Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Resources for character development

I have found character sheets for online roleplayers in MMOs to be very helpful for fleshing out characters; after all, the main thing that their writing is based off of is their character and the ...

posted 10y ago by Rinari7‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T00:46:27Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12252
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Rinari7‭ · 2019-12-08T00:46:27Z (over 4 years ago)
I have found character sheets for online roleplayers in MMOs to be very helpful for fleshing out characters; after all, the main thing that their writing is based off of _is_ their character and the world.

Obviously some points have been added to the character sheets to accomodate the peculiarities of the fantasy/game world, but they're easy enough to delete/change when copying the sheet over into Word/Open Office.

Forcing myself to fill these out--and fill them out extensively--has always been very helpful for me to invent a well-rounded character whom I know well.

Obviously a lot of this has to come from your own creativity, too. It wouldn't necessarily occur to me to list "narcolepsy" under random quirks without a lot of practice in thinking outside of the box.

Unfortunately, I can only post two links because of my current reputation, so I had to cherry-pick out of the many different resources for roleplayers (and therefore character-building) I found.

- [A player character description template and interview for the game of Aion](http://aionroleplayers.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5332)  
I am not recommending this necessarily because of the quality of the character described here, but because of the templates and interview, which can be borrowed for personal use and filled out for your own characters.
- [A "30-Day" Questionnaire covering most aspects of a character](http://asgardianthunder.tumblr.com/post/12903597383/the-most-in-depth-30-day-character-development-meme) which can be filled out in far less than 30 days.

At the end of the day, loves, hates, motivations, and a distinct voice and "feel" will make your character stand out to the reader, and I assume that's what you're going for. These are just tools to maybe help you figure that out.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-06-23T10:09:04Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 3