Character Biography

A good character is a real character, with history, hang-ups, habits and other assorted things that may or not make it into the story. Even if you don't put it in, a reader knows if you fudged or not.

 

Date this chart was completed:

Character's Full Name:

Reason or meaning of name:

Nickname:

Reason:

 

  1. Physical Appearance:
    1. Age: How old does s/he appear?
    2. Eye color:
    3. Glasses or contacts:
    4. Weight:
    5. Height:
    6. Type of body/build:
    7. Skin tone:
    8. Skin type:
    9. Shape of face:
    10. Distinguishing marks:
    11. Predominant feature:
    12. Looks like:
    13. Is s/he healthy?
    14. If not, why not:

      15.  

  2. Favorites:
    1. Character's favorite color:
    2. Music:

      3.  

    3. Food:

      4.  

    4. Literature:

      5.  

    5. Expressions:

      6.  

    6. Expletives:

      7.  

       

  3. Habits:
    1. Smokes: What?
    2. When and how much?
    3. Drinks: What?
    4. When and how much?
    5. Hobbies:

      6.  

       

  4. Background:
    1. Hometown:
    2. Type of childhood:

      3.  

    3. First memory:

      4.  

    4. Most important childhood event that still affects him/her:

      5.  

    5. Why?

      6.  

    6. Education:
    7. Religion:
    8. Finances:

      9.  

  5. Family:
    1. Mother:
    2. Relationship with her:

      3.  

    3. Father:
    4. Relationship with him:

      5.  

    5. Siblings:
    6. How many?
    7. Birth order:
    8. Relationship with each:

      9.  

    9. Children of siblings:

      10.  

  6. Attitude:
    1. Most at ease when:

      2.  

    2. Ill at ease when:

      3.  

    3. Priorities:
    4. Philosophy:

      5.  

    5. How s/he feels about self:

      6.  

    6. Past failure s/he would be embarrassed to have people know about:
    7. Why?
    8. If granted one wish, what would it be?

      9.  

    9. Why?

      10.  

  7. Personality:
    1. Greatest source of strength in character's personality (whether s/he sees it as such or not):

      2.  

       

    2. Greatest source of weakness in character's personality (whether s/he sees it as such or not:

      3.  

       

    3. Character's soft spot:

      4.  

    4. Is this soft spot obvious to others?
    5. If not, how does character hide it?

      6.  

    6. Biggest vulnerability:

      7.  

  8. Traits:
    1. Optimist or pessimist:
    2. Why?

      3.  

    3. Introvert or extrovert:
    4. Why?

      5.  

    5. Drives and motivations:

      6.  

       

    6. Talents:

      7.  

    7. Extremely unskilled at:

      8.  

    8. Good characteristics:

      9.  

    9. Character flaws:

      10.  

    10. Mannerisms:
    11. Peculiarities:

      12.  

    12. Biggest regret:

      13.  

    13. Minor regrets:

      14.  

    14. Biggest accomplishment:

      15.  

    15. Minor accomplishments:

      16.  

    16. Character's darkest secret:

      17.  

    17. Does anyone else know?

      18.  

    18. If yes, did character tell them?

      19.  

       

    19. If no, how did they find out?

      20.  

       

  9. Self-Perception:
    1. One word character would use to describe self:
    2. One paragraph description of how character would describe self:

      3.  

       

       

       

    3. What does character consider best physical characteristic?

      4.  

    4. What does character consider worst physical characteristic?

      5.  

    5. Are these realistic assessments?
    6. If not, why not?

      7.  

       

    7. How character thinks others perceive him/her:

      8.  

       

       

    8. What four things would character most like to change about self? (#1 most important, #2 second most important,etc.)

      9. 1.

       

      2.

       

      3.

       

      4.
    9. Why?

      10.  

    10. If change #1 was made, would character be as happy as s/he thinks?
    11. If not, why not?

      12.  

       

  10. Interrelations With Others:
    1. How does character relate to others?

      2.  

    2. How is s/he perceived by...
    3. Strangers?

      4.  

    4. Friends?

      5.  

    5. Wife/Husband/Lover?

      6.  

    6. Hero/Heroine?

      7.  

    7. How does character view hero/heroine?

      8.  

    8. First impression: Why?

      9.  

    9. What happens to change this perception?

      10.  

    10. What do family/friends like most about character?

      11.  

    11. What do family/friends like least about character?

      12.  

  11. Goals:
    1. Immediate goals:

      2.  

    2. Long range goals:

      3.  

    3. How does character plan to accomplish these goals?

      4.  

    4. How will other characters be affected?

      5.  

  12. Problems/Crisis:
    1. How character reacts in a crisis:

      2.  

    2. How character faces problems:

      3.  

    3. Kinds of problems character usually runs into:

      4.  

    4. How character reacts to new problems:

      5.  

    5. How character reacts to change:

      6.  

  13. General:
    1. Favorite clothing: Why?

      2.  

    2. Least favorite clothing: Why?

      3.  

    3. Jewelry:
    4. Other accessories:

      5.  

    5. Drives:
    6. Where does character live?
    7. Where does character want to live?
    8. Spending habits (frugal, spendthrift, etc): Why?
    9. What does s/he do too much of?

      10.  

    10. Too little of?

      11.  

    11. Most prized possession: Why?

      12.  

  14. Uncategorized:
    1. Person character secretly admires:
    2. Why?

      3.  

    3. Person character was most influenced by:
    4. Why?

      5.  

    5. Most important person in character's life before story starts:
    6. Why?

      7.  

    7. How does character spend the week before the story starts?

      8.  

       

       

       

       

       

Feel free to share this character chart with friends! My only request is that you keep it intact, with this notice included so any updates can be easily found. The URL where the Character Chart is kept can be found at http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html -- an offshoot of The Eclectic Writer http://www.eclectics.com/writing/writing.html