Character Creation

Along with plot and world building, character creation is one of the most important aspects of a story. How characters feel, react to situations, as well as their needs/motivations (what they want), their conflicts (what they struggle with), and the choices they make is what drives a story forward.

For writing Past Remembrance, the primary responsibility for character creation fell to Michele, since the story started with her and she shared it with Katia.

Inspiration for character creation comes from many places:

• People you see in dreams.
• Someone you saw on the street or in a shop and they stuck in your mind.
• People from history.
• Someone you know or have worked with.
• A person you went to kindergarten with.
• An old teacher.
• Someone who has inspired you.
• And many more.

While a writer might take certain traits from someone they know, unless they have that person’s permission, you should not be able to identify them from the story. Basically, your nasty uncle might not like it if you turn him into the evil bad guy who meets a grizzly end.

Michele took some inspiration for one or two characters from people she knows in real life. This might include things like their sense of humour, the small things they do to help people, their smile, chilled personality, or the music they like to listen to. However, it was certainly not enough to identify anyone.

Each character was assigned a blank profile form that Michele filled in to build the person from nothing. You can see part of an example of one of these completed forms below.

There are many character profile templates available for free on the Internet, ranging from simple ones like ours to very detailed. Which one you choose depends on your plotting and writing style. Some people like to have every tiny element imagined about a character before they even start writing. Others (like us), prefer a basic skeleton and allow the character to grow organically as the story moves forward.