literature

Character Themes Template

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Daily Deviation

December 11, 2015
Character Themes Template by C-A-Harland is a useful tool to help tie your character's development to the plot of your story. Great resource for experienced writers and novices alike!
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How to use this template:

This template is not designed to tell you a character’s hair colour, eye colour, shoe size, or how they like their eggs. It is for the process of applying the core themes and elements of your narrative to your character's development, and visa versa. Not all fields need to be filled in for every character. Use your own discretion to determine which ones are relevant. You may find that you do not have all the answers at the beginning, but they fall in place as you further develop your story.


The examples given are very basic responses, and are just there to give you an idea of what kind of content you can include. Ideally you would have multiple aspects for each field.



Core Relationships and Nature of the relationship:

  • Mother - strong single-parent to child bond.

Overall theme created by these relationships:

  • importance of family ties

Core character traits at the beginning of the story:

  • selfish


Aspects of the character’s life that influenced these traits:

  • wealthy upbringing

Core character traits at the end of the story:

  • selfless

Events that led to these changes:

  • lost all his money and father

The character’s primary goal:

  • avenge his father’s death


Reflection of this goal in the primary relationships:

  • the connection is family


Core themes of the story:

  • altruism


Reflection of core themes in the character development:

  • loss of wealth leads to new understanding of what is truly important


Reflections of core themes in primary relationships:

  • would make any sacrifice for family, this extends to altruism towards others



This template is not designed to tell you a character’s hair colour, eye colour, shoe size, or how they like their eggs. It is for the process of applying the core themes and elements of your narrative to your character, and visa versa. Not all fields need to be filled in for every character. Use your own discretion to determine which ones are relevant. You may find that you do not have all the answers at the beginning, but they fall in place as you further develop your story.

Do you have any other categoies that you use for deleoping your characters? I'd be interested to hear them.
© 2015 - 2024 C-A-Harland
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LindArtz's avatar
Congratulations on your much deserved DD! :clap: