Does anyone create profiles for their characters at the start of a novel, or soon after? If so, what do you include, and how do you go about this task?
I just posted about this last night on another thread. Here's the relevant part as far as character profiles goes: I also just finished reading the Snowflake Method book, which is about plotting. Kind of a dumb name, but it seems to be an excellent method so far. It's about developing your story ideas in stages, starting by just writing up one sentence to describe the entire story, and one sentence for each character's arc. Then you expand each single sentence into a paragraph, and later into a full page. It causes you to think it out in stages and develop it. You also fill out character sheets that include their motivations, values, goals, and their fears as well as the thing each one wants versus the thing they really need. All of this is the essence of what story is about, and many methods leave some of it out. Another great factor of the Snowflake method is that you figure out the disasters at the end of each act as well as each character's scene goal for each scene. Reedsy has a really good writeup about it, including of course the approach to character profiles: The Snowflake Method: 6 Steps to a Powerful Story Outline
This is a few things I work out for each of my characters: Who are you? General: Name Gender Age Ethnicity Height, weight, build Favorite/hated - food, music, color, clothes, season, books, movies, TV shows, hobbies Habits? Ex smoking, eating only white food? Illnesses Loud or quiet How well did they do in school? Drop out or graduate? College? Illiterate Savant Know it all Stupid Family: Parents? Alive or dead? Siblings? Alive or dead? Good standing? Bad relationships? Good or bad or in between? Names, ages in relation to MC Friends: Few or many or one or none Close or casual Job: Love it, hate it, ambivalent, jobless Home or homeless Car or truck or public transportation or walk Country or town or city Pets Social or loner I don't do this for every character, but the significant ones.
