Character Writer is writing software that will help you flesh out your characters. I have been looking for character development software since I found Character Pro 4 a number of years ago. When I found Character Writer during an unrelated search, I downloaded it immediately. Here are my findings.
Installation and Setup
The installation of Character Writer was nothing but a drag-and-drop process for me. PC users may have to use an installation wizard. I have no idea how the installation process works on Linux computers.
User Interface
Character Writer has a simple user interface, although it looks decidedly like Windows. The icons at the top of the screen are not pretty, as are the buttons on the section headers in the sidebar. I like how you can skip around to the different sections. You can also use the navigation on the bottom of the screen to move from section to section.
Character Writer Help Window
I was hoping to import my own image into the character profile, but I seem to be stuck with Character Writer’s cartoon images. Unlike regular Mac applications, you cannot import your own images with the drag-and-drop process.
If you have any questions about how this character development software works, click on the blue question mark in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will bring up the Character Writer Help Pane, where you can learn all about character development, enneagrams, story modes, and get help with the program. You will see this blue question mark icon on every page of Character Writer.
Features and Performance
The Basic Information panel is the first thing you will see when you open Character Writer. If you already have your character’s basic information, you can fill out the form and press Continue at the bottom of the screen. Alternately, you can click on any of the subtopics in the left sidebar, such as the Personality pane to add more information to his profile.
Character Writer Software Interface
Other features in the Basic Information panel include a Name Generator and a Character Generator. I didn’t find the lists for the girls and boys names all that large.
The Instant Character Generator will produce a character’s name, age, marital status, whether they have children, and their level of education. You will need to add the details of their appearance, psychology, notes, and character pad.
The Psychology panel is interesting because it lists a variety of mental illnesses and psychological disorders. Click on the term to get a definition. You’ll find three sections: Psychology, Psychological Disorders, and Further Development. The Psychological Disorders section is for answering questions about how the disorder affects your character’s life.
The Relationships panel offers a Generate feature that gives a suggestion on how your character relates to other characters that you have created. This can produce an interesting concept for a new story or a dud.
“Amber and Joan Smith often connect in their pursuit of making a better world. But Amber can feel criticized and react with a only-one-right-way stance when Joan Smith questions Amber’s loyalty. A circle of blame can result when Amber feels nothing can make Joan Smith secure and Joan Smith feels nothing can satisfy Amber.”
The above quote is an example of what Character Writer will suggest, based on one of nine different personality types. In this example, Joan is the Skeptic and Amber is the Perfectionist. Out of curiosity, I changed Joan’s personality to reflect The Boss.
“Amber and Joan Smith often connect in pursuing causes related to fairness. However, conflict arises over their many opposite traits. Amber may experience Joan Smith as overly aggressive and insensitive. Joan Smith may experience Amber as rigid and inhibited, disconnected from valuable desires and pleasure. Joan Smith responds by disregarding limits and becoming confrontational. Amber may counter this with scathing criticism.”
As you can see, the second scenario is completely different. Test out the combinations of the personality types to determine what could make a good plot.
The Story panel contains four sections: Story Arc, Story Beats, Further Development, and Scene Ideas. The relationship generator added answers to the main question, but you will have to answer the other questions.
Other features are located in the tool panel at the top of the screen. The Idea Catcher lets you jot down ideas and paste them to the copyboard. Switch from paned mode to writer mode. Let the spellchecker catch your typos. Change the theme of your interface with one of 11 color schemes.
Value
Character Writer does not overwhelm you with a hundred questions, like other writing software programs. While I liked the generators contained in Character Writer, I felt that they are not perfect. I would be more inclined to use my common sense and imagination than to trust software to create characters for me from scratch.
If I were to buy this software for character development, it would be to organize the ideas that I come up with or gain new ones from the questions that I would have to answer.
System Requirements
Character Writer is available in a variety of languages. The CD contains the Windows version only. However, you can download Windows, Linux, and Mac versions directly from the TypingChimp website. Download the free trial and let me know what you think.
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This seems pretty cool. I’m surprised there isn’t a web-based version of the tool. If you’re looking for something a bit quicker and less dense, we have a character generator at Generatorland.com as well.
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Me, too. I checked out your plot generator. Those plots are pretty wild.