For a few years now my class have developed characters by making up the life story for a person chosen at random from a newspaper or magazine, (it obviously helps here if the person is unknown to them). They start with his or her childhood and gradually develop the character all the way through to their dreams and hopes and we have even developed a handwriting style for some.

I find that it really encourages the children to think carefully about the "realness" of the characters that they include in their stories. We have a character called Dennis Hill that has had various features added to by being passed down from one class to another and this has added to the fun.