Often, before writing the story, a fiction writer does a character sketch to describe the main character and other important characters. The character sketch describes the character's personality, looks, likes and dislikes in a way that makes him or her seem real. The information in the character sketch may never be used in the story, but the author uses it to know exactly how to make the character act or speak.

Here is part of a character sketch for a character I once created. You can see that I thought about and answered very specific questions about the character. After reading the character sketch, you will probably be able to tell me something this character might say or do. (Hint: I am going to ask you to do that!)

Matthew Ryan Curran, Jr., a.k.a. Matt is twelve years old and lives in Wyckoff, New Jersey. He is shorter than boys his age. He has sandy brown hair and bright green eyes. His hair is very straight and fine and he wears it a bit long. He doesn't like to get it cut.

Matthew's mother is Angela. His father is Matthew, Sr. He has a younger brother named Peter, who is 10 ½. Peter is named after his dad's brother. Uncle Peter and his wife, Rita, have a 15-year-old son, Brian. Matthew feels like he is always being compared to Brian.

Matthew's father is a math teacher at a nearby high school. His mom works part time as a nurse. They are a middle-class family, but not as well off as most of the people in their town. Matthew's parents have taught him not to measure success in material terms. Matthew wonders if that is because they don't have as much as the families around them.