Character Profiles

Hey everyone.

I've been here a little while but haven't had much like with really sitting down and having a good go at writing. I started writing last year and got to about 25,000 words before I realised that it wasn't going anywhere. But all is not lost! I'll take what I did and try and build on it for my next attempt.

One of the reasons why I don't think my last attempt worked was because I didn't dedicate enough time to really fleshing out my characters and bringing them to life. I've been watching some videos recently on creative writing and reading up on a few things to and I came across 'character profiles', whereby you create a profile for each of your characters, explaining simple things such as their likes and dislikes, but also looking at some of their backstory or not, regardless as to whether it makes an entry into the story itself.

I've only done it for three characters so far: the protagonist, the antagonist, and now the barman which is the first character our hero meets. I've felt that sitting down for 10-15 minutes just jotting down notes on the characters really helps as not only a reference, but to get to know the character a bit better and allow me to write more about them to give the story better momentum.

Does anyone else create profiles for their characters, and if so, what kind of format do you use? Any templates to share? What things do you tend to focus on when creating a character in this way?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

 

I feel like I shouldn't be the first one to post but *looks around*.

Disclaimer: If you feel character sheets help you, by all means use them. The following is only my own, highly personal opinion and shouldn't be taken as the word of scripture. That said...

I don't like character profiles. In fact, my dislike is such that I go out of my way to avoid them. I feel they can do a lot of harm. Why? Because they provide a new writer with an easy road around the hard stuff: Creating characters that live and breath in your mind, and henceforth in your readers'. Characters are at the root of a good story, arguably it's most important part. Why would I limit them to a list of questions?

Think of your best friend. You know him inside out. Filling out a character sheet about him should be easy. When you've done that, step back a pace and, based only this list, imagine this character in your most recent writing attempt. I bet the image falls far short of the personality you know your friend to have.

I don't have all the answers, and I definitely don't know how to create a living, breathing character that wants to step off-page and into life. But I'm almost positive that character sheets are not the road to help me create them.

 

I'm not sure I should be the second to respond by here goes
So far, the characters I"ve used in my stories have been based on people I actually know, whether the story is based on my life or not. When I have created a "profile" it's based on what I know about the person the character is based on, so I'm not making much up.
Until I've got more things under my belt, I'm going to stick with this. When I feel like I've got some skills, I'll branch out into completely made-up characters.

 

I definitely should be the sixth to respond, but this thread is all messed up already, everybody posting out of order, so here goes ( ).

The important thing to have in mind for each character is how they relate to the big conflict that is the story.

This means you need to first have an idea of what that larger conflict is. And often you won't really get this stuff figured out until you've done quite a bit of writing. In other words, it's very common for writers not to have this all figured out beforehand, but to arrive at it through revisions and drafting (1st draft, 2nd draft etc).

But the main points you want to figure out for each character are these—a story goal, a motivation behind that goal, and their stakes.

A character's Story Goal means what it sounds like—what is it that this character is deeply invested in, what does he feel he must accomplish. It should be something proactive, like changing a bad situation or accomplishing something. Example, Luke Skywalker's story goal in Star Wars (retroactively known as A New Hope) is to strike against the Empire that killed his aunt and uncle, partly as revenge and partly to prevent them from killing countless billions more people. In the beginning he already wanted to join the revolution and fight, but largely from idealism and adventure and because he was bored working on the farm. But when the droids entered his life with information vital to the revolution and as a direct result of that his aunt and uncle were killed, this gave him a much more powerful motivation. He now had nowhere to live, no more farm job to attend to, and had a powerful emotional need to avenge their deaths.

His Stakes in accomplishing this break down something like this—if he does join the rebellion he has a place to stay and a new job (these are very minor stakes relatively speaking, but are still necessary and important) and he can vent the rage inside (more important emotionally) and prevent more deaths, as well as doing what he knows is right in his heart. I'm probably screwing this all up, I'm just trying to figure it out on the fly. But you need to figure out the negative stakes as well as the positive—if he fails to accomplish his story goal, what would be the result. Well, he'd feel that he failed to step up and do his duty when he should have (which is a devastating feeling, leading to depression and suicidal thoughts), and he would probably also be homeless and starve.

I feel like I got some of those wrong, probably missed some important things I should have said, but that';s because I;m posting out of order. Yeah, that's it!

But when you think your story and characters through in this way it helps you understand the story as a dynamic thing, a conflict between characters, and helps you figure out how each character plays a part in that. I only did a quick breakdown for one character, but of course you also need to figure this out for your other main characters. Otherwise you don't really have a story, just a bunch of things happening.

 

I'd think about the story first. Once you have this, think of what setting would best suit it and then what decisions the characters would need to make in order to move the plot along. Once you know what the characters do, you can think of what personal attributes (ambitions, attitudes, beliefs, etc) they would need to have in order to make those actions seem natural. It's also good to make a note of details that you might mention more than once, (like full name, physical description, etc) to ensure those details are consistent.

 

An interesting take on the negatives of character profiles and not ones that I had considered.

I never really thought it could be considered an 'easy road', but I think I understand your point. Do you think that they could be effectively used just a primarily method that can continue to be expanded on as the story develops, freeing yourself of the shackles of a questionnaire style character profile?

I also appreciate that it would be a good idea to think of the story for and then think of characters that would fit that story, but I feel that character profiles could still be implemented at that stage of the development of the story, should the write choose to use them.

 

There are about a many methods for writing anything as there are writers.

As a really new writer (even after writing for 10 years I still consider myself a novice) I use to do endless hours of character profiles and the end result didn't change.
a) I spent more time on the planning and got no actual story finished and was bored before I began because I felt like I'd all ready written it. The characters has too much information piled around them that I needed to get across for the story to work. I'd over planned them. I hadn't learnt yet to be subtle.
b) My end characters turned out nothing like the ones I spent months planning out.

Reading helped me more than planning. And when I actually sat down and read a damn good book on writing, I realised I did most of the stuff anyway and didn't need a well structured plan, as long as structure was in my novels and it was. I all ready had writing instincts because I'd read good books since childhood. I just needed someone to tell me. My stories didn't need work. My writing skill and the English language was what I needed to work on, and I was focusing my energy on the wrong place.

So you have a plot and what's the most important thing about a plot? What can make or break a plot? Conflict. External. Internal. Both is even better. But where dose conflict come from? Goals. And goals come from a want. Want is the main foundation of characters, the same as it is for humans. Our wants drive us and our goals are simply tangible ideas we think will help us get our want. And our wants are fuelled by our needs that we are either conscious or unconscious of.

So think about what your character wants and needs. Preferable not an object, objects tend to be more goal related. It's best to make this want an emotional thing something no easily achieved. Like respect. So our character wants respect, but why? Did he have it and lose it? Has he never had it? You answer why the characters wants respect. This could not only be his want but his character wound as well. What is the lie he believes that causes him doubt and created internal conflict? What are possible ways he might go about achieving respect and how do those attempt back fire on him? (look at the try fail cycle as the want and goal should never be easily achieved). If you have a clear want, need and goal, everything else falls into place because you have those three character foundations. You can build conflict, back-story, character wounds, lies, motivations, flaws and personalities all from those things. You can craft them in a plan or let it all form naturally in a first draft and just tighten it up afterwards.

That's what I think anyway and it solved a lot of my problems. Hope this helps you and anyone else who reads it. All the best.

 

You need to judge what information you need about your character. He can evolve organically as @big soft moose says, or you can fill in an extensive profile. Just know what makes him tick, and you can't go wrong; but how you know that is up to you.

 

By far my most interesting characters are NOT those I planned. They are very organic, often appearing out of nowhere while I'm working on some other project. They often change the flow of the story, so I have to be careful not to allow them that much latitude unless it moves the story along, but I can't ignore their appearances either. They usually show up either when I need them and are already fully intact or nearly so, or something sparks in my head, usually something random, and my brain will latch onto it and insert a quasi-developed character later when I need him or her.

For example, one of my characters, Alistair, is either a god or a demigod (haven't decided yet, has no bearing on the story) that popped into a scene to aid one of my secondary characters get out of a sticky situation. There is going to be very little backstory on him, if any. It's not needed for the story at all. His presence is explained through his discussion with the other character in the scene, and the presence of other, similar gods, angels and demis elsewhere in the story. The editor LOVED Alistair, whom I spent zero time developing, and hated Jax, the other character in this particular chapter, whom I'd fleshed out ad infinitum. Go figure.

Another character that sort of just "appeared" is a female heroine named Chandler Trux. I was driving one day and a delivery truck with just the word "Trux" on it caught my attention. I thought "hmmm... good name for a character," and typed it into my phone so I wouldn't forget it. While writing a scene a few weeks later, an unnamed female appeared as my heroine, and introduced herself as Chandler Trux. I had no idea she was a female character. I'd envisioned her as a male. Again, go figure.

While fleshing things out is important, obviously, you have to listen to the creative flow as well.

 

My format for character profiles usually goes:

1. Physical Attributes
2. Personality
3. Strengths and Abilities
4. Flaws, Weaknesses, and Limitations
5. Goals and Motivations

Then I just fill in each category with the information necessary for my story.