Before I start writing a new book, I fill out a character profile for my hero and my heroine. If you Google “character profile template”, you’ll get a lot of results and so, over the years, I refined and honed what to include in my template and now I have the perfect one for me. Obviously, every writer is different and wants and needs different things from their character profiles, but here’s what mine looks like if you’re curious.
- Full name
- Age
- Physical description
- Month, day, and place of birth
- Names of birth parents
- FAMILY HISTORY
- FAMILY TODAY
- CHILDHOOD
- AFTER HIGH SCHOOL
- CAREER
- LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
- FRIENDSHIPS
- RELATIONSHIP HISTORY
- HOBBIES
- FOOD
- HEALTH
- FINANCES
- PETS
- TRAVEL
- SECRETS
- FEARS
- FLAWS
- WOUND
- EXTERNAL GOALS
- INTERNAL GOALS
In the past, I would just type my character profiles out in long paragraphs, almost like a biography. But the way I’ve set it up above, I can quickly skim to any section I need while I’m writing to look something up (for example, if a character is talking about how old his dog is, I can jump to the PETS section to see his dog’s age, or if a character mentions where their mother grew up, I can go to FAMILY HISTORY for a quick refresher.
I highly encourage all authors to create character profiles for at least their main characters, although some writers like to do it for every single character who makes an appearance. It really does make drafting so much easier.