The first step in writing a book is always the inspiration; the book starts with the author becoming inspired to write their book. Once the writer has become inspired to write their story, they generally begin by writing an outline or a rough draft and then they begin to fill in the supporting details to flesh out the book. These supporting details are generally character creation and setting creation. In my article “The Three Aspects of Character Creation”, I wrote about how the writer needed to create their characters so that they all had a full description of the characters’ appearance, background, and personality. However, that article did not discuss the methods a writer could use to become inspired to create an appearance, background, and personality for their fictional characters. Movies and television shows can serve as the perfect inspiration for the character creation process.

Appearance

Appearance is generally one of the easier areas of character creation as it just focuses on the appearance of the character. However, many writers struggle with this area of character creation because they cannot get a clear picture of their character in their head. Watching movies and television shows allows the writer to watch for characters whose physical appearance suits the character they are creating. Then the writer can change some minor physical traits to make their character’s appearance unique while still having a mostly accurate picture of what they want their character to look like. This is especially helpful when it comes to describing the character using only words as it is much easier for a writer to describe a picture than it is to describe an idea in the writer’s head.

New writers who have figured out a plot, but have not yet begun the character creation process, will likely find it helpful to watch televisions shows and movies. These writers should pay special attention to the physical appearance of the characters on the screen and their own views on which character appearances would be a good or bad fit for their plot.

Background

Creating a background for a character can be easy at first, but the difficult part comes in deciding how the character will react to different situations due to their background. This is where movies and television shows come in handy as the writer can look for something to watch that has a character with a similar background to the character they are trying to create. Then the writer can observe how that character reacts to different situations and if the background the writer is choosing for his or her characters is the right background or not.

Writers who are unsure of what background to use for their character can also use movies and television shows to observe how characters with different backgrounds react in different settings and situations. This is an especially useful step for new writers who have a plot figured out, but who have not yet begun creating their characters. This is the time for the writer to observe other characters from genres similar to their intended genre in order to get an idea of what backgrounds would be best for their different characters.