How to Design a Realistic Sci-Fi Character Routine
A fleshed-out character does more than just act out a story. They have everyday lives, with mundanities that peek through the spaces between action scenes.
For that level of depth, they need ordinary activities and a regular routine.
These are the fundamentals for worldbuilding everyday life details.
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Worldbuilding Everyday Life Details: Physical Needs
Let’s start with the physical.
We do hundreds of things that damage, maintain, or improve our bodies. And while many people may think of the exceptional things when detailing physical activities, the mundane things can be easier to list… once you get started.
All you need to do is think about all the things you do automatically. On any given day, you may wake up, shower, brush your teeth, and get dressed
And you can break that down to waking up several times before getting up, washing your hair and body, brushing and flossing your teeth, and putting on clothes and corrective lenses.
And that’s just in the first hour.
Though it’s not necessary to detail every moment, it’s good to baseline the most basic activities:
How are general health, vision, dental care, sleep patterns and cleanliness maintained? This should include daily vs. weekly routines, chronic conditions, and dysfunctions, like insomnia.
Knowing this information can be helpful when writing narrative color. For instance, I wrote this conversation in an early draft.
“Hey, you wanna stay at my place while you’re planetside? My official ranger treepod is pretty fancy. You’d have your own room, instead of bunking down at the visitor barracks.”
“That could be fun. I’d have easy access to the planet conditioning equipment at the barracks, though. The mandatory exercise here on the station helps, but I need to be true-gravity fit before we head out to the landing site.”
“You could do daily physical training with me. It’ll be much more than a space runt like you can handle, but you can do a quarter routine. That’ll get you in shape faster than some machine.”
Here, everyday activities add to these characters’ believability while allowing me to “show, not tell” about their living situations and routines.
Notice, I included another important factor for worldbuilding routines.
With sci-fi, you may be dealing with different physiologies–like my character’s low-gravity adaptation. When looking at your own characters, ask yourself what activities are desired or required because of their physiology.
Imagine the character is an amphibian who may spend half the day in water. How does that change a shower or a meal?
Speaking of meals:
What does the character eat and drink throughout the day? Does this change based on day or time? Maybe, they like a large Sunday brunch, but they’re more of an english muffin and butter person for weekday breakfast.
This is an easy way to start incorporating unique traits, so think about favorites, hated foods, and compulsions. Maybe this character is addicted to caffeine in any form. Or they avoid dairy because it upsets their stomach.
Consider, too, how that food gets to their plate. Do they cook it? Order it? Have a chef or robotic preparation device?
All these mundanities build the foundation of a multi-dimensional character.
And once you know how your character prepares for a day, you’ll want to figure out what they’re getting ready for.
Worldbuilding Everyday Life Details: Responsibilities
Many of the things people do in a day are out of responsibility, obligation, or commitment.
You know, adulting.
And while economic systems vary in sci-fi, it’s common for characters to work in some way.
Perhaps they enjoy the variety of gigwork. Maybe their work tasks are repetitive and monotonous.
But even if a character is an office worker, their time is filled with activity. They’re going to meetings and getting coffee. They’re talking to coworkers or filling out spreadsheets.
Even when it’s tedious, work commonly accounts for a large percentage of one's waking hours. So outlining how your character spends that time goes a long way to developing who they are as a person.
Just think about what type of person spends all day every day doing data entry. Or what traits lead to wanting different tasks every couple hours.
Alternatively, what about this character’s backstory aligns with their current work situation. Did they fall into a bad crowd during their youth? Are they a victim of trauma? Perhaps they’re fulfilling a promise.
Whether you’re turning work tasks into character traits or creating a work persona that aligns with your character’s inner life, you can start simply. Decide how the character makes a living. Then, list the daily tasks performed to get that work done.
And really put this in your sci-fi world’s context. Is there anything special about the jobs in your world that affect their professional tasks? Think about robots and artificial intelligence. Digital vs. analog. Cultural needs or repulsions.
Once you have this sorted, you’ll want to look at responsibilities outside of the workday. Your character probably has a variety of “have tos”. Maybe breakfast created one too many dishes. Or they discovered a ring around the tub. Time to do chores. But remember, chores happen outside the home, too.
What about grocery shopping or mowing the lawn?
Beyond that, they may have a list of “shoulds”. They noticed their neighbor coughing the other day. Or their nephew recently broke a leg. Time to make a few social calls.
And here’s an odd one for you: Do pets or companion animals exist in your world? Can they feed and walk themselves? Even if they do, there may be other ways your character cares for them.
Overall, how are this character’s regular actions dictated by people or companions in their life?
Or, maybe, how are this character’s sporadic actions dictated by people or companions in their life?
How frequently or passionately someone takes care of their responsibilities and obligations says a lot about their guiding principles. So give some thought to developing your character’s value system alongside their “have tos” and “shoulds”.
Circling back to the on-planet po’ongabel from my last example: work complicates everything in his life. He’s a spy of sorts, so his “shoulds” and “have tos” are more about covering his tracks than being responsible. My challenge for this Drifting Amalgams character is to mesh two lives into a routine that is believable to his family and my readers.
He “has to” reencrypt that file.
He “should” set the robots to deep clean his living pod before his sister arrives.
And not only that, but I’ll need to figure out how his highly technological world plays a part in this deception.
Worldbuilding Daily Life Logistics: Technology Integration
Technology and modern living are so intertwined that we barely think about the tools we use every day.
But the thing is: even something as simple as using fire to cook is technology.
Art. Numeracy. Literacy. All aided by technology.
Meaning, simple items like lighters, brushes, and books are forms of technology. If we make that list more modern, we’re talking about items like matches, styluses, and tablets. And using a futuristic lens, we may be talking about plasma lighters, augmented fingers, and AI enabled neurochips.
To integrate technology with your character’s routine, it’s easiest to consider how this character performs the tasks that make up their day.
Try not to get caught up in worldbuilding technology for their entire world. While it’s helpful to understand their world’s technology, building out technology consistently throughout an entire culture is complex. And, frankly, an exercise better left for a different day.
What you want to focus on for now is how your character does some of the things you’ve already identified about their daily life.
I mentioned waking, cleansing the body, and preparing meals. If this is a part of the daily routine you build for your character, envision the tools they use for these tasks. What about a toothbrush, hairbrush, or razor as they ready themselves for a day? Or maybe a stove, microwave, or dishwasher during breakfast time.
It’s the little technologies that matter here.
How does technology aid or affect routine physical function? Think low tech vs. high-tech. Do they use an alarm clock? Do you need to switch out that toothbrush for a sonic tooth cleaner? And what about that breakfast? Kitchen stove or robot chef?
And, once the day has begun, how are your character’s responsibilities affected by technology?
A big one here is transit. At some point, your character is going to go somewhere. So how are they getting there? Self-driving car? Automated subway? And don’t forget micromobility devices like bicycles. Plus, assistive mobility devices like wheelchairs may be involved.
That’s the first couple hours.
Now, imagine they’ve gotten where they’re going. What gets them through the tasks required for work. For your average office worker, you may be looking at something like computers and cellphones. But if their work is more unique, you may need to create something more specialized.
For my quasi-spy, I’ll need to make a surveillance device for him to perform clandestine activities. Activities he’ll take care of after he awakes to his pod’s brightening lights. And after he climbs a system of vines to the ranger base. …But before he checks his watch to see if his sister palm-scanned her way into his living pod.
It sounds like I’m creating a pretty complicated character build. Something worth exploring in my next video. So join me in a couple weeks as I create a realistic life for a spy in an advanced sci-fi society.
Until next time, stay inspired.
