so, how active?
7. Are they a member of any other organisa- 8. What is the influence of their sexuality on
tion? them?
8. Can you pinpoint exactly how they spend 9. What is the influence of their spiritual life on
their spare time? (This is important as it’s the them?
one area where the person has freedom to 10. How strong is their sense of morality?
choose). Do they like being on their own or 11. Does your character have any major secrets?
in the company of others? 12. What are your character’s personal goals?
9. What is their dream holiday and who would Are they realistic or unattainable? Are they
it be with? positive and life-affirming, or are they negat-
ive and self-destructive? Are they selfish?
How strongly does your character feel about
Internal world these goals?
1. How intelligent are they? This includes emo- 13. Have they had any major disappointments in
tional intelligence as well. life and if so, what are they?
2. What is your character’s basic attitude to- 14. What special quality or talent has your char-
wards life? acter got?
3. How would you describe your character’s
Blind date dialogue exercise
personality? What would happen if areas of
Get your character to answer the following
their personality were pushed to the extreme?
questions as if they were on a blind date.
4. How would you describe your character’s
1. How are you?
general sense of self? Are they comfortable
2. Tell me about yourself?
with who they are?
Another character exercise is to write down (as
5. What is their level of self-esteem and self-
fast as possible) 50 things your character re-
confidence? Do they feel superior or inferior
members and 20 things your character wants.
to others, or somewhere in between?
The key here again is to go as fast as possible,
6. What do they think when they look in the
and once you are finished, delete any bad ones
mirror?
or ones that don’t make sense.
7. What is this character proud of, what are they
You should end up with maybe 10 things they
ashamed of?
remember which are good, and 5 things they
want which are good.