Young Writers Society

I try and fill this out every time I create a new, important character because it really does help your story if you know your characters inside and out. So here's a character profile sheet, hope it helps someone!

Full name:
Reason, meaning or purpose behind the name:
Nickname:
Reason for nickname:
Race/ethnicity:
Occupation:
Social class:

Physical Appearance
Age:
How old they appear:
Eye Color:
Glasses or contacts?
Hair color length and style:
Weight and height:
Type of body (build):
Skin tone and type (i.e., harry, slimy, scaly, oily, fair, burns easily):
Shape of face:
Distinguishing marks (dimples, moles, scars, birthmarks, tattoos etc.):
Predominant feature:
Is s/he healthy?
If not, why not? Or why are they healthy?
Do they look healthy? Why/why not?

Favorites
Char’s favorite color:
Least favorite, why?
Music?
Least favorite music, why?
Food:
Literature:
Expressions:
Expletives (curse):
Mode of transport:
Hobbies:
How do they spend a rainy day?

Personality
Are they a daredevil or cautious?
Do they act the same alone as when with someone?
Habits:
Drinks:
How much:
Greatest Strength:
Greatest Weakness:
Soft spot:
Is their soft spot obvious, why/why not:
If not, how do they hide it:
Biggest Vulnerability:

Background
Hometown:
Type of childhood:
First Memory:
Most important child hood event that still effects him/her:
Why?
Education:
Religion:
Finances:

Family
Mother:
Relationship with her:
Father:
Relationship with him:
Siblings, How many, relationship with each:
Children of siblings:
Other extended family:
Close? Why or why not:

Attitude
Most at ease when:
Most ill at ease when:
Priorities:
Philosophies:
How they feel about themselves:
Past failure they would be embarrassed to admit:
Why?
If granted one wish what would it be, why?

Traits
Optimist or pessimist? Why?
Introvert or extrovert? Why?
Drives and motives:
Talents:
Extremely skilled at:
Extremely unskilled at:
Good characteristics:
Character flaws:
Mannerisms:
Peculiarities:
Biggest regret:
Minor regrets:
Biggest accomplishment:
Minor accomplishments:
Darkest secret:
Does anyone know?
How did they find out:

Self-perception
One word they would use to describe themselves:
One paragraph of how they would describe themselves:
What do they consider their best physical characteristic and why:
The worst one? Why?
Are they realistic assessments?
If not, why not?
How they think others preserve them:
What four things would they most like to change about themselves:
Why?
If they were changed would they be the same person, why/why not:
Would changing of number 1 make them more happy? Why/why not:

Interaction with other people
How do they relate to others:
How are they perceived by strangers:
Friends:
Wife/husband/lover:
First impression of the char:
why?
What happens to change this perception:
What do people like most about this char:
What do they dislike most about them:

Goals
Immediate:
Long term:
How do they plan to accomplish them:
How will others be effected by this:

Problems/Crisis
How do they react in a crisis:
How do they face problems:
Kind of problems they usually run into:
How they react to new problems:
How they react to change:

General
Favorite clothing, why:
Least favorite, why:
Jewelry:
Other accessories:
Drives:
Where do they live:
Where do they want to live:
Spending habits, why:
What do they do too much of, why:
Most prized possession, why:
People they secretly admire, why:
Person they are most influenced by, why:
Most important person in their life before story starts, why:
How do they spend the week just before the story starts:

I got this from my friend, Rain Gray, who helped me a lot on my writing through her frank and honest, not to mention helpful, reviews. Many of these questions are aimed towards modern characters, so just for those historical fiction/people-who-still-ride-horses genre writers, just tweak it a bit. And, you don't have to answer EVERY question on the "interrogation sheet", is what I like to call it. Many of the questions may be answered with "N/A". However, it just depends on the amount of depth and work you want to put into your characters.

I hope this helps someone. It helped me, to an extent.

bdum

Oh, I LOVE filling these thingies out! They're so much fun, and it's like you're really getting to know your characters, so you'll know better what they'll say, how they'll act, what they want to do and all.

-Twit

I do something like this whenever i create a character- although mine is more simplistic and theres like, 1/10th to fill out instead :p

I think it's time to expand mine...*whistles*

I think the problem with these is that your characters are designed too hastily, instead of slowly developing as you write. They're fun to fill out, but I think they make your characters shallow. They might be a good place to start, or a way to get ideas, but I don't like using them as a final outline for my characters.

Yeah, I know, and that's what I discovered when I started using these.

There are some more questions that I'd put to make your characters more in-depth, but I'm too lazy right now. >.< Maybe later.

I don't think it's the amount of questions, but just the fact that you can't sum up a character's personalities, traits, their general persona from a survey type thing. I think it's a bit too robotic, and lifeless. This is, however, great for getting just the basic jist of the character into your head, although after that I prefer to let them evolve naturally, so that they become what they are without force, if you get what I mean. That way I find I "discover" little bits about my characters as I go along, instead of writing a huge list to begin with. It makes it a tad more interesting.

Although, as I've said, this is a great way to start character development.

Thank you. And I do agree, it is shallow and a bit robotic, but I don't use it anymore. I just thought that some people might think that this would be of help somehow, so I just shared it.

It is helpful to a degree. But I have complex characters that just simply can't be built from a police-style report. And I'm still trying to figure out one of my male characters.

Thanks it was help full for me (only some questions)

The only thing to fear is fear it self.

No problem.

Yeah, there were the main questions that actually helped build up your character.

Neat. Much more detailed than the one that I normally use.

Jennafina wrote:I think the problem with these is that your characters are designed too hastily, instead of slowly developing as you write. They're fun to fill out, but I think they make your characters shallow. They might be a good place to start, or a way to get ideas, but I don't like using them as a final outline for my characters.

I do mine in reverse. The sheets get filled out as I write the stories, so that when the story is finished, the sheet is complete. If I get stuck for something in the story, I can scan over the sheet again and see what's been shown about the character, to figure out what it would make sense for them to do. I only put the name/rank/serial number stuff in at the beginning.

Wow.

That must be hard, Meep.

Although I can see your point there, since sometimes it just takes time, Starbucks, and watching movies to understand your character. Shrug. At least, that's what I do. I take pieces of other characters from movies, ones that I can actually see, if you know what I mean, and that helps to develope him or her.

Thank you, FallingStar. I love this character profile sheet, too.

I hardly ever do these things, only when I'm just starting a story with three or more main characters with very different personalities. my most recent was...

Rory
Black hair
blue eyes
24
can make things explode and can heal
loves catching vampires
a night person cursed to daytime roommates

Thats all the extensivly it went. For me at the beginning I don't really know my characters, I get to know them as I write. The profiles are fun, but everytime I do one before i have a plot in my head the story turns out to be crap and i have to pitch it. Perhaps now that I have a plot it would be good to fill one out on my characters here.... i will, and i'll use the one from the top because it looks like it would work.

I don't usually answer so many questions but I sometimes do a rough draft. The thing is, my characters tend to develop as the story does and I'm good at remembering details about them so the huge list is a little unnecessary.