TV WRITING & DEVELOPMENT MASTERCLASS
Character Development:
FREE Character Profile Sheet Template

Think about your favorite TV shows of all time? What made you keep coming back week to week? Maybe it was Omar singing "Farmer in the dell," or Lorelei Gilmore's coffee addiction, but we think it probably had something to do with excellent character development. 

But how can you master that level of character development in your own writing? 

You have to plan it out with our FREE Character Profile Sheet Template!  

Character development sneaks up on you. And that's a good thing. It's the breadcrumb trail that keeps the audience coming back for more, and it's how you can take your show to the next level. 

We've covered why your story needs to have legs, but even the best hook needs to be supported by strong, empathetic, and interesting characters.

To accomplish this next-level writing, you need to build a character profile: 

Who? 

It seems simple, but right off the bat we need to know who we're going to follow for the next 100 episodes. Let's start with our lead. Who are they on the outside? On the inside? What's the cast of characters look like and who populates the world? Character development only works if you have people with opposing wants butting up against one another.   

What?

Now that you know who's in the story, it's time to provide some backstory. What's happened to them that defines them? Do they have a secret past? A haunting trauma? Also, what's happening to them now? Are they up for a promotion? Starting a new career? Character development has to take into account the past and future.  

Where?

It may seem secondary, but where a story happens matters in a character's profile. Are we in a border town in Arizona? Madison Avenue? Or Stars Hollow, Connecticut? Hey, Atlanta is a TV show about how its characters deal with an entire city! When you're fleshing out your character development, take time to figure out how the location can reveal something about the characters, and how the characters can help define the location.

That all make sense? There's a lot to do with character development, but it's only one episode in our seven episode series. Writing and selling a great TV show is not easy, but we'll be there to help along the way. So check out all the episodes and get writing!