Firstly, you must have at least one character; any human, alien, monster, robot, animal, or other being for that matter who can at least move, communicate, and have somewhat of a personality. They can be a hero, a villain, or a neutral character. Any age. Genre doesn’t matter. Your character can come from any setting; sci-fi, fantasy, realistic, historical, horror, children’s, YA, action, drama, educational, romance, none or all of the above! The story form doesn’t matter either. Whether your character is from a comic, a picture book, a novel, a verbal folktale, a movie, a show, a game, or even a stage play it can be counted (so long as the entrant is your own truthful and original creation).   Secondly, it would help if you had a profile picture for your character. Either you can draw/model them, or you can have somebody else do it (I am going to see if I can do it some and also try to draft some other artists to volunteer because I’m really busy lol) You can also use google images or clipart, or avatar creator sites too (I’ve posted a few below)   There are a lot of AI art generators these days. If you would like to use one, feel free. It is not prohibited here.   Dress up games, doll makers and character creators with the avatar-maker tag. meiker.io has a whole lot of different kind of makers from elves, to kids, to adults, to humans and animals. Even anime and all kinds of different styles. It appears that users are able to design and publish their own creator tools on here, so I’m sure you should be able to find a good maker to customize your character with!   www.heroforge.com lets you paint, change poses, add weapons, and everything else. You may see that it seems only to be a fantasy thing, but there are lots of modern outfits, props, and gear including guns, motorcycles, and more! This is meant to make and order your own custom miniature D&D game piece, but you can use screenshots to make this the profile pic of your character!

Since this is a mini, there will be only one big writing challenge that calls you to craft a short story. If you would like to participate in the RolePlay elements, there may be more opportunities for your character(s) to interact with each other and play around. Throw some Mystery Mayhem into the mix along with several other PLOT TWISTs along the way, and we’ll be learning about each character’s personality in no time! (don’t worry folks. we’re keeping it pg-13! so if some of your characters are children, they won’t be left out.)

After this Novel Competition, no matter where you rank, everyone should be able to walk away thinking in their everyday life “that’s something so-and-so would do!” or, “wow, that’s whateverhisnameis’s favorite food!” or, “if whatsherface was here, she would never tolerate such nonsense.”

Want some examples? Here are a few characters of various species and ages with well-known personalities spanning across all genres and story forms:
 

Sonic The Hedgehog

Belle (from Beauty and the Beast)

Gaston (from Beauty and the Beast)

Alice (in Wonderland)

The Mad Hatter

Willy Wonka

Arthur (from the books and television series by Marc Brown)

Loki

Thor

Peter Pan

Tinker Bell

Tigger the Tiger (from Winnie the Pooh)

Eeyore (from Winnie the Pooh)

The Seven Dwarves (each of their names are self-explanatory XD )

When you think of these guys, certain words come to mind. Some are tricky and cunning, some are curious and sweet, some are arrogant and boastful, some are shy, some are sassy, and some are just flat out crazy. Some are energetic while others are sluggish. Some have a smart brain while others have a smart mouth. Usually, across the movies, books, shows etc. in which they appear, no matter which writer, animation style, or actors portray them, their personality is typically consistent. No matter what, remember this: characters aren’t characters unless they have some character!