Do you fill out profiles for your characters? If you do, how long do you wait to fill the profile out, and what critera do you use? If not, you should! It's not extremely detailed, but it helps you keep track of your character's strong points, weak points, personality features, basic appearance, and even basic background outline. It's quite fun, and gives you references to go back to.
Example: You're writing your NaNoWriMo novel (or any story, perhaps, that is longer than 20 pages), and you realize you forget the color of that one guy's hair. Well, now you have to go scrolling back up 60 or so pages to find what it was. And then you do it again 40-some pages later. Now what?
Yeeeep, this keeps that from happening. Here is the basic character profile template I use, and I hope you'll enjoy using it too:
Profile for: [character name here]
Gender:
Race:
Age:
Date of creation:
Birthday:
Height:
Measurements:
Hobby:
(Twist):
Status:
Basic Description:
-------------------
Current Information
-------------------
>family background
>birth place
>history, background
>home
>possessions, make-up, jewelry, etc.
>pets
--------------------
Physical Description
--------------------
>hair style
>eyes
>body
>physical condition
>marks,scar,tattoo
>clothing
------------
Personality
------------
>likes
>dislikes
>fears
>goals
>hobbies
>occupation
>favorite food
>least favorite food
>most prized possesion (important or emotional value)
>vernacular (way of speaking)
>psychological condition
>character behavior
>aptitude
>social and other pressure, problems
>relationships (with who and what kind)
>beliefs, superstition, moral value
>positive characteristics
>negatives characteristics
>personality
>other
------------
Abilities
------------
>physical
>magical
>other
Enjoy!
~Silvermist
Ooh, your template is much more complete than the one I've been using. I've saved a copy and plan to start using it. Thanks!
ReplyDelete(I love filling these out.)
ReplyDeleteProfile for: Hunter, Rayon William
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 24
Date of creation: November 9th, 2009
Birthday: July 15th
Height: 6' 2''
Hobby: Being a Hero
Status: King/Adventurer
Basic Description:
Rayon has short light brown hair, dark eyes, and a friendly smile. He's the handsome, awesome, troublemaking energetic one (well, I have several of those) in my crew. He's the character I RPG with the most, and the one that wants all the attention in my stories.