Character Profiling

[kajones_writing]

Today I’ve been looking online at some character profiling questionnaires and they really haven’t helped at all. Instead I feel like I have less of an idea about what I want to do with my character profiles than I did before. With the number of characters I have I need to make a start on profiling them, but I’m not entirely sure how I want to do it, because I could mix and match my options or just focus on one way of writing the profiles.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is whether I do them in first person or third person. All of my fiction is in third person, although I once wrote everything in first, so I think doing the profiles in first would give an interesting insight into the characters. However then I need to think about how I want to do it. I could interview them, which seems a little weird, so I don’t think I’d do that (especially as I’m awful at thinking up questions); I could have my readers interview them after writing a short introductory post; or I could just write a post.

If I do it in third person I can use the profiles, although I think a lot of them are pretty generic, and I’d have to work out some of my own questions for almost all of my collections. Take, as an example, the World Walkers collection. I’d need home world; current world; travelling ability; and all sorts of other things, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like the World Walkers collection. There are stories where people travel between worlds, but I don’t think those worlds were ever created to gather magic.

No matter what I’d like some input. Would anyone enjoy interviewing my characters? If I write a profile what would you like to see in it? Anything right now is going to be very helpful, because I’m really not sure what to do with this.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>One thing I’ve been thinking about is whether I do them in first person or third person.<<

First person tends to give more intimacy. Third person tends to give more accuracy and consistency, especially if some characters try to shade the truth or hide things ... which is, in my experience, pretty much all of them. I'd favor third person for practical reasons, though it's ultimately up to you.

>>I could interview them, which seems a little weird, so I don’t think I’d do that (especially as I’m awful at thinking up questions); I could have my readers interview them after writing a short introductory post; or I could just write a post.<<

Character interviews can work, but tend to fare best with established characters that people know well. Somebody like John Good Road or Anna, no problem; somebody new, much harder. However, this might make a good bonus for featured series/characters, beyond the purely practical writeups.

For questions, job interviews (http://career-advice.monster.com/job-interview/interview-questions/100-potential-interview-questions/article.aspx) and other interpersonal examples can help. I have a masterlist of interview questions for authors (http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/1197106.html). Intellectual Foreplay (http://www.heartpath.com/Content/intellectualforeplay.htm) has some awesome questions about getting to know people. There are, of course, character interview (http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106) lists too. So if you mix and match, that can help.

>>If I do it in third person I can use the profiles, although I think a lot of them are pretty generic, and I’d have to work out some of my own questions for almost all of my collections.<<

I recommend making your own profile. You can see an example of what we use for main characters in Torn World, with Nrath (http://www.tornworld.net/members/cisdisplay.php); or bit characters, with Ablara (http://www.tornworld.net/members/cisdisplay.php). Here's the character sheet that I designed for my Aether Dancer character Sesha Fulbright (http://penultimateproductions.weebly.com/sesha-fulbright.html).

>>Take, as an example, the World Walkers collection. I’d need home world; current world; travelling ability; and all sorts of other things, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like the World Walkers collection.<<

Precisely. For Quiar alone, you'd need the race, phyle, urn, and hame because those determine so much of alliance or animosity; and they'll try to analog those for everyone they meet. The most important things in my experience include physical description (so you don't change the hair color accidentally, etc.), any specified dates or times, and the stuff that most influences the story (like magical abilities). The core info is the same almost anywhere, but the story-driving material varies a LOT.

>>Would anyone enjoy interviewing my characters?<<

Some of them, yes.

>> If I write a profile what would you like to see in it? <<

You can see the direction I'm leaning. Hmm, want me to try making a sample sheet for Quiar? I'm planning to establish at least one named character there anyhow.