Since I'm doing autobiographical fiction, there is the temptation to just use what I know about people, but I'm thinking now I need to do these things because these people aren't the real people. They are characters in my book universe.

So far I've got:
Name:
Date of birth:
Place of birth:
Religion:
Sexual persuasion:
Race & Ethnicity:
Socioeconomic background:
 

I'd be more interested in spending my time answering questions that really bring out the character.

What do they hate the most about men/women?
What are their secret habits they don't want anyone else to know.
What makes them laugh? cry? be afraid?
Were they abused as children? Date-raped?
Have they ever killed a person? Wanted to?
Do they believe in a god, or just pay lip service?
Are they sane?

And so on.
 

I know, Age, Height, Build, Eye Color, Hair Color, Hair Styles, Favorite colors of dress, birth place, where they were raised, their parents names, any professions they have had as well as love interests/spouse/partners.

I have a box of index cards for this stuff, but I don't write the card first, I write the story first then write the card and if the character comes up again in that story or another one, I check the card.

On the back of the card is a prose bio.

If it's a major character I have drawn pictures of their face, their bodies, their usual dress.

Bryan: I had this stuffed rabbit, when I was younger I slept with him as my pillow. I called him "Brown," well, 'cuz he was brown except for a wine stain on his back leg.

Hmm, could be fun.
 

I don't bother with eye color, hair color, height, etc, because no one cares about that crap anyway. I focus on what this character's purpose is and what feelings he's trying to convey.

As a writer you will and should always know far more about each character than you ever have any reason to impart to the reader. The more you can describe your character, the better a reader can immerse into that character and the better they will like your story.

It also depends on what you are writing, if you are writing epic space marine opera and slow down to say how the captain had green eyes and the private had blue eyes, it won't float. But if you are writing romance, things like noticing eye color matter.

 

The most important thing about your character will always be the thing that makes your character unique and interesting. Pretty much by definition, it isn't possible to say what sort of thing that might be, other than that it is unique and interesting.

It could be something basic like the character's date of birth or religion. Maybe you're telling a story about somebody that was born in the age of the dinosaurs, or who starts a new religion (or revives an old one, or joins a fictional one ). Nothing prevents those "boring" bits of census data from being the character's guiding star or albatross, after all.

Basically, the most important thing you need to know about a character is why that person is in your story. It could be something relatively simple, or something difficult to express in fewer words than the entire text of your story. Whatever the reason, you need to know it.

Everything else is addendum.
 

What is in the character's closet that he never wears but cannot throw out?

What does the character have hidden in a drawer and forgotten?

What is one thing the character did that he swore he never would?

Identify the moment when the character felt the most hatred for someone.

Identify the moment when the character felt the most love for someone, and let it be the same person from the above question.
 

Perhaps the person never did anything he'd sworn he'd never do, or perhaps never swore not to do something.

What if the only reason the character doesn't wear the thing is because it isn't clothing?

You're making all kinds of a priori assumptions about what kind of character this has to be just by the questions you're asking. That will tend to make all the characters depressingly similar. They all have treasured clothes they never wear, and did things despite swearing they wouldn't, and feel intense hatred of the persons they most love.

Not that no one in your story should be like that, but wouldn't it be boring if everyone were?
 

I don't see an a priori assumption here. Maybe the fact that someone never swore not to do something signals a character weakness. You've imagined an item other than clothing not being thrown away, so already your character would be different, and different answers to questions like this can help flesh out a character in the writer's mind. As franc li said, these aren't even things we use in the story.

Just because a lot of people have clothes they never wear but don't throw out doesn't make them alike. The stories behind those clothes or the reasons for clinging to them are what this sort of exercise is after.

I'm certainly not saying these are the best questions, merely ones I've found helpful.
 

Physical Description (what do other characters see? tall, short, brawny, slender, non-descript?)
Emotional & Psychological Description (charismatic? trusting? outgoing? introvert? paranoid? selfish? generous?)
Motivation Description (personal history, childhood, culture, life experiences)

You don't need to describe these things to the reader, unless the detail is pertinent to the story at the moment. But you DO need to understand these things yourself, so you can write appropriate dialog and actions. A character who had a good childhood and is an optimist, who is charismatic and good looking will act and behave much differently than a character who was beaten and abused as a child, left homeless, taught to steal to survive, and has learned that safety depends on secrecy and keeping to oneself.

The character's emotional and psychological profile are often far more important than their physical description...unless they have a glaring physical disorder... which would in turn affect their emotional and psychological state of mind (like, say, the Elephant Man or Michael Jackson).

[This message has been edited by Elan (edited October 21, 2005).]
 

I like Pantros & Kolona's suggestions, and I'll be adding the "moment felt most hate/love" thing.

I prefer writing little side-stories, or daydreaming about the character in another mileu, that sort of thing in deciding who they are. I've recently begun working with Sandra Ingerman's shamanic journeying book. I enjoy having a nice shamanic journey to meet my characters or explore the universe.
 

Taking the questions you asked, they would tell nobody anything important about me if I were a fictional character in a story. I have non-clothing items in my closet, just like every guy that has ever had a closet. I suppose that I have sworn not to do certain things, but I've never done those things. The times I've felt the most hate, I couldn't even tell you who it was I hated or which time I felt the most hate. People I really hate aren't important to my life. I think that's a normal, healthy attitude, as well as being utterly uninteresting. And while I could probably specify the person for whom I've felt the greatest love, well, the answer is...not very interesting or original, from a literary point of view.

In real life, the most important thing to know about a person is the answer to Glenda's age old question, "Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?" But in real life, we aren't the author. With a character you don't ask questions to try and find out how suitable this person will be as a lover or teacher or hireling or whatever. And you especially don't have to ask questions designed to "trick" an honest or at least unguarded answer out of the character. You try to find out what that person is doing in your story, and how that character is going to do it.

Any question can be part of that process, but no directly answerable question will ever always be important.

As for mister "doesn't like his middle name", give him a middle initial and leave it at that. Lots of people don't like their middle names, I think it's kinda the point of the whole tradition by now.
 

quote:

---

Any question can be part of that process, but no directly answerable question will ever always be important.

---

P.S. I think I'll add the "good witch/bad witch question" into my repertoire.

P.P.S. Hmmm....why didn't the "quote" stuff transfer? 'Course, I haven't done this for a while. Has anything changed?

P.P.P.S. Ooops. Of course. Thanks, Ahavah.

[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited October 22, 2005).]
 

1) What the character DOES
2) Motive: What the character MEANS to do
3) The Past
4) Reputation
5) Stereotypes
6) Network of Relationships
7) Habits and Patterns
8) Talents and Abilities
9) Tastes and Preferences
10) Body

I find the really detailed inventories don't work for me - anyone ever play AD&D and spend so much time on the character sheets that they never got around to a campaign? This set seems to work for me - helps me think about the person in the context of the story, gives me a place to add stuff as I write and discover things about my character (he has a sister? I didn't know he had a sister...). I will admit, the stereotypes box sometimes gets used for other stuff...

For minor characters - I have a one-page sheet with a table of 12 blocks. If I know of people ahead of the story, I jot down the basics in a box. If someone comes up during a story, I add them in a box to help me keep track.

And flexibility is a plus - change things as they need changing!
 

Anyway, I thought that that was a good step in the right direction. I like to map out my characters as well (although definitely not as detailed as my friend did). I first describe them physically, although I rarely do that in my stories--I just like to have a mental picture of them. It helps me to give them a personality when I know what they look like. Then I start deciding on what characteristics they have. Are they clever? Smart? Shy? Foolish? And so on. Do they have any interesting quirks or habits? What does each character believe in? What are their values? And on and on until I have a pretty fleshed out character. Then as I write my stories, they begin to develop other characteristics that make them complex and believable. They even start getting minds of their own and sometimes saying and doing things I never intended to have them do. But it works.

I suppose everyone has a different way of mapping out their characters and...that's mine.
 

Personal information
Age:
Physical Description:
Current place of residence:

Origins
Birthplace:
Describe character's hometown.
Describe why and how the character left home, or why he/she didn't.
Describe the character's family or lack thereof.

Occupation
Explain the character's current job or lack thereof.
Describe character's job history.
List one or more hobbies.

Relationships
Describe the character's immediate family - spouse, children, et cetera.
Does the character have enemies?
Does the character have close friends?
Give a brief history of the character's love life.

Motivations
What does the character desire?
What does the character fear?
What will the character do, or has done, to gain the former and avoid the latter?

Each section usually contains an "other" field, as well. I use it for important minor characters. By the time I get around to writing a book about someone, I can fill this sheet out in five seconds flat, but I have a nasty tendency to create featureless minor characters defined only by their relationship to the main. Filling out a sheet makes them real people to me, even if I don't use half of the information in the actual story.
 

I have an image of the characters in my head and usually make up most of the details up as I go. But I might use the approach on my super-heroesque thing I'm trying to write.

I think it might help make the characters better in the long run.

So, that's just my take on things. I try to have characters that are characterized by their actions, words and descriptions. Is that bad??

That's 3 posts today for me.

-Monolith-
 

I did this a few years back. I started writing up these mysterious "interviews" where a number of my main characters were being questioned by a voice or voices unknown, who knew all about their past and actions and could challenge them on certain things. It was really interesting to see the responses some of my characters came up with (particularly the one who was actually dead by the time these interviews occurred...).

Definitely helped me to understand them better, their motivations, what they would admit to, what they'd try to deny. For good measure, it got me a better idea of their dialogue patterns, particularly under stress.

Very useful.

I don't think I have any formal bio sheets or notes, though. I find those kind of things look utterly flat on the page. I have drawn pictures of some of my characters, though I'm not a very good artist. I did try and design some in Sims 2, but there was a limited choice of appropriate clothing, and I couldn't design their physical shape, only their faces. I really want a good piece of character design software that could produce realistic 3D animated images of my characters...

 

A while back I was talking to Fantasy World Geographic about a series of illustrated books and they sketched up my main characters for me to look at. It was amazing how that helped. I printed them out and look at them when I am writing in that milieu. I'd like to share them but cannot get a response from FWG and they own the sketches.

But the point is, that anything that can help you visualize your characters is useful.

I wonder if there are sketching challenges and forums the way we have writing challenges/forums? It would be cool to get people with those skills to whip up sketches of our characters.

[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited October 26, 2005).]
 

if you have alot of spare time, learn to use Maya you can buy a tutorial book with a free version at any bookstore for about $59

It will take you about 100 hours of training to get to the point where you can design a character.

Poser also works for character design, but the control is far easier to use and slightly limited. Poser can run you a few hundred.

For character sketches, I prefer colored pencils to software. But I work a little with both.
 

Of course, bookshops round my way don't take dollars

Seriously, I'll check it out, and next time I'm in the US, may (finances permitting) indulge myself.
 

I know people who like to "cast" their characters with actual actors--gives them more of a handle on how the character might look, move, talk, etc.
 

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