Good morning Christian Writers – can you believe a week has passed since talking about passion last week? Gulp – how time flies! Anyway, here’s a new tip for you, with an exercise I hope you will enjoy, as well as helping you create well-rounded characters. 🙂

You will probably have spent a good deal of time thinking about your protagonist: what he looks like, how he will interact with others, his back story. But writing your thoughts down can help to crystallise your ideas.

So . . . how about dividing a page into four?pizza

Head each quarter with the following subjects:

  1. Likes and Dislikes
  2. Flaws
  3. Strengths
  4. Motivations

Likes and dislikes: Anything pertaining to the story!

Flaws: What are your protagonist’s weaknesses? What will the ‘baddies’ be able to exploit? What will make for an inner conflict, or cause him to stumble in his quest?

Strengths: What strengths does your character possess that will help him to win through in the end?

Motivations: What does your protagonist think about when he gets up in the morning? What does he hope will and won’t happen in his life? What motivates him to action?

Once you have drawn the bones of your character, set him free on his adventure (and I hope he doesn’t get hanged, drawn and quartered!). You can of course do this exercise for each of your characters.

Tip for a writing group (or to do with a writing buddy):

Do the above exercise about a character from a book, without revealing his identity. Pass your paper to your writing buddy, who has to write a short story about the character you have depicted. Enjoy!

Janet Wilson, founder of Dernier Publishing and Write for a ReasonPlease share this post with your writer friends if you have found it useful!

Happy Writing,



Divide Your Character Into Four

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