characters

Right now, I’m doing the last three character sheets I need before I can go into the next phase of novel prep – research. I have a lot of books lined up and I’m looking forward to reading them. In a way, research feels a bit like studying for school, but without the stress of grades and exams. And you get to study only those things that you love.

I’m still working on those character sheets though, and today I thought I’d share with you the template that I normally use. For the most important characters of the first book in the series I did a much more extensive sheet, about ten pages compared to this one, which is about two pages long. I’m glad I did those ten pages for my MC’s, but for the rest of the characters it was a bit much.

Here’s my template:

Basic Character Sheet

Full Name:

Date of birth:

Place of birth:

Where does he/she live?

Is he/she tidy, messy, or average?

Family? (Romantic relationship, children etc):

Height:

Weight:

Hair:

Eyes:

Whom does he/she look like?

How does he/she dress?

How does he/she speak?

Occupation:

Comfortable with physical contact?

Parents:

Siblings:

Most significant childhood event:

Close friends:

Religion:

Sexual orientation:

Hobbies/Interests:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Five good traits:

Five bad traits:

Optimist or pessimist:

Introvert or extrovert:

Which person in his/her life would the person most want to emulate?

Which person in his/her life would the person least want to emulate?

What is his/her biggest secret?

What makes him/her angry:

What makes him/her embarrassed:

What makes him/her scared:

What makes him/her laugh:

What makes him/her cry:

What pains him/her the most:

Goal:

Motives (why that goal?):

Conflict (what is keeping them from reaching that goal?):

Greatest flaw:

Do you find character sheets useful?

(Feel free to use this template or be inspired by it, if you like!)

Saw this poll and had a hard time choosing between so many great characters (not that any of my faves are on there, but I didn’t really expect them to be either). Characters are and always have been very important to me – creating huge verses with lots and lots of people is a weakness of mine, and I love thinking about the psychology of a character and his/her relationships with other people.

“Strong female characters” is a tiresome stereotype that I have a great dislike for – that’s the kind of women Steven Moffat creates, all sass and legs and random martial arts skills. A female character, or any character for that matter, isn’t automatically good or interesting just because she has a lot of lines and does cool things. On the contrary – the best Doctor Who companion ever, Donna, did a lot of cool stuff in her episodes but what made her great was how real and genuine she came across. She had a messy life, no real job, a mother who was always nagging her, and she could be rude and loud at times – while also being a truly warm and empathetic person. She’s a character a lot of people can probably relate to and I really wish there could have been more episodes with her and the Doctor.

Some other great female characters I love are Scarlett O’Hara (Gone with the Wind), Annie Wilkes (Misery), Jane Eyre, and of course Elsa (Frozen). Scarlett because she is amazing and dresses like a Southern goddess, Annie Wilkes because of her realness, Jane Eyre because she is strong in the good sense of the word, and Elsa – I can’t even describe my feelings for this character. ‘Love’ is too weak a word for it.

Do you have any favourite female characters?