Purpose & Personality

We have learned tools for creating a story from character first. We have learned tools for creating a story from plot first. This chapter puts another element first: theme and setting.

How does it work?

Divide every character into two parts (two columns or lists, if you want):

• Purpose: these are their beliefs. (The core of the character, as I’ve called it throughout this course.)
• Personality: this is everything else. (The less important fine details.)

Once you have the beliefs of your main character, turn the biggest one into the theme for your story.

Notice that their purpose is always framed as a belief. You can’t write “wants to win a gold medal” there. That’s not a belief. But you can frame it as such, if you think a little longer. For example: “Believes the value of athletic achievement is greater than the value of family”.

This naturally leads into the theme of the story: “the value of (athletic) achievement”

You can probably tell why I like this approach. It separates the “things that matter most” from “the details that are nice, but less important”. The best characters come from interesting beliefs. The best stories revolve around one theme that is explored through the characters.

As such, it’s best to apply this technique to all characters, and to give them all a different belief related to the same theme. In our case, you might

• Add another character who believes achievement does not matter
• And another one who believes achievement matters, but not more than family
• And another one who believes achievement trumps everything, no matter what

Doing this, you naturally create a cast of characters that performs more like a “society”. Your cast of main characters provides a diverse image of the whole setting in which your story takes place. But it’s not complicated or messy, as this snapshot is focused entirely on one theme.

An example

Maybe you want to write a story around … love. So you try to find a belief around it. Maybe something like: “Believes a romantic relationship is necessary to lead a fulfilling life.” This is the purpose of your character.

Their personality could be anything. Those are details you can fill in as you write the story, or as you need them.

Now you have your theme: the relation between romance and a fulfilling life.

So you add other characters related to it.

• One believes they’re better off alone.
• One believes love is important, but it’s a trap and they are very cautious.
• Another is jumping between lovers every week like it’s nothing

Now you have a set of beliefs that are certain to clash and cause conflict in all your scenes.

The actual details, the personalities around it, can be filled in however needed as you go.

Now write

Use this approach to design characters! Then write a story with them.

The important part is that the character’s purpose is framed as a belief, which must be challenged by the plot.

The other important part is that this is separated from “personality”. You do not need to know that beforehand. You can already start writing and fill in those details as you go. It’s, in my eyes, a nice balance between planning/outlining and improvising the story as you go.