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Write A Strong Character For Your Fiction Story with AI Writer Jasper
Published December 27, 2021 · 1,703 views on YouTube
Key takeaways
- Start with a five-question content brief (what, why, where, who, when, how) to give the AI the core premise before generating anything else.
- Use a short biographical paragraph as the seed, then let the AI expand it into a fuller character description.
- Work through the recipe in stages: core questions, relational questions, personal questions, and miscellaneous questions.
- Core questions cover what the character wants, what stands in their way, how they change, and how the world changes as a result.
- Personal and relational questions (favorite memory, biggest regret, relationships with parents, best friend) add depth once the plot skeleton exists.
How do you write a strong fiction character with AI?
The video walks through a Jasper AI recipe for building a fiction character’s backstory. It starts with a five-question content brief that defines the story’s core premise, then feeds a short biographical paragraph into a longer sequence of core, relational, and personal questions that the AI answers to flesh out the character’s wants, fears, relationships, and arc.
What is the content brief recipe for character development?
The content brief is the first step and is built by answering five questions in around 600 characters: what is the concept or idea, why does it matter, where and when it’s set, who the protagonist is, and how the central conflict will be resolved. In the demo, this produces the premise of a boy named Chili who discovers he descends from a lineage of powerful swordmasters and must find their secret power to stop a shadow government’s overlord.
What questions does the character backstory recipe use?
After the content brief, the recipe moves through four stages of questions, each building on the last:
- Short biographical paragraph — a brief description of the character (in the demo, a physical and personality sketch of Chili) that seeds everything that follows.
- Core questions — what the character wants, what stands in their way, who they must engage with, how they restore balance, what they fear, and how they change from beginning to end.
- Relational questions — the character’s relationship with their mother, father, and other key figures, including antagonists who have a complicated tie to them.
- Personal questions — the character’s favorite memory, what they don’t like losing, and their biggest regret.
- Miscellaneous questions — smaller supporting details, such as who the character’s best friend is (in the demo, a pet named Blitz).
What does the AI add beyond the questions being asked?
According to the demo, the AI frequently introduces plot and character details that weren’t explicitly prompted for, such as naming the antagonist, describing the resistance group’s spaceship, and filling in motivations for supporting characters. The presenters treat this as a feature of the recipe rather than something to fully script out in advance, using the AI’s answers as raw material to keep or revise.
Full video transcript
Starting at the top with the overall theme of this being the AI master class recipe for the hero’s journey — how every overarching story in history follows this pattern. We’ve got the character development content brief based on the classic nonfiction book outline right here, so we’re going to be using that as the prompts for how to fill out the top and go through this character background and research. We definitely want to give credit for that.
Okay, answer these five questions. Let’s just go with a pirate space adventure. We could always come back to it. What is the concept, topic, or idea you want to relate to the reader? We’ve got 600 characters to play around with, so we want to do the what, why, where, who, when, and how.
A young boy named Chili discovers he is from a lineage of powerful swordmasters. Where is it set? An altered dimension, an alternate universe. You said space pirates, right? The deep nebula of space. A dark force is taking over planets run by a shadow government. Who is the protagonist? The decentralized resistance of space pirates. That’s fine — let’s go to fight the mystical swordmaster overlord.
What’s his name? To fight the evil swordmaster leading the shadow government. When? What is super futuristic — like the year is 4027? I guess if it’s in a distant galaxy but we’ve spread now, let’s do 10,000, when the human race has spread to other planets. How will this happen? They needed to destroy the shadow government’s capital — the core dark power of the shadow government, which is an immense floating spaceship, a giant world-eating machine. They need to find the secret power of the legendary sword masters to stop them.
596 characters — brilliant. Okay, cool, so we’ve got it here. Now we’ve got character backstory. Chili’s cool, by the way — okay, we’ll just do Chili. A short biographical paragraph describing Chili. We just need to give it something to describe the young boy Chili.
Chili is the name that sounds like someone who can save the world. Chili is a boy who tries to solve problems on his own. Brown hair, tan skin because he carries around his sword all day long. Let’s give it a story: maybe Chili joins the decentralized resistance. Obsidian is the shadow government leader. So, fight the evil swordmaster Obsidian who leads the shadow government — just so it’s clear, the shadow government could be called One — you know how evil powers are all like, oh, they come off as being good. One.
Set 10,000 in the future, the resistance needs to destroy the core dark power of the shadow government. We must find the secret power inside him to find the core and save the universe. That’s right — you take the power inside of him, so that’s a good plot line. Now we’ve got Chili — what does Chili want? He wants to find his — well, that’s cool. Now it’s going to start asking itself what he’s got to do with all of this. This is so cool — now it’s giving me all these other props, so it’s like taking this one recipe and running with it a little bit.
He has to stop Obsidian to save the universe — all this is his quest. He must engage with many people along the way who will help him on his journey by giving him sage advice. In fact, his interactions are vital for success. The dark power is growing stronger, and the universe is only safe because they need the secret powers from all swordmasters in order to stop this dark force — all planets are doomed unless they can be warned in time.
Okay, keep going — how does he restore balance? The resistance has to find a mission that will span the length of time itself. All things must contact the other planets in order to save their own. He fears the dark force will take him — they added that this guy is his father, so what does he fear? He fears the dark force will take him, so he’s willing to sacrifice his family and friends in order to save the universe.
Special quality of this character: he feels the need to help those around him even if he has no idea what’s going on at first. He starts pushing to try things as soon as possible because he believes — now this is interesting too — what is the relationship the character has with his mother? The swordmaster leading the shadow government seeks Chili’s power, but at times he’s jealous of him and tries to trick him into giving up too early.
The resistance is space pirates who live in an upside-down spaceship. They’re on a quest to save all things in the universe from being destroyed by the dark power, and they need Chili’s power to do it. This is amazing stuff — okay, so what does the character need? It’s adding in things we didn’t even think to ask.
He needs the support of his family and friends. He also has faith since the universe helped him feel more confident, so we can save the world. Now let’s give it screenwriting advice: how does Chili change? At the beginning he’s a lazy space pirate who wants to be left alone — so this is the reluctant hero. At the end he realizes he’s not just an ordinary kid, that his destiny is to save the universe.
How does the world change? A sword only needs enough faith for himself and those around him, as well as trusting that it will all work out in the end if you just keep at it. The problem was always miscommunication — Chili knows what he wants and expresses it, which brings out the best in him as a person.
What was Chili’s relationship like with his parents? Following the plot above, his father wanted to protect him in the world, but he wanted independence. His father is a swordmaster, and Chili didn’t want to be like him. So who is Chili’s best friend? His pet, Blitz. They have a lot in common because they both like to do their own thing and don’t really care how.
Personal questions: what is Chili’s favorite memory? A childhood memory of him and Blitz taking long walks, loving the feeling of being free. Chili does not like losing the things he knows, which is why it’s hard for him to leave town.
Chili’s biggest regret is that when he was young he didn’t have the courage to tell his mother what was on his mind, and now it might be too late. Or you could just say Chili did not like their hometown because he felt pressured and trapped by the customs, didn’t like his job — Chili’s very boring. Wow, that’s a lot.