How to work with characters

In a 250-word to 350-word piece, it is ideal that your piece has 1 – 2 characters only.

Why?

To reduce complexity and to focus on character exploration.

Additionally, only focus on 1-2 attributes of the character. But make sure, they complement the story. For example, if you've got a scary setting, add description that relates to that – so not smiley faces. Types of attributes are:

• What are they like?
• How old are they (roughly)?
• What do they look like?
• How do they speak?
• What do they like? What are their favourite things to do?
• What do they want? Who do they like?
• What is their relationship to the other main characters in the story?
• What is their main activity in the story, or the reason for them being there?

Try to create characters who you think are:

• Relatable: if you were the one reading about them, you would understand why they behave how they do in the story, and you would identify with them
• Interesting – don't write about something that you think you would find dull yourself
• Varied – don't make everyone in your story the same.
• Keep it simple – don't overthink the characters and spend more than 10 seconds coming up with a character.

What not to do with characters

It is highly recommended that you do not:

• Mention ‘side’ characters.
• Name characters if their name is not important.
• Provide attributes about the character if they’re not important to the story.
• Have multiple characters – adds to complexity and can make the piece less manageable.

Examples

Watch video to see worked example/s for the following image prompts:

Topic	Simple Setting & Character
	Woods. Wombat – no name written in first person.
	Lake. John and David – rowers and brothers (see image).I came up with the first 2 names that popped up in my head (2 seconds).
	Concert. Jane – concert goer.
	Bustling City – doesn't need to be specific e.g. a name. John, a visiting student from the countryside.

Key rules to remember

• Keep to 1 character or two max.
• Avoid mentioning characters that are not part of the story.
• Characters aren’t just people, they can be places and animals too!

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

The questions in this checkpoint are provided to help you develop your writing skills.

To do your practice questions, click on the below to download your question paper. You can print it out or work from the electronic version. We do recommend that you write your answers by hand in a notebook or on paper.

NW-CP7-Questions.pdf

Once you have completed your questions, review the suggested solutions. You can download (and print if you wish) the PDF suggested solutions and/or watch the suggested solutions video (all below).

Once you're done with reviewing the practice question suggested solutions, move on to the next checkpoint.

NW-CP7-Answers.pdf

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