Main Character
Building main character with motivations, problems, and transformation
The five levels
Each anchor describes what separates one level from the next — not a general description of quality. This is the text the evaluator itself reads.
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Level 1 Below Standard
Character without depth or clear motivations
Example Character acting without understandable reason or motivation
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Level 2 Approaching
Character with goal but lacking depth
Example We know what they want but don't much care
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Level 3 At Standard
Convincing character with clear motivations
Example Reader believes character and follows their journey
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Level 4 Above Standard
Character reader empathizes with and follows anxiously
Example Reader wants character to succeed and fears their failure
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Level 5 Exemplary
Character living outside text in reader's memory
Example Reader wonders what character would do in other situations
Where does your own work sit on these levels?
Submit one work to be read against this criterion alone: your position across the five levels, why you are not higher and why not lower, three literal quotes from your own work, and one exercise with its success check. Your first card is free.
Price: 7 SAR · Included in Pro & Artist Plus · First one free — Pricing details
Read my work by this criterionOther criteria in the same art
Building story according to: setup, confrontation, resolution
The five levels →Separating what the character outwardly pursues (want) from what they inwardly need, and the tension between them.
The five levels →Creating anticipation making reader want to know what happens
The five levels →Building external and internal conflicts that intertwine to enrich the drama
The five levels →Moments that shift the story's course and raise its stakes irreversibly
The five levels →The ending's ability to close the story and leave a lasting impression
The five levels →Does each scene turn a dramatic value (+ to − or vice versa)? A scene that changes nothing is a dead scene.
The five levels →Can you tell the speaker from their style without the name? Each character's vocabulary, rhythm, and subtext distinct.
The five levels →