"Diamonds are forever!"

Now we get into some advanced stuff. The concept of the character diamond was invented by screenwriting teacher David S. Freeman, and has been adapted to serve DP's purposes. It's challenging to grasp - but once you have mastered it, you'll find you can come up with a fascinating, memorable and engaging character on demand in a matter of minutes.

A character diamond is four words that encompass the temperament of a character. Temperament is a psychology term that means "a person's inborn, unchanging, permanent personality." Of course you'll want to make up all sorts of flaws and quirks that your character can eventually overcome (such as racism, naivete', phobias, et cetera), but every character also has certain traits that make him who he is and never change. That's what the character diamond is all about! It is called a diamond because it has four "points," but also because it is permanent and unchanging... character diamonds are forever!

Because you're trying to encompass an entire temperament in four words, each word should cover as much territory as possible and not overlap the other three. For a thorough discussion of character diamonds and innumerable examples, see our message boards. For now, enjoy a simplified "step by step" guide.

  1. Write down a description of your character's personality using as many adjectives as you possibly can. Write down at least twenty words, and make sure you have a decent balance of unflattering and complimentary words.
  2. Cross out any words that describe only temporary states, or traits you plan to eliminate in your character over time. Keep only those that describe your character's permanent, unchanging temperament from birth until death.
  3. Look at the words you have left and try to "sweep" them into four different "corners." Words that seem to go together, like "impulsive" and "passionate," might go in the same corner together. Words that don't have anything to do with one another, like "sociable" and "spiritual," or even seem to contradict, like "practical" and "superstitious," should go into different corners.
  4. Now look at each "corner" and try to find one word that encompasses every word in that corner. "Impulsive," "passionate," and "quick-tempered" might go under "impetuous," for example. "Spiritual" and "obedient" and "lawful" might go under "religious."
  5. Test your four final adjectives - your "traits" - against one another. Can a character have one trait without necessarily having the other? If so, both words belong in the diamond. If not, choose the more accurate word, eliminate the other, and come up with a fourth trait.
  6. Make sure at least one trait is negative, and at least one is positive.
  7. It's often a good idea to pick one trait that is typical of your race, one that is typical of your class, and one that is unusual for your race/class. The fourth trait can be whatever you like, but there are some suggestions in our message board thread for a good way to pick traits.

Having trouble coming up with words? On our race and class pages for World of Warcraft, we have included a list of typical traits that a character of that race/class might possess. For your "unusual" trait, just pick the opposite of one of those. Below, also, is a partial listing of traits used by other DPers for you to chew on if you're feeling stuck.

AMIABLE ARROGANT ARTISTIC BITTER BOLD BRUTAL CALLOUS CAREFREE CHATTY CHEERFUL CIVIL CLEVER CONFIDENT COUNTERPOISED DARK DECEPTIVE DELICATE DETACHED EARTHY ECCENTRIC ECOLOGICAL ELEGANT EMOTIONAL EMPATHETIC FEARLESS FIERY FRAIL FUN-LOVING GIRLY GREGARIOUS GUILEFUL HARMONIOUS HAUGHTY HONORABLE HUMOROUS IMPATIENT IMPETUOUS IMPRESSIONABLE IMPUDENT INQUISITIVE INSATIABLE INTELLIGENT INTROVERTED JADED JOCULAR JUBILANT LAWFUL LOVING MALICIOUS MANIPULATIVE MATERNAL METHODICAL MISCHIEVOUS NATURE-LOVING NOSY OBEDIENT OBSTINATE OPEN OPPORTUNISTIC OTHERWORLDLY PASTORAL PATIENT PENITENT PERCEPTIVE PHLEGMATIC POWER-HUNGRY PRAGMATIC PROPER QUIET RACIST RAGEFUL REFINED RESOURCEFUL RESPONSIBLE REVERENT RIGHTEOUS ROMANTIC SADISTIC SAVAGE SCHEMING SELF-ASSURED SELFISH SENSITIVE SENSUAL SIMPLE SOCIABLE SPIRITUAL STALWART STUBBORN SUAVE SUBTLE SURVIVALIST TACITURN TACTILE TACTLESS TENACIOUS TOUGH WARY WILD WISE WRY

Go back to Step 3: Describe Yourself

Proceed to Step 5: Backstory