Character Web

Feb 02, 2021 permanent    StoryWriting

A Character Web Schell (2015) (pg. 356-357) is a story writing tool for creating strong character relationships. You simply write down what each character thinks of each other.

Example:

Archie

  • Veronica: archie is lured by her elegance and beauty. Though she is rich, archie doesn’t care much about that.
  • Betty: archie’s true love, but her insecurity constantly gives him mixed signals, so he doesn’t pursue her as forcefully as he might.
  • Reggie: archie shouldn’t trust Reggie, but he often does, because archie always tries to be a nice guy and archie is kind of gullible.
  • Jughead: archie’s best friend. What they have in common is that they are both underdog

It can help raise questions about character interactions you may not have otherwise considered.

Related to Interpersonal Circumplex as it's another tool for building rich character relationships within a story.

References

Jesse Schell. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. CRC Press, Boca Raton, second edition edition, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4665-9864-5. ↩