Your characters feel off and unengaging?
Follow the Character Creation templates.
Next-level character sheets that will help you uncover your characters’ true potential.
Characters can make or break a story, we all know that. And we all know that to engage the reader, they need to be life-like, real as real people.
But there’s something that is even more important: what if they feel real, but they don’t lead the story?
Discover everything you need to know about your characters to make them essential to the story
Crate characters that fit their character role, from protagonist to supporting character
Design a cohesive personality including: physical description, psychology, backstory, cultural environment
Here’s what readers think of stories written with my method
Give your characters a life outside the story.
Is this good advice?
Like me, you’ll have seen multiple times – and maybe even received – the advice to learn a lot more about your characters than you will ever show in the story.
Generally speaking, this is good advice. You do need to know many things about your characters that you will never actually see in the story (though they will be there!).
But! There is a big BUT here.
Don’t go overboard!
This is what happened to me.
I was having problems pinning down my protagonist’s personality. So I looked around the net to find a solution, and I found one of those super detailed questionnaires that supposedly help you build an all-around life-like character.
I grabbed it and started filling it up.
Very soon, I started to question whether I really needed to know my character’s favourite cake when she was 6.
Yet, I decided to trust the process – until more complex questions came up. I distinctly remember the question that taught me a crucial lesson: In 10 years, your character will celebrate an important breakthrough, and she will invite all the most important people in her life to that party. Who will be there?
I did try to write the answer. I was still trying to trust the process. But insidious questions slipped into my mind. How many people will she meet in 10 years? Who will be important enough to be at a party that celebrates her breakthrough? How many of them are in my story? Do I really want to spend this energy to create a parallel story that has no impact on the story I’m writing?
I understand the thinking behind this kind of questionnaire: they want to nudge you to think outside the box and about your characters as real people.
This is a good intention, but – in my opinion – it rarely works.
Yes, you need to know a lot more about your characters than you will ever explicitly show in the story, but you don’t need to know everything. Your characters don’t need to be real people. They need to be powerful characters.
This workbook explores characters in great detail but always focuses on what impacts the story and the characters’ decisions. Those are the things that will make your story more solid, more engaging, and ultimately unputdownable
This bundle is made up by two workbooks:
Character Creation, exploring how to build a powerful character. It’s divided into two sections:
Protagonist Creation explores the peculiarities of the main characters, particularly the protagonist and their mirror image, the antagonist.
Here you’ll find:
How to build a character
A practical guide to building compelling characters who effectively support the plot.
How to build a protagonist
A practical guide specially dedicated to building the most important character in the story: the protagonist.
How to build conflict
A complete guide to building intense conflict that drives the story and keeps the readers glued to the pages.
Templates to build characters
Lots of templates that guide you step-by-step in creating any kind of character
How to build a character arc
A complete set of templates that help you design a coherent and compelling character arc.
How to build antagonist
A practical guide to building an effective antagonist that serves the plot and strengthens the story.
REFUND POLICY
This mini-course will give you all the tools you need to unlock your story. However, if you finish the course and you still don’t know how to continue your story, I will gift you one power hour with me to brainstorm your story and figure out an ‘unlocking strategy’.
If we can’t figure out a solution in that hour, I will refund the course 100%.
