If you’re like me, you get pretty serious about creating characters who leap off the page. That’s why you’re going to love this new character design tool.
At One Stop for Writers, our team’s built something truly game-changing: the Character Builder—a smart, intuitive tool that does so much more than organize backstory. This isn’t just another worksheet or profile template. It’s a guided system that helps you develop fully dimensional characters with emotional depth, organic motivations, and powerful arcs that resonate.
You already know and love our thesauruses and brainstorming tools. They’ve helped writers all over the world bring authentic, layered characters to life. But this Character Builder? It levels up your process in a whole new way.
A Tool that Works the Way Writers Think
What makes the Character Builder different is how it’s connected to everything else in our library: emotional wounds, behavior lists, fears, misbeliefs, motivation types, and more. As you enter details about your character, the tool intelligently suggests ideas that align—guiding you toward stronger, more cohesive character development without the overwhelm.
Let’s say you start with an emotional wound. The Character Builder will show you the natural consequences of that wound: the fears it might create, the misbeliefs that could take root, and how those might influence your character’s behaviors, habits, and choices. It even helps you uncover your character’s fatal flaw—the internal struggle they must face if they’re going to grow and reach their story goal.
Not sure which wound fits? You can add your own—and the Builder still helps you brainstorm what could grow from that experience.
Or maybe you want to start with your character’s goal—the thing they’re chasing in the external plot. The Character Builder can help you clarify exactly what that looks like, what skills they’ll need to succeed, what’s at stake if they fail, and (most importantly) the inner need driving that goal in the first place.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Start Anywhere, Go Deep
There’s no set path—you choose where to begin. Whether you want to build a character from the inside out or outside in, you can jump in wherever inspiration strikes. Use our suggestions or add your own ideas. Plan as little or as much as you need.
The Character Builder adapts to you.
The Best Part? Your Character’s Arc—Mapped Out!
When you’re done planning, the Character Builder automatically generates a Character Arc Blueprint—a visual map of your character’s inner journey, based on the information you’ve entered.
Need to switch from a Positive Change Arc to a Tragic or Static one? You can. Want to explore what happens if your character fails their arc? It’s built in.
Whether you’re working on a protagonist, antagonist, antihero, or even a supporting character, this blueprint helps you stay true to their arc as you draft—no second-guessing or backtracking required.
Becca walks you through the Character Builder here if you’d like to see it in action:
If you’d like to try the Character Builder tool yourself, just sign up for a free trial and start creating a character. Happy writing!
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
How long is the 70% off coupon code good for?
Diane, you can add the coupon to your account any time through the end of February. Even if your current plan doesn’t roll over before then, as long as you add the coupon to the coupon box on the My Subscription page before 3/1, the discount will be added to your next invoice. Please note, though, that particular coupon can only be used for the 1-month plan.
I’m test driving the Character Builder. Already I can see I can’t live without now. 🙂
I have a subscription to One Stop (which I just renewed) and want to make sure the Character Builder is included.
Thanks for all your wonderful resources!
I am so glad you are loving the tool. We really feel this is something new for writers, allowing you to go into more character detail much faster. 🙂
I watched Becca’s tutorial and this tool looks aMAZing!
I’m so glad, Donna! Truly, we are all so excited about it because we’ve used it ourselves and we can honestly say that it works. It just streamlined the whole character creation process and made it much more intuitive. If you give it a try, let us know what you think!
Ah, I get it–I thought the character builder was separate. Thank you, that’s brilliant. xxm
Oh yes, it’s all part of One stop for Writers. It’s good to be a member! 🙂
I signed up for the Character Builder, choosing the one month subscription and entering all the required information.
I am unsure how to now access the Character Builder. Where to I go to find it?
Hi Donna. 🙂 Did you watch the video on the home page? It is quite helpful for navigating to the Character Builder if you have not yet done so.
Once you log in, go to “My Workspace” (top yellow tab). The My Workspace is like yoru creative desk, and all your tools, worksheets and items can be found there. To the right you’ll see a brown tab that says “New” so just scroll down to the Character Builder. It will prompt you for the character’s name, and then you’re off to the races. 🙂 have fun!:)
Hi there, Angela. This looks fabulous! I’ve looked but can’t find the cost of the one month plan for the character builder–would like to know this before I make a decision. Thanks
Absolutely you should investigate that. There’s a link in the bottom of the page, but i’ll add it here to make it easy for you to find: https://onestopforwriters.com/plans
Happy to answer any questions you have. Happy Valentine’s. 🙂