Vices, Tics, and Skeletons | Creating a character profile for my protagonist

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I’m revamping my writing process by creating an outline for my entire novel, and doing focused research to create the lives and backdrop of the story. But there is one more tool I’m exploiting, which I haven’t mentioned yet — creating a character profile.

What is a character profile?

A character profile is a working tool — meaning it changes as your story develops — to help define a character and how they act. (We’re talking about everything from hair and eye color to the kind of building they live in and what their religion and education are.)

I’ve used profiles in one form or the other in the past, but I’ve always been super informal: a notebook page of notes on physical features (because that is the first thing I forget) and key emotional hang-ups. Effective, but not quite enough to create a deep character.

Creating a character profile — how?!

This time, I decided I needed some help creating a character profile and I used a questionnaire to outline my protagonist.

There are scads of questionnaires online, some are exceptionally thorough while others are more simple. I decided to use something specific but…