I think part of the problem with the sheets is that a writer (not saying you, but any writer) might get so worried about what "Bob" would say, they ignore what 'Willem" would say. Or do. In other words, the character sheet dominates, rather than the character. It's almost like meeting someone new in person - first impressions aren't always correct - or very deep. It's only after interacting with this person over time that you learn what they're really like. That's how I view my characters - I have an idea of what they're like, but as the story unfolds, I learn more and more about them. And I allow them to be inconsistent, to change their minds, to be unpredictable.
Exactly - it's the same in reality. People can be friendly and open, most of the time, and show an unexpected bitter/dark/negative side when something happens that flips their switch. In novels I do distinguish between the main characters and the bit players - the more involved the character in the story, the more facets their personality will have. Overly complex characters in secondary roles might confuse the reader.
I use character sheets or outlines primarily to maintain continuity. It's just their highlights. If you try to develop the character outside the story itself you usually end up trying to force it into the story rather then letting the story develop the character. I look for the basic stats I need for the story that's it. If it never comes into the story why would I care if a women is married with three kids. The only thing I might need to know is if she's the motherly type the rest is useless. Of course I might give her kids if I needed an excuse to have her in a bad mood and snippy.
Yes, you are absolutely right. The sheets are just a guide, something to refer to if necessary, but as any outline, they should not be followed at the expense of creativity. The way I do it is not necessarily what would Bob say but how he would say it. That way, I keep the integrity of the fictional character, but his speech pattern remains consistent, distinct and realistic.
PHEW! Glad someone else thinks this. My MC behaves completely differently depending on the company he's with, the day he's had, the mood he's in... or what he's trying to achieve. It also depends on which persona he is currently assuming - professional or personal, formal or intimate, serious or jokey. Everyone does this, to a greater or lesser extent, and some have such wildly differing personas you never know which is the 'true' one. I like characters like this, but perhaps because I've been told I am one...?
I both agree and disagree with this. I don't think character sheets are useful in the slightest but at the same time I think it's important to know your characters before you begin. For me, I do this by relying simply on my imagination rather than creating a physical product. I don't worry about forgetting details because if, for some reason, I can't remember it then I figure that it was never really that important. In regards to the OP - your post is simply common sense. But I think it would be more useful if posted in reply to a thread about character development, rather than warranting a thread all of it's own.
Yoshiko, to you and I it may be common sense, but I still recall the days when I didn't realize that. I think many inexprienced writers can have difficulty making a voice for their characters. I titled the thread "Refining Characters- Advice for NEW writers" for a reason. You can't really expect someone to hunt through hundreds of comments in dozens of threads just in the hopes of finding one specific post. Though, I agree, I don't use character sheets. I have an idea in my head of what kind of character I need, but I find that written settings for a character are too constricting. Nowhere in my posts have I advocated character sheets, though I certainly understand why people want to use them- they're just not for me.
I call the character development outline a "character sheet" but it is nothing like the rudimentary "age, sex, height, weight, eye colour" etc that you can find online. Precisely the things brought up in this post are the things I'll think about as I am outlining that character, before I start writing. I outline the plot too. I like lists, that's just how I am. I am not a beginner, but I still like to use this approach to conceptualise characters in novels that have complex plots, 3-4 subplots and 6-9 major characters. That, for me, is too much information to keep in my head, my head is full of facts as it is and I feel that my creativity flows better if the character becomes a part of me first, so I can instinctivelly know how they are likely to react. Outlining a character is a learning process for me, not something designed to constrict me, or to pre-define anything rigidly. Of course they develop with a story, but I need to think of them first, and writing them out is my way of thinking. The word "character sheet" is just how I refer to these planning stages, that's all.
Here’s an actual example. She’s maybe sixth down in the line of main characters. Agent Sharon Lanklee – 5’5”/brown eyes/short red hair/touch of freckles over her nose / not overly thin but you can tell she works out a lot. – A lot of her family works for the company/high in her class. – Quiet / wound a bit tight / not a sharer / seems easy going but people get a sense they shouldn’t cross her. For me it’s just enough to allow another character’s personality to interact with. A flirt may see her as cute. Someone else may see her as tense. There is a lot of room for her to develop as her relationships mature. I do add things as the story moves along and she develops to avoid contradictions in how she may react later in the story. I don’t want a character that has a reserved nature jabbering away later without a darn good reason. And I know what you’re thinking but it’s not a spy novel.
I don't know what you meant by the second statement highlighted but to me it seems hard to believe that the first and third would equal the fourth. How can someone quiet who's not a sharer seem like an easy going person? Now this just reinforces the statement that character sheets are useless, because it only reveals basic data and it does read more like a file the police might have made when investigating the suspects of a crime. at best it's just the starting point, but it doesn't tell you much of the person he/she is, and how she would react in different situations or how she feels about the data you listed. It's far from enough and I think relying too much on these and thinking one has a complete character based on a profile sheet is why people say they're harmful.
Easily. I worked with a guy like that once. A quiet guy, never really started a conversation, but supported every idea put forth. Until the day he snapped and pummelled his manager. The author understands how the adjectives relate, but the adjectives don't communicate the totality of the character. I would never bother to write down a summary like that. What I would have instead is a mental image of the character - her general appearance. the sound of her voice, the way I would feel standing next to her or turning my back to her. I'd have a sense of how she'd react in certain situations, but I would only put any of it into words in the actual manuscript, in context. Save for the occasion jot in a miscellaneous story notes file: Most facts don't need to be written down, but if it is mentioned, is specific, and may come up again it gets noted. No predefined data sheets, just keeping track of details that might be hard to locate later.
I don't see the conflict. Some people are quiet but you can get them to share once prompted or had enough to drink. Wound a bit tight but still easy going. I've known the type who laughs along with everybody else, leans back appears to enjoy them self but often if you look close you can see the tension in the muscles or sad eyes. Knew a guy like that who one day came to work, sat in the parking lot an blew his brains out. These details are there because they are used as part of the story more then once. But there isn't so much that she can't develop. I don't have a photographic memory and don't want to have to search pages and pages of material to refresh my memory when I've been totally focused on a chapter or two without a reference to them.
I think the point is only Superpsycho needs to understand his sheets I personally achieve it by 'casting' my character with someone who has a large youtube presence. That gives me physical quirks, body language and speech patterns. Then I make up a scrapbook of images which gives ideas of what they would wear, where they live, the enviroments they interact with. That gives me ideas of how they will interact with other characters and their environments. From that internal thoughts and feelings can be worked out. I find it helps keep them consistent. I watched an education programme on the BBC called How to Write? It was very interesting and featured the likes of Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman, Jaqueline Wilson and a ton of other well known Young Adult authors and poets. The overall message was some successful writers plan their story down to the last detail and others wing it. Some use character sheets and some don't. What works for you as an individual writer is important. After building my main character I tend to wing the rest. Character sheets like that don't work for me at the start, but I sometimes sit down and write them up for a sequel/prequel to keep the information I have straight, and I find them beneficial to me then.
First of all, thank you to the original poster - I found this post very interesting and it definitely gives me something to think about. When I began writing the story I'm currently working on, I had only very vague ideas about who my characters were. Their physical descriptions were not necessarily important at the time (I still don't even know what my main protagonist looks like), so I didn't give them much thought. Honestly, their personalities were very limited until I started working on my skeleton draft. I have three main protagonists and only knew one of their personalities before I started writing. For the second character, I had a vague idea, but the third actually surprised me when he finally made it to paper. I found that once my skeleton was done, there was necessity for a written back story to really anchor their personalities. I'm still realizing things about them that will never explicitly be expressed in the book but are helpful details for me to remember. So while I don't think it's necessary to have a "character sheet" in order to begin writing, I think it may be helpful to have a hard copy to remind yourself who this person is that you are writing as (which is why it's also helpful to view the world through their eyes).
I have lists of tools that people use - Character X uses a Colt Python with a four inch barrel and Winchester JHP 145 grain Silvertip Super-X - stuff that doesn't get mentioned often in the books, but needs to be remembered by the author, so the X doesn't suddenly pull out his Walther PPK. Or someone rides a Suzuki V-Strom 600, and you misremember and make it a V-Strom 1000. Stuff like that, what doesn't stay in the forefront of your mind and with multiple characters, each with their own tools and means of transport, can get confusing.
I'm not much of a planner, so while I know a bit about the backstory of my characters, personality and physical traits, I don't always stick to the personality part. As they story unfolds, I tend to discover more about the character, so I add some things, scratch anothers... I remember I wrote a sheet for a character who was straight, but as I went writing him (named Tom), I noticed that he was gay. So my sheets about characters are more like the starting point -- after that, the character is on her own, so to speak. People are not very consistent and I take that in consideration while I'm writing. It gives me more freedom, I guess *shrugs*
This is excellent advice, thank you for posting it! I do the same thing with the rough draft - I get it all down and then go back to fine tune the details later. I also find that since I come to know my characters better as I get closer to the end, I often have to go back and completely rewrite the diaogue at the beginning. It really does make a huge difference!
I'm not sure why, and I'll probably never try to find out why; but if I were to write a character bio with pages of notes etc on any of my characters, it would ruin my interest in the character, and I'd probably kill him off so my brain wouldn't be bothered by him anymore. Not to say character bios aren't helpful for others, but it would be disaster for my story.
I have neither advocated nor attacked character sheets. I know by memory my characters' pasts and how they have shaped their personalities, and then I run all of their actions and dialogue through kind of a mental filter to figure out what they would do and say. It's not as if I read who they are off of a pre-planned sheet. That seems too stiff and unrealistic. People can change. Character sheets are static, unless you plan on modifying them daily.
