Generating Character Ideas

The first task we were set on Thursday's lesson was to think back to our two chosen story lines we had developed from the previous session, pick one out of the two and then out of that story and decide who would be our protagonist, opponent, ally and opponent ally. I chose my story of the Detective with a Cocaine addiction who had been set the task of finding a thief that had stolen something from a royal manor. The protagonist of this story was the Detective. The opponent was the criminal/thief that had stolen from the manor, that eventually the Detective would have to find and confront. The ally I chose was the Detective's new assistant picked by his boss for the case and they get on straight away like a house on fire. Finally, the opponent ally I chose was the Police Chief/Detective's Boss as he starts off as an opponent as he doesn't trust the detective and thinks his addiction will get in the way of his case, but he then discovers he's wrong.

After this was completed, I picked one character from this story line to develop fully and design a character profile for them. I chose the Detective. There were a number of things I had to fill in about my character, which was useful as I was developing my ideas as I went along.

Character Profile no. 1
Name: Howard Fisher
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Education: School, College, University - Criminal Law
Hobbies: Playing the saxophone, drinking rum, his cat, cocaine, going to the bar.
Job: Detective
Parents: Mother died, Father in home
Favourite music: Jazz & Classical music
Dislikes: Small spaces, any type of organisation, paper work.
Characters strong points: Intelligent- never needs to write anything down, pays attention to detail, good drinking buddy.
What people find irritating about this character: Messy, unorganised, shy without alcohol.
What motivates this character to get up in the morning: Saxophone, get new cases from work.
Their dream: To persue Jazz and to find that special someone.
You would hurt this character by: making references to his Mother, pointing out his Cocaine addiction.

We then had to do a second profile and I chose my protagonist of my other storyline.

Character Profile no.2 
Name: Edward
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Education: school, college, university - Oxford - English degree.
Hobbies: writing, photography, watching wildlife documentaries, going out with friends.
Job: Journalist
Parents: both very wealthy, live together in a house in Virginia Water.
Favourite music: Classical, Indie.
Dislikes: People being late, procrastinators, people not being realists.
Characters strong points: sets his mind to any story, determined, amazing writing skills.
What people find irritating about this character: takes things to seriously
What motivates this character to get up in the morning: work, the idea of a good story being out there.
Their dream: To pursue photography further and travel the world, to prove himself to be a good journalist despite previous problems
You would hurt this character by: telling him he's not good at his job.