There are several things you need to consider when creating a character. Some are obvious while others may not be.
And, more importantly, the needs vary a little between short stories and novels. As with short stories you are merely getting a glimpse into a character whereas in a novel, characters need to be more developed and fleshed out.
Characterisation can be hard to manage and even harder to get right. Discovering who your character is can often be very frustrating.
Which is why character profiles are incredibly useful. Even the simplest character profile will help you in getting to know your character.
Because, let’s face it, when you’re dealing with a novel there’s often quite a few characters involved. At some point remembering who had what eye colour is going to get tricky.
Which is why I create character profiles. If not for all my characters, then for the main characters at the start. The minor character profiles tend to evolve on their own and I write additional profiles as needed.
Below is a black PDF version of the rather basic Character Profile I use. It’s nothing overly elaborate, but it does the job.
Feel free to save it to your computer for use later on.
