Arts unravelled: How do you create a compelling children’s book character?

But how are the compelling characters within those books created? How do they grow from an author’s imagination to become loved by thousands, sometimes millions, of readers?

To find out we caught up with three contemporary children’s writers, each of whom appeared at our Imagine Festival in 2025. Nadia Shireen, whose popular creations include Good Little Wolf, Bumblebear and Grimwood; and the pair behind the Ballet Besties book series, author Chitra Sounder and Principal Ballerina Yasmine Naghdi.

Getting started

So, where do you begin? ‘I start by doodling in my sketchbook,’ explains Shireen, ‘I try not to worry about what comes out at this point, the main thing is to relax and have fun.’ For Soundar ‘a story can come from anywhere – sometimes it’s a character, sometimes it’s a title or an idea. I write it down in my journal and let it simmer. An idea that doesn’t go away suggests a potential for a story. With Ballet Besties, Yasmine [Naghdi] and I usually start with a discussion on which ballet to portray, and which of the five besties we’re going to focus on; what they might be up to’. ‘Yes,’ adds Naghdi, ‘ we discuss the story and the plot first, and what kind of positive helpful messages we want to be putting across to the young readers’.

Character first, or idea first?

For Shireen, it’s definitely a case of character first. ‘Usually, I will draw a character I like the look of, then I’ll try and figure out who they are and what they are up to’. For Soundar the process can vary. ‘Every story is different,’ she says, ‘sometimes a character arrives demanding a story, and sometimes a wisp of a story arrives looking for a protagonist’. ‘It’s different for each of the four books in the Ballet Besties series, Naghdi adds, ‘it depends on the message we want to get across.’

The key to compelling characters

Characters can of course come in all shapes, sizes and species, so what, for our authors, is the most important thing that a children’s character needs to have? For Soundar it’s the character’s voice; ‘Voice is the undefinable ingredient in creating characters. Turn of phrase, how they structure sentences, their mannerisms along with their wants, needs, fears and joys – all these add to the overall person, just like in real life’. For Naghdi it’s that the ‘character is believable, that the reader can relate to the character, and understand what’s going on with their feelings. And in terms of dancing and Ballet Besties, it’s about being able to transmit a character’s personality through our movements and steps’. Similarly for Shireen ‘the character needs to feel real to me. Sometimes I draw and write characters who know what they’re going to do before I do. That’s a kind of magic, I think.’

Drawing on self experience

‘For some of the characters I tried to weave in feelings that I had when taking ballet lessons as a child,’ says Naghdi. ‘Sometimes I felt insecure, or lacked self-confidence, so I use these memories to colour the characters whilst hopefully getting the message across that having such feelings is never helpful. ‘Every character I create has a bit of me inside,’ explains Soundar, but in Ballet Besties, I tried to put a little of me in Indu and in Momoka and Dante too. And I’ve made Indu smart in science and maths, because I always wanted to be that. I create characters who are a blend of different people, by taking the good bits and quirky bits of different people I might have met or known’.

For Shireen ‘it’s a little like having a dream. You know that bits of real life are in that dream, but you’re not sure how they got there and it’s a different world’. This element of slight separation is also felt by Soundar who says her ‘point of view as a writer will always influence the decisions the character takes even if those weren’t the choices I would have faced in real life. I love reading fiction because I want to imagine what I would’ve done, if I ever entered the life of the protagonist. And so, the depth of the characters we create come from our lived experiences.’

Literary inspirations

As touched on by Soundar, it’s not just their own experiences but the books they themselves have enjoyed that will provide inspiration to many authors. ‘I modelled Miss Diamond on Miss Honey in Roald Dahl’s Matilda’, explains Naghdi. ‘It was one of my favourite childhood movies and I remember thinking how much I would’ve loved to have Miss Honey as my teacher, so that gave the inspiration for Miss Diamond’. ‘The characters I enjoyed as a child have probably been quite a big influence,’ reflects Shireen, ‘but I try not to deliberately copy any characters in particular. It’s important not to overthink character creation, but sometimes when I look back at a character, like Billy from my picture books, I think ‘Oh yes, I would have loved to see a character who looked like that when I was growing up’.’

Knowing your character is ‘right’

So, you’ve created your initial sketch and you’ve begun to flesh out their story, how do you know that this character and their story is worth pursuing? ‘I always think about whether a younger me would love to read about the characters I create,’ says Soundar. ‘Will they want to find out more, identify with them and root for them?’ Naghdi agrees; ‘For me it was for me it was all about being able to imagine myself reading the books as a seven-year-old. I’ve also been very aware not to stress how hard ballet training is. I want to make sure children understand that dancing, and learning to dance ballet, is fun, and helps shape different aspects of their personality’.

For Shireen the process is a little different. ‘It’s gut instinct. I don’t show that many people while things are developing because I want whatever character I create to be totally invented by me, not anyone else.’ So no pursuit of feedback, not even from would-be readers? ‘I love showing stuff to kids, they are my favourite audience! But only once it’s done’.

Relatability

How about ensuring your characters are relatable? Is it possible to create characters that children of any background will relate to? And should that ever be the aim? ‘As humans, we have a lot in common with each other, from feeling certain emotions, to having a sense of humour,’ says Shireen. ‘I like to focus on those traits that bring us together. But I don’t get hung up on my characters or stories appealing to everyone, as I think that’s probably impossible. I think it’s important for the character to feel true to yourself. If you’ve done that, you know that it will relate to at least someone else, if not everyone’.

‘In Ballet Besties, we wanted our characters to be represented and relatable because we wanted to show that children from different backgrounds can learn ballet’, explains Soundar. ‘That’s why Yara’s mum runs a patisserie, Indu’s mum is a nurse, Miss Diamond is struggling to keep hold of the lease, and the dads pitch in too. We wanted to show families that share school pick-ups, grandparents who help financially and single-parent families. The themes are relatable in every story too – from balancing schoolwork to ballet, affording ballet as an additional activity, or being teased at school for being a footballer who dances ballet. Giving a character age-appropriate problems and obstacles also helps make them relatable to readers who are experiencing similar things’.