Questions to ask your character

[Oddball]

(I thought about putting this in the tips for fanfiction writers, but I didn't want to clog up the topic.)

So, you're going to make a new Katawa Shoujo character for your story.

Cool. Good for you.

Now I suppose you've already got the basics figured out. Name, looks, basic personality, disability, all that stuff, right? (If you don't even have that, by all means, stop right now and figure at least that much out.) You probably even have the basics of your story worked out.

Allow me to state again, that's cool.

This is just a little thinking excersie I put together maybe I could have spent a bit more time and came up with better questions, (there's probably even a few redundant questions) but I thought this was a good start. And it's not just for your original characters either. Answering these questions for the established cast such as Hanako or Emi might give you a few new ideas as well.

Don't be afraid if you don't know the answers or if they don't apply. ... and for God's sakes don't try to work them all into the same story. Nobody needs to know the answers but you.

This, however is intended to make you think about your character in ways you probably haven't, flesh them out some, and perhaps make them into more three dimensional people. So let's go ahead, sit down with your character and have them start answering questions for you.

100 questions to ask your characters.

1. What is your oldest memory?
2. As a child, what were your favorite activities?
3. How do you react to getting sick?
4. Who would you like to play you if they ever made a movie of your life?
5. What is the most embarrassing thing ever to happen to you?
6. Do you have a nickname? What is it, and where did you get it?
7. Where do you sit in class? Who sits to your left? Your right? Behind you? In front of you?
8. What different hairstyles have you had in the past?
9. What's your favorite color?
10. What do you do when you're stressed out?
11. What is the easiest way to annoy you?
12. What time of day is your favorite?
13. What does your voice sound like?
14. Are you right or left handed?
15. What, if anything, shocks or offends you?
16. What TV shows do you enjoy?
17. What three things do you consider yourself very good at?
18. What three things do you consider yourself very bad at?
19. What kind of weather is your favorite?
20. How do you "dress up?"
21. How do you "dress down?"
22. What do you wear when you go to sleep?
23. In your opinion, what is your best feature?
24. Who was your best friend when you were growing up?
25. What do you most value in your friends?
26. Is there any sexual activity that you think you'd enjoy that can be considered non-standard? (Bondage, Fantasy Play, etc.) Why do you think you'd like it?
27. Do you have a birthmark? Where is it? What about (non-disability related) scars?
28. What type of movies do you enjoy?
29. What do you think is “over rated”?
30. What kind of humor do you prefer? Toilet humor, vulgar, slapstick, morbid, etc.
31. What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, movies, art, etc.)?
32. What's something that turns you on?
33. What's a definite turn-off?
34. What type of places do you hang out in with your friends?
35. What if your favorite thing to drink?
36. What is your most prized possession? Why do you value it so much?
37. What was your favorite toy as a child? What was your favorite game?
38. Do you enjoy school?
39. How do you spend a typical Saturday night?
40. Do you prefer time alone or with other people?
41. Image you're doing some rather though spring cleaning. What do you end up throwing out?
42. What is your favorite animal and why?
43. What is in your refrigerator right now? On your bedroom floor? On your nightstand? In your garbage can?
44. Do you prefer cold weather or hot weather?
45. Do you prefer sweet, salty, sour, meaty, spicy, or neutral tastes?
46. Have you ever been in a physical fight before? Over what, with who, and who won?
47. Do you tend to save up your money or spend it immediately?
48. What footwear do you normally wear? Sandals? Dress shoes? Worn out boots? Are you sneakers old and full of wholes or freshly bought? Do you bother to match your socks?
49. How would you like to look if you could change your appearance?
50. What is the best thing about your condition?
51. When have you lied to your best friend? What did you lie about?
52. If you could master any skill instantly, what would you choose?
53. What song is “your song”?
54. What do you think is wrong with MOST people, overall?
55. What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
56. What trait do you find most admirable in others?
57. How ticklish are you? Where are you ticklish?
58. What is your deepest, most well-hidden sexual fantasy? Would you ever try it?
59. What job would you like to have after you finish school?
60. Have you ever attempted suicide or intentionally hurt yourself? Why?
61. Who is the person you respect most? Why do you respect them?
62. If you could stay at one age forever, what age would it be?
63. What things are you afraid of?
64. What do you like that you think most other people don't enjoy?
65. Are you a better leader or a follower?
66. What bad habits do you have?
67. What is the worst thing about being you?
68. If you were to gain an obscenely large sum of money (via an inheritance, a lawsuit, a lottery, or anything else) what would you do with it?
69. What is your favorite food?
70. What are you a fan of? (Sports teams, tv shows, actors, etc)
71. What subject are you best at in school? What's your worst subject?
72. What would be the perfect romantic date for you?
73. What words of phrases do you use frequently?
74. What is your biggest secret?
75. What kind of things embarrass you?
76. What do you spend more money on than you feel you should?
77. What would be the perfect gift for you?
78. Who are your parents? What are they like? Describe their looks, personality, occupation, etc.
79. What hobbies do you have?
80. When do you do your homework? Right after school? Before you go to bed? First thing in the morning?
81. Do you tend to argue with people or avoid conflict?
82. What secret does your character have that they will NEVER tell anyone?
83. What do you believe makes a successful life?
84. What was the last good book you read?
85. What was the last costume you wore for a party, convention, ect and why did you pick that one?
86. What is the first thing you do when you get home after school?
87. What kind of clothes do you like to wear?
88. What's one thing you tend to do when nobody else is looking?
89. Name one adult that you're not related to that has been important in your life. Why were they so important?
90. What's your room number? Who lives next to you? Do you get along?
91. What's the very first thing you do when you wake up?
92. What's one thing you have in your room that you used to use a lot but don't anymore?
93. What would be your dream job?
94. What is guaranteed to make you smile?
95. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
96. Do you enjoy being outdoors or would you rather stay inside?
97. Who do you think about when you start feeling lonely?
98. How good would you say you are at picking out gifts for people?
99. Do you normally remember your dreams? Describe the last dream you can remember having.
100. What's your favorite Holiday? How do you celebrate it?

Bonus Questions for the author!
What is your character not as good at as they think they are?
What word or words does your character use incorrectly?
Who thinks your character is unlikeable and why are they right?

[brythain]

That's an excellent list. I used to make lists like that, and then roll a d% (two ten-sided dice to generate a random number from 00 to 99) to decide which question to ask next. To do this to more than a few characters would create helluva lot of potential depth. The next exercise, I think, would be to ask why the answers to these questions were so.

[d2r]

This is actually quite useful; I'm going to copy this into a text document onto my hard drive and use it as a reference in future writings.

Thanks for the effort you took in putting this together!

[SpunkySix]

Wow, this is highly applicable to writing characters in general, for pretty much anything. Cool.

[Oddball]

Glad some people can get some use out of this.

I went looking up similiar lists when I went to make this, but only found a handful of questions that i felt were usable. Everything else seemed to apply ONLY to supeheroes, vampire, roleplaying characters, or other types that had some special abilities and higher goals in life. I needed something non-action based and more down to earth.

[CoffeeDrive]

Thanks man, Im the design stages of two new characters that need to be deeply thought out, and this helps greatly.

[azumeow]

Daaaammmnnn. I was.....considering writing something, and this is a good way to flesh out the OC I have.

Don't expect anything out of me, though, my writing is decent at best, and my motivation is practically non-existent.

[LorSquirrel]

Have I ever told you how awesome you are, Oddball? If I haven't then I should go shout it from the rooftops because this list was exactly what I needed to kick my writing spirit back into action.

[Munchenhausen]

This is so fantastic because it doesn't necessarily apply only to Katawa Shoujo OCs.
I knew there was a reason I keep coming back here. Thanks, lad!

[ParagonTerminus]

Question 27. Dat engrish.

"Dear character, does you have a birthmark?"

[Oddball]

Question 27. Dat engrish.

"Dear character, does you have a birthmark?"

And fixed.

[Zykes]

Having had my character designed years before this was put up, I decided to use it to see what kind of person he is.

Surprisingly I had some interesting insight into the inner workings of my character (which for my Fanfic's sake, I will not really talk too much about.)

Though something I thought about in general with the questions, or rather some insight.

When making a character and filling things out (or asking these questions) Are you making a progressive personality type of character. who is developing over time, or an established personality character who is always clearly defined?

[Oddball]

Though something I thought about in general with the questions, or rather some insight.

When making a character and filling things out (or asking these questions) Are you making a progressive personality type of character. who is developing over time, or an established personality character who is always clearly defined?

I'm not quite getting what you're trying to ask here.

[LorSquirrel]

I think he's trying to ask if this type of thing is helping flush out newly developed characters through the questions asked, or is it just there to reinforce the already established character personality that you already thought through.
At least I think that's what he's trying to say. I can't be entirely sure.
Only bad thing about this list for me is that it has caused me to start writing entirely new characters for things other than my fanfics

[Oddball]

I think he's trying to ask if this type of thing is helping flush out newly developed characters through the questions asked, or is it just there to reinforce the already established character personality that you already thought through.
At least I think that's what he's trying to say. I can't be entirely sure.
Only bad thing about this list for me is that it has caused me to start writing entirely new characters for things other than my fanfics

I don't see why it couldn't be used for either.

For new characters, you're working from scratch but with existing ones, there's still a lot of things you're going to have to think about that you probably didn't before and that's going to give you a new way to look at some characters.