[chuchutrain]: 63.Excercises.Building Believable Characters: part 1

Background:

1. Choose a gender.
-Female
2. Choose a place of birth
-Edmonton, Canada
3. Choose a hobby.
-writing
4. Choose a past job.
-waitress in a diner
5. Choose a present job.
-Hotel front desk
6. Choose a past love interest.
-Kyle Halgor
7. Choose an enemy.
-Maya Ty
8. Why is your character not working at the old job?
-she moved away from Edmonton with her family because her father got promoted.
9. Why is your character not with the old love interest?
-they couldn’t handle a long distance relationship
10. Why does your character not make the hobby a profession?
-she believes it is just a hobby and she wouldn’t be happy doing it for a living, she feels that if she was to turn it into a profession she would get bored too fast.
11. How did your character make the enemy?
-Maya’s parents are family friends of her family and Maya always makes her look really bad.
12. What is the one thing in the world your character would do anything to avoid? Why? What has he already done to avoid this? What do you see him doing in the future to avoid it?
-She will do anything to avoid becoming too reliant on someone. She has seen so many people get hurt because they have become to reliant on others and she has a small fear of the real world and not being able to make it. She always does things for herself and won’t let anyone do things for her unless she really needs their help. In the future she doesn’t want to get too attached to anyone other than her family (that’s just inevitable).
13. What is the one thing in the world your character would do anything in the world to have? Why? What has he already done to try to obtain it? What does he hope to try in the future?
-A fulfilling life. She wants to live life to the fullest so she can die knowing she held nothing back and she did her best in life. She takes every opportunity that comes her way, no matter what it is.
14. Where did they grow up?
-Edmonton, Canada
15. Where do they live now?
-Toronto, Canada
16. How do they vote, or don't they bother (if they are old enough)?
-Even though she has many opinions in politics she doesn’t like to vote because she finds that it is pointless since all of the politicians have hidden agendas.
17. How many siblings do they have - any older, any younger?
-She has one older brother who is the age of 27
18. Are their parents still alive?
-Her father is still alive but her mother passed away a few years after she had her
19. What do/did their parents do?
-Her father is an architect and an engineer
20. Where did they go to school, and what was their favorite subject?
-Edmonton, her favorite subject was Language Arts because it helped her in her writing and it gave her a chance to write stories.
21. Who was their best friend, and have they kept in touch?
-Naomi Sweet, they have kept in touch but rarely get to talk to each other or see each other.
22. Who was their favorite relative, and why?
-Her uncle Jeff because he always did cool things with her and always spend time with her. He always was there for her no matter what happened.
23. Do they/did they get on with their parents?
-She gets along quite well with her father but they have their disagreements now and then.
24. What is their favorite food, and what would they never eat for all the tea in China?
-Favorite food is seafood and pasta. She would never eat Durian (Chinese fruit that stinks real badly).
25. Favorite drink?
-White Hot chocolate with a shot of hazelnut syrup in it.
26. Favorite color?
-Red
27. Regional accent?
- Western Canada
28. What do they do for a living - and what is their dream job?
-Her dream job is to become a web designer or computer graphics artist.
29. Do they have a partner, and if so, how did they meet?
-none
30. What is the closest they have ever come to dying?
-She went to Spain with her brother and they went running with the bulls
31. How do they spend their weekends?
-Working, writing, and going out with friends
32. What are their tastes - and would they be different if they had unlimited money to spend?
-She likes the look of more modern things or things that don’t look so elegant. No it wouldn’t change.
33. What is the name of your character?
-Riley Sara Jacobs





The Physical:

1. How tall are they?
-5’7’’
2. How old, precisely?
-24
3. What color is their hair - and is it natural?
-Black with dark purple chunks in it. The black is natural but the purple is dyed
4. Eyes – color, size, sunken, protuberant, heavy lidded?
-Brown eyes, slightly squinty and slanted due to her asian heritage.
5. Skin color?
-darkly coloured skin, almost as if she had a nice tan.
6. What do they like to wear?
-comfy casual wear.
7. Picture them walking down a street - how do they move?
-she moves with confidence and she always seems like she knows what she’s doing or where she’s going.
8. Give them an outstanding feature - something that will always identify them: a birthmark, a scar, big ears, a big nose or small feet – the first thing somebody would notice when they saw them.
-a birthmark right below her left ear
9. Something they would never go out without – the more unusual you make this, the more your character will take shape. Do they always have a backpack? Do they carry a snapshot of an old lover? Would they rather be caught dead than not have a clean handkerchief in their bag?
-she always has a messenger bag and her Ipod.

~Riley walked into the office with her head high in confidence and a slight bounce in her step as she neared the front desk. Her hair tied back showing the dark purple that hid beneath the thin layer of black. She walked up as her glazed over brown eyes met with the receptionists.



© Stephanie Chu, 2006