Developing Your Work
This activity is designed to help you make edits to a piece you have already started, by making decisions about the role that characters make in your story.
Make a list of all the characters that appear in your piece.
Read through the character types in the table below and write the role that each of your characters plays next to their name.
These character types are designed to help you think about the role which different characters are playing within your narrative and what their role is within the story. If you’re not sure about a character's role, are they really needed?
Not all plays or stories will contain all types of character and one character can play multiple roles.
The more developed and complex your characters are the more interesting your piece will be so think carefully about which ‘flat’ characters you are including and what you can add to make them more interesting, even if they only appear in one scene or say a couple of lines.
If you are writing a prose piece then you can include as many characters as you wish, if you are writing a script then think about the maximum number of actors that you would like to work with and consider whether there are any characters who could be combined to simplify the story.
Not all plays or stories will contain all types of character and one character can play multiple roles.
The more developed and complex your characters are the more interesting your piece will be so think carefully about which ‘flat’ characters you are including and what you can add to make them more interesting, even if they only appear in one scene or say a couple of lines.
If you are writing a prose piece then you can include as many characters as you wish, if you are writing a script then think about the maximum number of actors that you would like to work with and consider whether there are any characters who could be combined to simplify the story.
