Character Profiles

Figuring out who your character is can be both fun and extremely frustrating. For some characters, writing a profile can be easy. For others, it's like pulling teeth.

 

So what is a character profile?

 

When setting out to write an 80k book, it's important to know and understand your characters. What do they look like? Are they short? Tall? Do they have blue eyes or brown? What color hair do they have? Is it long? Short? Curly or straight? All these things are part of a character profile, but they're just scratching the surface.

 

The first thing I did when creating a character profile for Claiming His Kiss was go to Pinterest and find an inspiration picture for each of my characters. How did I envision Ali and Daniel?

 

Once I find a picture I think matches my characters, I print it out and put it in a notebook. This notebook will be my reference for the entire book writing process.

 

Beside the picture, I write all the basic states. Ali's full name, her age, her job, and of course her hair and eye color.

 

But then, I dive a bit deeper.

 

Since this book is the fourth book in my Serpent's Kiss series, we've met Ali before. I list what we know so far. She has a flighty mother that hops from one guy to the next and she was raised by her grandmother.

 

From there, I expand out. What is her internal struggle? What are her weaknesses? Her strengths? Does she have any hobbies?

 

This gives me a good starting point, but the profile doesn't end there. I leave plenty of space where I can add to the profile as I write.

 

Because I write without an outline, information about my characters, their past, etc., develops as I write. So when something comes up, I jot it down in my notebook. This gives me a quick and easy way to double check facts about the story I might not remember should later on.

 

Spending a little time on the front end can help save time and a lot of headaches. The last thing a writer wants to do is go back through 60,000 words to find out the name of a minor character or to discover what color eyes someone has.

 

Character profiles can be as detailed or as basic as you want them to be. An author friend of mine has character profiles that would make my head spin, but they work for her. Every writer has to find the system that works for them.