yeahwriters:

Last fall my fiction professor thought that our class wasn’t creating vivid enough characters, so he had us write 5 pages about one of the characters in our existing stories, or about a character that would be in an upcoming story. Basically all we had to do was describe the person, using the below outline to help us think of some details about our characters. What resulted were these great character vignettes, and you’d be surprised how much of the character outlines ended up being really great content for the actual stories. They really, really helped our characters pop. I’d suggest that everyone try it, especially those of you who have a hard time creating “round” characters or getting to know who your characters really are.

You don’t necessarily have to fill this list out before you write a character sketch—it can also just be used as a reference—but here are a zillion-and-one character traits to think about (loads more under the “Read More” cut):

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name:

Nickname:

Reason for name:

Birthday:

Age:

Gender:

Place of birth:

Places lived since:

Parents’ names, backgrounds, occupations:

Number of siblings:

Relationship with family (close? estranged?):

Happiest memory:

Childhood trauma:

Children of his/her own?:

If so, relationship with their mother/father?:

Age he/she gave birth/became a father:

PHYSICAL

Height:

Weight:

Build:

Nationality:

Disabilities (physical or mental, including mental illnesses):

Complexion (freckles, acne, skin tone, birth marks):

Face shape:

Distinguishing facial features:

Hair color:

Usual hair style:

Eye color:

Glasses? Contacts?:

Style of dress/typical outfit(s):

Typical style of shoes:

Health (is this person usually sick? or very resilient?):

Grooming (does she/he wear makeup? shower daily? wear only clean clothes? pluck her eyebrows?):

Jewelry? Tattoos? Piercings?:

Accent?:

Unique mannerisms/physical habits (bites nails, talks with hands, taps feet when restless):

Athletic?: 

INTELLECT

Level of education (high school drop out, undergrad BA/BS, PhD, MD, etc.):

Level of self esteem:

Gifts/talents:

Shortcomings:

Style of speech (loud, mumbler, articulate, etc.):

“Left brain” or “right brain” thinker?:

Artistic?:

Mathematical?:

Makes decisions based mostly on emotions, or on logic?:

Neuroses: 

Life philosophy:

Religious stance:

Cautious or daring?:

Most sensitive about/vulnerable to:

Optimist or pessimist?:

Extrovert or introvert?: 

Level of comfort with technology: 

RELATIONSHIPS

Current marital/relationship status:

Sexual orientation:

Past relationships:

Primary reason for being broken up with:

Primary reasons for breaking up with people:

Level of sexual experience:

Story of first kiss (if any—if not, how does he/she want it to happen?):

Story of loss of virginity (if any—if not, how does he/she want it to happen, if at all?):

A social person? (popular, loner, some close friends, makes friends and then quickly drops them):

Most comfortable around (person):

Oldest friend:

How does he/she think others perceive him/her?:

How do others actually perceive him/her?:

VOCATION

Profession:

Past occupations:

Passions:

Attitude towards current job:

Attitude towards current coworkers, bosses, employees:

Salary:

SECRETS

(Every character—no matter how minor—should always have secrets!)

Phobias:

Life goals:

Dreams:

Greatest fears:

Most ashamed of:

Most embarrassing thing ever to happen to him/her:

Compulsions:

Obsessions:

Secret hobbies:

Secret skills:

Past sexual transgressions:

Crimes committed (and was he/she caught? charged?):

What he/she most wants to change about his/her current life:

What he/she most wants to change about his/her physical appearance:

DETAILS/QUIRKS

Daily routine:

Night owl or early bird?:

Light or heavy sleeper?:

Favorite food:

Least favorite food:

Favorite book:

Least favorite book:

Favorite movie:

Least favorite movie:

Favorite song:

Least favorite song:

Coffee or tea?:

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?:

Type of car he/she drives (or wishes he/she drove):

Lefty or righty?:

Favorite color:

Cusser?:

Smoker? Drinker? Drug user?:

Biggest regret: 

Pets?: