Character Building Sheet
Oct. 21st, 2008 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flighty_dreamsMy brother sent me this questionnaire for fleshing out your characters. He found it off some site and converted it into a Word doc format for me. Download Doc version here. (Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll email it.)
It has some great questions on it to help you figure out your characters (especially the leads) really well. For example, I filled this out for Min and WOW. First I was amazed by how many of these questions I could answer, and then I was amazed at how some of them really got me to think!
Some examples I enjoyed:
Do they act the same alone as they do with someone?
Most important childhood event that still affects him/her?
If granted one wish, what would it be and why?
What 4 things would they most like to change about themselves?
Followup: If they were changed, would they be the same person? Why/why not?
Unfortunately the formatting won't work in here, so I'll just link the basic version and its description. If you'd like the Word version with a handy easy to fill out table, check out the link above or just leave me a msg! ;-) I have to fill this out for NaNo MC.
Original link:
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/
Character Creation Form
By Crissy Gottberg
In learning more about creating characters for my novel I learned far more about creating the world around them, and the history to them then ever I thought I would, or would need to.
A person is not only a personality, but they are experiences, hopes, joys, passions, and foibles all rolled into one little package. For a writer you must not only create these in yourself, but for several, if not hundreds of other people as well. Those with the fullest detail, I have found, are actually far easier to write about then those who I know nothing about.
With that having been said, I have devised a way to have all of this in one easy place, a list of questions to answer about any character for any setting so that I can have a complete history, personality, and everything else all at my finger tips. How often have you started on the third chapter, or even the third page, and had to go back to the beginning and remind yourself that “gee, her hair was blond, not red.”
This list of questions makes that a lot easier. For convenience I have print ready versions here for page 1 and page 2. For those of you who do not think there is enough room to write what you need to, or want a digital vertion here is a list that you can cut and paste into a word processor, and use it as much as you like. If you need explanations on any of the questions, or advice on answering one, send a comment, I am sure someone will love to answer it.
Remember: The questions are about your character, not about you, so answer appropriately. Keep in mind that these questions are not all necessary for every character, in fact for bit parts you may only want to answer a couple of them. This was designed for the lead character of a novel in mind, and you will have to adjust it as necessary. This was also designed with fantasy and SF stories in mind, so some questions are specifically geared to those genres. Also, some of these have been changed slightly from the originals posted on the pages above, but it all boils down to the same thing.
It has some great questions on it to help you figure out your characters (especially the leads) really well. For example, I filled this out for Min and WOW. First I was amazed by how many of these questions I could answer, and then I was amazed at how some of them really got me to think!
Some examples I enjoyed:
Do they act the same alone as they do with someone?
Most important childhood event that still affects him/her?
If granted one wish, what would it be and why?
What 4 things would they most like to change about themselves?
Followup: If they were changed, would they be the same person? Why/why not?
Unfortunately the formatting won't work in here, so I'll just link the basic version and its description. If you'd like the Word version with a handy easy to fill out table, check out the link above or just leave me a msg! ;-) I have to fill this out for NaNo MC.
Original link:
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/
Character Creation Form
By Crissy Gottberg
In learning more about creating characters for my novel I learned far more about creating the world around them, and the history to them then ever I thought I would, or would need to.
A person is not only a personality, but they are experiences, hopes, joys, passions, and foibles all rolled into one little package. For a writer you must not only create these in yourself, but for several, if not hundreds of other people as well. Those with the fullest detail, I have found, are actually far easier to write about then those who I know nothing about.
With that having been said, I have devised a way to have all of this in one easy place, a list of questions to answer about any character for any setting so that I can have a complete history, personality, and everything else all at my finger tips. How often have you started on the third chapter, or even the third page, and had to go back to the beginning and remind yourself that “gee, her hair was blond, not red.”
This list of questions makes that a lot easier. For convenience I have print ready versions here for page 1 and page 2. For those of you who do not think there is enough room to write what you need to, or want a digital vertion here is a list that you can cut and paste into a word processor, and use it as much as you like. If you need explanations on any of the questions, or advice on answering one, send a comment, I am sure someone will love to answer it.
Remember: The questions are about your character, not about you, so answer appropriately. Keep in mind that these questions are not all necessary for every character, in fact for bit parts you may only want to answer a couple of them. This was designed for the lead character of a novel in mind, and you will have to adjust it as necessary. This was also designed with fantasy and SF stories in mind, so some questions are specifically geared to those genres. Also, some of these have been changed slightly from the originals posted on the pages above, but it all boils down to the same thing.
