Writing Challenge - Character Development #3

Today we are taking a look at Character Profile sheets. Some authors swear by them and others have never used them. Personally I don't use them. I just keep all the details in a "Family Tree" that I make privately on a software program. But these things can be very useful to keep things organized if you don't do that. Just a quick google search will give you a lot of different fillable PDF files for Character Profile Sheets. Like I said I prefer a Family Tree type thing so I am going to make a list of questions I find important and when I add things.

So I start with their name. Even if I don't know everything I start with what I know. For example with my Thomas Series, I knew about Andrea first and then I started adding to her. Eventually the fact that she went to high school came up so I knew she had to be in her teens when I was writing her story. And from there I figured out more information. Once you know someones age, or birth year, or what grade they are in or how long they have been out of school, you can figure out even more. Sometimes it is important to know when they started school or what grades they would have been in when certain things happened.

One other great tip about Character Profiles, even if you don't do a Family Tree type thing, is making notes about major events from your novel. These will effect your characters life and it will probably come back to effect your story line and or future stories.

So I filled this small section of one of those Profile Sheets out. This one is from Reedsy.com and it is just an example of some of the things you may want to start with and then expand upon.