10 Days of Character Building: Character Bio Sheets

This is Day 10 of 10 Days of Character Building

We have reached the final day of character building, and I have saved one of the easiest character generation methods for last. The character bio sheet is not only a simple way to develop a character, it is a simple way to keep track of the characters you develop. When you are writing a longer work, such as a novel, it can be pretty easy to forget a minor character detail. If you aren’t careful, the blue eyes you described in chapter one can turn to brown eyes by the end of chapter twenty.

Using a character bio sheet, you can write down all of the essential details for your character and keep it in a single place so that you can check it and change it whenever you need to. As your story progresses and your characters continue to evolve, you can use this sheet to keep track of any changes you have made to the character. If you keep track of all your details on the bio sheet, your editing process will go much more smoothly.

When you fill out a bio sheet initially, don’t feel as if you have to include a detail for every category. For example, the lies category may be empty when you begin, but if your character is forced to tell a lie on page fifty-five you can add that to the sheet. On your first pass, fill out all of the details you are comfortable with and leave the rest. Also, feel free to add your own categories. My items are merely suggestions.

• Character Name / Nicknames / Aliases:
• Birth Date:
• Place of Birth:
• Residence:
• Height:
• Weight:
• Measurements:
• Clothing Sizes / Styles:
• Hair Color:
• Hair Length:
• Eye Color:
• Handedness :
• Jewelry:
• Tattoos:
• General Appearance:
• Relationship with Family:
• Key Family / Relatives:
• Relationship with Friends:
• Key Friends:
• Key Enemies:
• Educational History:
• Work History:
• Skills:
• Phobias / Fears:
• Bad Habits / Vices:
• Quirks:
• Best Qualities:
• Worst Qualities:
• Key Childhood Experiences:
• Key Teenage Experiences:
• Key Adult Experiences:
• Sexual Background:
• Favorites (food, clothing, art, music, TV show, movie, book, etc.)
• Personal Goals:
• Professional Goals:
• Morality / Ethics:
• Style of Speech:
• Commonly Used Words / Slang / Jargon:
• Lies / Misinformation:
• Other Important Details:

10 Days of Character Building: Basing Characters on Real People

This is Day 9 of 10 Days of Character Building

Basing characters on actual people is a fairly common literary practice. The people around you can be a great source of inspiration. I don’t, however, recommend basing a character on a single person. It can be problematic for the following reasons:

• If that person finds out, they may not like it. It can hurt a friendship or even get you sued.
• You may be tempted to recreate moments from their life too closely and not let the plot take its natural course because you know how everything took place. In other words, it can be difficult to stay fictional with a character based on a real person.
• You might find yourself unwilling to portray the darkest aspects of a character because you don’t want to hurt the real person.

I believe it is a much better idea to base a character on two different people. When you combine two people who share at least a few common traits, you can pick the traits that you want and fictionalize the remaining traits. It is easier to demonstrate this process than explain it, so I’ll give an example.

I have two friends that I believe share some common traits and experiences. There are many links between them, but for the purposes of my story:

• Both are about forty
• Both have careers in the computer field
• Both have worked for their respective employers for over ten years
• Both enjoy watching and playing games such as baseball, pool, poker and bowling.
• Both have recently bought new houses with their significant others
• Both own a lot of electronic equipment and gadgets
• Both are extroverts

Using these characteristics, I have the base of a character. Now I can use their differences to try to make the character unique and to try to fill the story needs I have for that character. Here are some of my choices.

• Friend A is married while Friend B lives with his girlfriend. For my purposes, I am going to choose to have the character live with his girlfriend, which will happen during the story rather than at the beginning. This is to contrast him with other characters in my story who are already in long-term relationships.
• Friend A’s significant other has a five year old son. Friend B has no children. For the purposes of my story it is better for there to be a child, but I want the boy to be older, so that he can interact with another boy I have already added to the story. My character’s significant other will have a twelve year old son.
• Friend B has strong political views and Friend A does not. I think this will make for an interesting character trait, so my character will have strong political views.
• Friend A attended a university, Friend B went to a technical school. Friend A works for a university, friend B works in the private sector. I want the character to work in an academic setting, so I am going to have him be a university graduate. I am going to add that he is pursing a master’s degree, which neither friend is doing.
• Friend A dated prolifically and was married briefly before his current relationship. Friend B did not date much. My character will have an extensive dating history and a past divorce, which will set him apart from other characters in the story.
• Friend A is very concerned about his looks and has a daily workout routine to maintain them. Friend B is neither in shape nor self-conscious about it. I am going to have the character maintain a workout routine.
• Friend A is a hard worker who takes his job seriously while Friend B is a decent worker but not the sort of person who takes his work home with him. My character will take this a step further than Friend B, to the point that he has a hard time staying busy at work because so little is required of him.

Using all of these traits I have enough information to create a character who is unique, but still maintains many of the qualities of his real life inspirations. Based on what I’ve decided so far, I have created the character profile below. It has aspects of both my friends, but it creates a unique character that should mesh well with the other characters in my story.

Profile: Larry Parris

Larry is a forty year old database programmer at a university. He has worked for the university since before he graduated fifteen years ago. His has excellent computer skills, but his job is easy and he is so settled in it that few people even understand what he does. He has earned telecommuting rights, so he is often not at work and instead spends his time at the gym or at a nearby bar where he watches sports and bets on horse racing. He keeps his computer, phone and PDA within quick reach so that he can fix a problem if he needs to.

Larry attends at least one class per semester, working on a master’s degree in sociology that he has no real need for, but pursues because he finds it interesting. His conservative libertarian political views often put him at odds with the younger, more left-wing students in the classes he takes. He calls them “the crunchy granola people”.

He is attractive and outgoing, frequently dating the women he meets at the gym or at the bar. This has led to many strange and sometimes embarrassing situations that his friends never let him live down. Most of the time, the women are significantly younger and less educated than him, but he soon meets a woman close to his age who has a twelve year old son.

Larry is a little shy of commitment since his divorce ten years ago, but find himself moving quickly with this woman and bonding with her son. The relationship is not without its problems though, as he finds his loose, carefree lifestyle growing more and more structured and restrictive. He also has to deal with his girlfriend’s emotionally abusive ex-husband.

Weekly Poetry Assignment 3: Poetry and Photographs

As I discussed two weeks ago, I am working with a photographer to create cover art for the book of poetry I am getting ready to publish. In compiling my poems, there are a few key images that reoccur, and one of them is a cell phone. Because of this, I want to use my cell phone in my cover art. It is a slightly older phone, and a little beaten up from years of use and abuse. I like to think it has character.

This week my photographer David Hwang and I had a test shoot. We shot pictures of the phone on a table, in my hand, in his hand, on the hood of a car, on the dashboard of a car, on various spots on the ground, with other props, without other props and a few ways I am probably forgetting. There are a couple shots that I really like, but so far there is none that stands out as the “perfect” shot – the one that might convince a casual shopper to pick up the book and take a look at it.

It is difficult to match images sometimes. Translating the thoughts I have in my head into poetry is a significant enough challenge, meshing this with an image in my head and then translating it through another person is an even bigger challenge. It’s like having someone else feed you soup with chopsticks. It’s easy enough to get a taste of what you want, but it is going to take a lot of time and effort to leave satisfied.

This Week’s Poetry Assignment

Write a poem about a photograph, preferably one you have taken yourself.

Further Reading

• Choosing your Cover Art Layout
• David Hwang on Flickr
• FlickrPoetry

10 Days of Character Building: 12 Questions

This is Day 8 of 10 Days of Character Building

• How would I describe this character in a single sentence?
• What type of personality does this character have?
• What is this character’s purpose in the story?
• How is this character different from any other character in the story?
• What makes this character interesting to readers?
• What does this character care most about?
• What are this character’s key physical traits?
• What is the most important thing that has ever happened to this character?
• What are the things this character cares the most about?
• How does this character deal with problems?
• What would it take to make this character change significantly?
• What relationship does this character have with the other characters?

10 Days of Character Building: Building a Character Using Multiple Perspectives

This is Day 7 of 10 Days of Character Building

This character building idea turns the concept of the interview around. Instead of interviewing a character about themselves, you interview the other characters in your story about one particular character. This gives you a profile of the character as seen by other people. It can also help you set up potential conflicts and plot points by revealing hidden bonds and tensions between characters.

A character might consider herself to be insightful, brave and authoritative, while that character’s sister might view her as bossy, opinionated and unreliable. A husband may think his wife is supportive and loyal, while the other man she is secretly seeing believes she wants her husband dead. A man’s boss may think of him as the hard-working backbone of the company while that man’s children may think of him as the jerk who was never there when they needed him.

The most basic method of using other characters to create a profile is to have each give a general description from their perspective. A character might, for example, be profiled by her husband, sister, son, boss, co-worker, best friend, former friend, old boyfriend and neighbor. Each would discuss their opinion of her and experiences with her. Don’t feel as if all the characters who give there opinion have to be major characters or fully developed themselves. By using one character to profile another, you will find out more about both characters.

If you want to be more creative, look for ways to make the interview process fit the nature of the story. For example, you can create the profile as if it were a class discussion, news article, police interview or a reality show. You can also set up general questions for every character to answer or tailor questions to fit each character’s position and perspective.

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