I’ve had such a ridiculously hard time lately trying to look up old characters, either from half-finished WIPs that I’ve recently picked up again, or from books I plan to publish but need to give a character description for the cover artist to work from. My Google-fu is pretty good, but a text search will only take you so far.
So yesterday, I put together a rough template for a character sheet. I plan to fill one out for every major character in my WIPs from now on.
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CHARACTER SHEET:
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FULL NAME:
AGE:
HEIGHT:
WEIGHT:
BUILD:
SKIN:
HAIR:
EYES:
OTHER:
MYERS-BRIGGS:
POLITICS:
SOCIAL CLASS:
RELIGION:
EDUCATION:
OCCUPATION:
RELATIONS:
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BACKSTORY:
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MOTIVATIONS:
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STRENGTHS & ADVANTAGES:
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FLAWS & HANDICAPS:
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SYMPATHETIC HOW?
Does having a MYERS-BRIGGS on them really help you? Also, would adding an image of the character help? I sometimes do that, using actors or models as my pictorial guide for description.
I find that it does, but I’m partial to the Myers-Briggs typology. You might prefer a different personality test.
I’ve only tried picturing my characters a couple of times. It made things a bit more interesting, but not enough to make a huge difference. Then again, I’m not a very visual writer, at least when it comes to my characters. That’s part of the reason why it’s so hard to remember their hair, eye color, etc.
That makes sense, I have trouble remembering because my worlds are so big, so character sheets are key! I also find that these sheets greatly help your developmental editors.