Worksheet Action Step(s):

Action Step #1 – Your character backstories:

Write backstories for each of your common character roles listed in the previous Action Step

Please use a separate word processing application to write backstories for your cast of characters

Now that you have an idea of the common character roles you need in your story, it’s time to mold and develop these characters.

Create your own cast of characters using each of the common character roles diagnosed in the previous action step and write their backstories. You can also jumpstart your characters using the Character Creation Cheat Sheet.

Note: All common characters – both major and minor – need backstories. 10-20 pages of backstory for major characters is not unusual. Also, due to the extensive length of backstories, no space to write your answers is included inside this action step. Please use a separate word processing application to write your full backstories for each common character role.

Additional recommendation: Do not focus on the names of your characters. Of course, a name will be important to the story (and character) but securing a character’s name can often slow the creation process and even prevent backstories from being written. Please simply focus on creating your characters and writing their backstories – and trust that you’ll be able to assign the right name(s) once you’ve done the most important work related to creating your characters.