Character Assembling
I don't do this with every character. In fact, I don't do it with many characters... because most of my characters come to life pretty easily, I feel I know them well enough without creating a physical "list" for them... but in a novel-length story, sometimes it's good to have major attributes of your characters written down in one easy-to-find spot... so that, you know, your main character's hair color doesn't change mid-way through the story because you forgot what it was supposed to be and didn't want to re-read your entire first 50,000 words to figure out what color you had made it, so you guessed... not that that's ever happened to me.
Ahem.
This is a fairly extensive list, and most of the time I don't fill it all the way up, or I change some of the questions to make it more applicable to the genre of story I'm writing. But it's a handy little tool for creating three-dimensional characters. It can also be a good way to come up with ideas for a story if a character without one knocks on your brain and wants to come in.
- Name:
- Age:
- Height:
- Weight:
- Birthdate:
- Birthplace:
- Hair Color:
- Eye Color:
- Scars or handicaps (physical, mental, and/or emotional):
- Best Friend:
- Enemies and why:
- Parents:
- Present problems:
- Strongest and weakest character traits:
- Hobbies:
- Kinds of music, art, reading material preferred:
- How do they dress:
- Description of home (physical, mental, emotional atmosphere):
- Most important thing to know about this character:
- What is his/her favorite food?
- When was the last time this character cried? About what?
- What season suits this person best and why?
- Do you like/dislike this character and why?
- Describe the setting, where will the story take place?
- Why will this character be remembered?
- Why is this character worth writing about?
- Write the first line of the story.