Creating Memorable Characters: A Beginner’s Guide to Family Storytelling
The full framework for building your own inspired stories to fuel family storytelling adventures is covered in our book, Creating Stories Worth Telling Your Kids
At The Legendary Connection, we define “inspired stories” as those that you create yourself, using your imagination.
How to Create Captivating Characters with Your Child
One of the best ways to spark your child’s imagination through storytelling is by starting with a strong main character. The protagonist is the heart of any great story—guiding the action, facing challenges, and creating moments of wonder. While professional authors often begin with a plot idea, storytelling with children works best when the character comes first. Their unique traits, abilities, and world shape the adventures that unfold.
Kids love creating their own story characters—it gives them a sense of ownership and excitement. As a parent or grandparent, your role is to guide the process by asking simple, open-ended questions: “What is your favorite animal?” or “If you could be a superhero, what powers would you have?” Then, step back and watch their creativity take over. The more invested they are in their character, the more magical the storytelling experience becomes.
If you’re inventing an original character—which we highly recommend—start with the "what." What kind of being is your main character? A brave fox? A curious robot? A tiny explorer in a giant’s world? Below, we’ll explore different character ideas to help you craft unforgettable stories together.
Domestic Animal
⁜ Dog ⁜ Cat ⁜ Guinea Pig ⁜ Turtle ⁜ Parakeet
⁜ Horse ⁜ Sheep ⁜ Cow ⁜ Duck ⁜ Pig
Domestic animals are a great place to start because they can set a basis for stories with friendly human interactions. This is also a type of animal your child can probably identify well with since they have exposure in their own home or can easily go see these animals at a local farm, animal rescue, or friend’s home.
Wild Animal
Here it helps to think of types of habitats:
⁜ North American Woodlands ⁜ Australian Outback
⁜ Antarctic Ocean ⁜ African Savannah
⁜ Amazon Rain Forest ⁜ Indian Jungle
Here the possibilities are almost endless. Is your child fascinated by the woods around their house, so you choose a deer or an owl? Or do they love the jungle and you select a jaguar or a gorilla? Let their interests guide you. Using wild animals can be a great way to help your child learn about the natural world around them and far-away geographies.
Fantasy Creature
⁜ Unicorn ⁜ Dragon ⁜ Mermaid
⁜ Fairy ⁜ Elf ⁜ Gnome ⁜ Wizard ⁜ Giant
⁜ Robot ⁜ Alien
⁜ Inanimate object come to life (e.g., car, toaster, toy)
Some kids love the idea of imaginary creatures. If using these, you may find yourself imparting more magical capabilities to your character than if you choose a subject that’s real. Magical powers can help resolve plot conflicts and ultimately save the day. But remember, magical powers don't need to be limited to mythical beings. Why not have a pig with super strength?
Human
⁜ Prince ⁜ Princess ⁜ Knight
⁜ Pirate ⁜ Cowboy ⁜ Ninja
⁜ Astronaut ⁜ Firefighter ⁜ Scientist
⁜ The Child Themself or Close Proxy
If you choose a human character, you can either make up a person or let your child be the main character. If your child is old enough, you can draw on character types they show interest in, either based on their favorite topics to talk about or their imaginative play. Do they love princesses? Use it. Are they obsessed with pirates? Use it. Do they love playing kitchen and pretending to be a chef? Use it.
Just one observation to offer here… if your child ends up as the main character, it may eventually be a constraint because they feel pressure to make the "right" choice for the character's actions and adventures. While the main character can be heavily inspired by your child’s personality, you may want to choose an alternative name.
Known Characters
⁜ Books
⁜ Movies ⁜ TV Shows
⁜ Historical Figures
There is no shame in borrowing a character from your child's favorite show or book and then sending them on new, fictitious adventures. You aren't infringing on copyright because you aren't trying to make money off of this. Using their favorite existing characters can be a mental shortcut for both of you because you already have certain attributes like name, personality, and powers defined. Some of the first stories that we ever made up, way before more original stories emerged, used Disney characters having silly outings at our local state park and Marvel superheroes rescuing kittens from trees.
Shortcuts for Naming Your Characters
We’ll close with a few thoughts on how to name your characters. We often struggle with this and therefore wanted to provide a few suggestions based on experience. After creating over 100 original characters, we realized we often use literary devices to name them. Feel free to use this trick in the spur of the moment when telling you’re stories.
Symbolism with Associated Places or Things: This could include food the characters typically eat, locations you would find them, or items they commonly possess. We’ve told stories about a cat named Tuna, a seal named Harbor, and a dragon named Ruby.
Imagery with Descriptive Terms: Here you can use the color, patterning, or other physical attributes of the creature. Examples could be Slider the Otter, Fin the Shark, and Lightfoot the elf.
Onomatopoeia with Sounds They Make: Onomatopoeia is a word formed from a sound associated with what it is named - Oxford Language Dictionary. You could have Baa the Sheep, Rory the Lion, or Crocus the Frog.
Alliteration with Repeating First Letter Sounds: using another literary device for inspiration, think of the first letter of the type of creature and choose a similar-sounding name. In our homes, this is a popular method for naming stuffed animal friends like Chicco the Cheetah, Link the Linx, or Toby the Truck.
We hope that we’ve provided you with sparks of inspiration for the types of main characters that the child(ren) you love might find most engaging. Once you have chosen WHAT your character will be, you will need to move on to WHO they will be. For that, see post on character development.
