Character Sketch
Character Data:
- Richard Parker
- 29
- Caucasian male, about 6 feet tall, black hair, green eyes
- Family Business owner
- >$200,000 a year
- Upper Class
- Parents owned the same business
- Brother, Parents
- Lives in Colorado, looking to move to New York
- Born in Colorado
- Religion is money
- Caucasian
- Golf, classical music
- No pets
- Talents: Making money, golf, plays piano
- Dislikes: Poor people, liberals
- Shouts often
- Phobias: Spiders
- Favorite foods: caviar, sea bass, filet
- Dressed in suit and tie always
- favorite color is black
- Snobby, high-pitched voice
- Wants to be a millionaire
- His favorite place is his expensive apartment
- Has few friends
- Drinks very moderately
- doesn't smoke
- Listens to classical music
- Under stress he secludes himself
- He buys things to celebrate
- To express anger he yells and throws things
- His greatest secret is that he has never had a relationship longer than a week
- His greatest desire is to be as powerful as he can
- His ugliest fault is his overwhelming greed
- A dollar sign would be a perfect symbol to represent him
Okay, Jimmy, you've painted a quick sketch of Richard that gives us an idea of him. How can you make him more complicated? This is a two-dimensional version of a person, like something you might see in a comic book. To make him come to life, you'd have to spend more time working out the details of who he is that go beyond the surface. Even the person you dislike the most is complicated-----people who are interested in earning money and whose symbol would be a dollar sign are capable of feeling the same range of emotions as people who are less interested in material things. To make the character come to life, you, as the writer, have to find a way to empathize with him so he's not flat and a caricature of a person. Why does he have so few friends? Does he get lonely? Is there something from his past that makes him need the security of money to feel safe? How do you personally relate to him? Try to find a way that you can understand the character as a real person, and then you are less likely to create a story that is skating on the surface as well.
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