Character Development Lesson Plans

Character Development:

Lesson 1:
To understand how conflict shapes a character and how as an individual you might dictate how you would react in certain situations, you are to create a character. Include all of the details listed below to help you create a ‘character’. To do so well, you should feel by the end of this process that you could actually sit down next to this individual (that you’ve created) and have a conversation with them. That you know them so well, you could engage in deep conversations. By working on this activity, you will learn how this person chooses to resolve conflict, approach it, or even try to keep conflict at bay. Make this character real to everyone else.

Write no less than three pages about a character that you’ve created for this lesson.

This is a topic that we discuss in screenwriting. Listed below is a questionnaire that you can use to build your character. You’ll be using this character in future lessons.

Note: Some of these questions have been taken from The Book of Questions for the purposes of developing characters.

Attributes:
Name, Nickname
Appearance: gender, age, height, weight, hair color, style, makeup, clothing
Race:
Physical abilities or limitations

Background Information:
Socioeconomic Class
Religion
Place of birth
Place and time of story
Parent’s Conflicts: race, socioeconomic level, religion, habits, quality of relationship with children
Brothers/Sisters/Significant Other/Relatives (profile each): race, socioeconomic level, religion, habits, quality of relationship w
Family Structure/Life: