Easy Character Creation with Sudowrite

One of the most important aspects of writing fiction is constructing compelling characters. A great character can bring a story to life, draw readers in by eliciting an emotive reaction, and transport us to other worlds.

I write paranormal cozy mysteries. For those unfamiliar, cozy mysteries are a popular book and television show genre that rotates around a small-town crime or murder. They usually feature an amateur sleuth as the main protagonist, and that sleuth tries to solve the mystery with the assistance of others in their community.

Those "others in the community"?

There are many of them.

Many, many, many of them. (My first series has 128 named characters.)

That gigantic cast is a big part of what makes cozy mysteries so appealing: the many supporting and tertiary characters work together to create an intriguing setting for the story. While I may have to create an above average number of folks as a de facto requirement of my genre, every story in every genre can benefit from believable supporting and tertiary recurring characters.

A supporting or secondary character is a character in a story who is not the main focus of the plot but is important to the plot or protagonist. Tertiary characters populate the story's world but are not always linked to the main plotline.

It's not always easy coming up with so many supporting/tertiary characters, especially if we don't need them for the plot.

Luckily, Sudowrite has you covered.

Characters

Click Plugins ˇ at the top of your Sudowrite app.

On the drop down, you'll see Twist, Characters, Poem, Summarize, and Feedback. Click Characters.

All you need to do is tell Sudowrite about the story you're crafting, fill out some basic information about the characters you already have (like age, gender, and profession) which will be used to create the new characters you want.

Once completed, Sudowrite will take this information and create unique characters that match the style of your examples.

I need a few extra people for my next book, so I'll first describe my story's premise:

A paranormal cozy mystery that takes place in small town Central Florida. The protagonists are four witch sisters with various magical abilities, but everyone else in the small town is human.

And I'll give Sudowrite three established characters and minimal basic information to start with.

…and Sudowrite will give me a character in a similar style.

Thomas Swanson definitely matches. He makes potions, so Sudowrite picked up on the paranormal. Most of the character examples I gave are older folks, and he's closer to that age range. The name itself even fits in nicely.

At this point, I'll compare it to what I had in mind. Usually, I'll snag it and build on it—but if something doesn't look quite right or doesn't fit, I simply change a few elements provided and try once again. Sudowrite retains the original input data above the output so I can edit it and resubmit once more to get the character closer to my ideal.

Once I've nailed a simple sketch, I use Describe to build up that character's description.

Sudowrite simplifies character creation and allows us writers to quickly create a detailed, consistent character profile with just a few clicks. This not only speeds up the character creation process, but it also ensures that all of the details are accurate and consistent throughout the story.