i want to make my own characters..how do i start???

Start Here: Click Me

Lots of the actor templates have commentary, also get the simple templates.

so far...nothing...do i have to extract the template to something or what???

Extract the .rar files into your cc folder. [if using vista make sure CC is on the desktop]
Then open up the template's .rte folder, now you can edit the sprites.
After you have done that, you can move on to the coding.
Post here for further coding instruction.