Character biography examples

How to Create the Ultimate Character Profile [+ Template]

Ask any great novelist, and they’ll likely tell you that good writing starts with good characters. But building characters from the ground up is also one of the toughest hills to climb, especially if you’ve struggled with those all-too-revealing questions:

If you’re having these doubts, you might want to turn to the age-old solution: a character profile.

What is a character profile?

A character profile is a detailed biography of a persona that covers everything from their age and appearance to their relationships with others. By understanding parts of their life that readers might not discover during the course of the story, an author can better understand that character’s life, personality, motivations, and their function within a story.

In this post, we will show you our three-part process for assembling a character profile.

What makes a good character profile template?

Many character bibles present exercises that ask you, “If your character was a color, what color would they be?” For many writers, this is either overkill or a bit too 'woo-woo' for their tastes, and they prefer to create a profile that deals in verifiable facts: height, age, and profession.

Our suggestion lies somewhere between those two approaches, where you build a holistic picture of your character in the context of your story. Our character profile worksheet is in three parts. If you treat a person like an apple, they’re going to have three layers of depth: the “skin,” the “flesh,” and the “core.” (Otherwise known as their physical appearance, backstory, and psychology.) That’s how this character profile template is structured — and if you have a particular area that you’d like to hone, you can skip to it below. Otherwise, this character bible will start with the eagle eye’s view of your character.

The Three-Part Character Profile Template:

The Outer Layer, or Physical Appearance
The Flesh, or Backstory
The Core, or Psychology

How to create a character profile

As another reminder, we strongly recommend our character profile template in a PDF format and fill it out as you go along! Download it below for free right here.

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Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

1. Construct the character's outer appearance

To be able to identify a criminal, detectives build a painstakingly thorough file of said criminal’s physical characteristics.

That’s the goal of this section, which covers the “skin” of your character: everything from their outer appearance to the way that they speak. Think of it as a kind of offender profile — one that can help you spot your character in the middle of a crowded Times Square.

The Basics 📖

Name
Age
Place of birth
Current location
Nationality
Education
Occupation
Income

Physical Appearance 👀

What's their:

Eye color?
Hairstyle?
Build?

Do they have any distinguishing features (tattoos, scars, birthmarks)?

What's their preferred outfit?

Do they wear glasses? 👓

What accessories are ALWAYS associated with them (cane, pipe, necklace, etc.)? 🌂

What's their usual level of grooming?

Disheveled
Smart, very put together
Untidy but clean
Other?

Do they have any distinguishing “tics” and mannerisms?

What's their health like? Do they suffer from chronic illnesses? 🏥

Describe their handwriting (sloppy, neat, careful, unintelligible). ✍

How do they walk? 👣

Confident, powerful strides
Lazy stroll
Fast, walks at a clip
Distracted, eyes on the ground
Other?

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Speech and Communication 💬

How do they talk (rapid, slow, measured, drawl, etc.)?

What's the style of their speech (elevated, educated, peppered with slang, etc.)?

Do they have an accent?

Posture:

Stiff, military
Slouching
Casual and relaxed
‘Turtle,’ tired
Other?

Do they gesture?

Only when agitated or eager
Doesn’t gesture
Compulsive “hand-talker”
Controlled, only to make a point
Other? If so, explain:

How much eye contact do they like to make (direct, shifty, etc.)?

What's their preferred curse word?

What's their catchphrase?

Any speech impediments?

What are any distinguishing speech “tics”?

What's their laugh like? What do they tend to find funny?

Describe their smile?

How emotive are they? Do they wear their emotions on their sleeve? How easily can others read them?

They have a resting _____ face.

Bitch 😒
Angel 😇
Neutral 😐
Other?

Q: What tools or methods do you recommend to create comprehensive character profiles?

Suggested answer

This is so important because the character will drive your story.. You reader has to be fascinated by your protagonist and be routing for him or her. I always interview my characters in depth. I don't just ask them about the basics of their lives and history, I ask them what they fear most in life, what makes them get up in the morning. I tool I send to authors I coach is the Proust Questionnaire, not something the great Proust used in his work, but a game that was popular in his time. Here it is:

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your current state of mind?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most treasured possession?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

What is your favorite journey?

What is your most marked characteristic?

When and where were you the happiest?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest fear?

What is your greatest extravagance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is your greatest regret?

Which talent would you most like to have?

Where would you like to live?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Whose are your heroes in real life?

Which living person do you most admire?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasions do you lie?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What are your favorite names?

How would you like to die?

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

What is your motto?

I provide all my clients with a template that I devised myself for ensuring that every single character in a novel is fully fleshed-out, colourful and contrasting, both within themselves and to other characters.

I've had success doing enneagram quizzes in each character's persona. Even if you don't believe in personality profiles, it's a good way to check whether a character's goals, motivations, and considerations are consistent. They can reveal gaps where you still have a question to answer about a character's background and, best of all, it reassures you that you're writing characters who contrast with one another, rather than representing different aspects of your temperament as the writer.

The most important issue for each character is what they want. Desire and wants fuel the story, especially regarding what the main character wants. When two characters want the same thing, this is when tension can arise organically.

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2. Build out the character's backstory

Characters don’t exist in a vacuum — they’re a product of their environment.

This section in the character template dives a bit deeper into your character and covers their “flesh”: the people, circumstances, and formative influences that filled them out and made them who they are today. It’s the springboard to your character’s biography.

The Past ⏪

What's the name of their hometown? 🏡

What type of childhood did they have (sheltered, neglected, etc.)?

Describe their education. 🍏

Were they involved in organizations and clubs at school?

Sports ⚽
Debate 🗣
Gay / Straight Alliance
Model UN
Drama 🎭
Other? If so, explain:

At graduation, they were named Most Likely To ___________ in the yearbook. 🎓

Jobs (if applicable)? What would their résumé look like? 💼

What was their dream job as a child? Why?

Who were their role models growing up? Describe them. 👨‍👦

What's their greatest regret?

What were their hobbies growing up? ⛳

Favorite place to be as a child?

What's their earliest memory?

What's their saddest memory?

What's their happiest memory?

What's their clearest memory?

What are their skeletons in the closet? 💀

If they could change one thing from their past, what would it be? Why? ⏳

Describe the major turning points or “life beats” in childhood.

What are three adjectives to describe them as a child?

What advice would they give to their younger self?

List their criminal record. ⚖

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Family 👪

Father 👨

Age (if living)
Occupation
Briefly describe their relationship with your character

Mother 👩

Age (if living)
Occupation
Briefly describe their relationship with your character

Siblings👧

How many?
What are their names and ages?
Briefly describe their relationship(s) with your character

Children 👶(if applicable)

Age (if living)
Occupation
Briefly describe their relationship with your character

Extended family 👴

Grandparents
Uncles and aunts
Cousins
Other

What's their family's economic status? 💰

How often do they see their family in a year?

External Relationships 💜

Who are their closest friends? Describe them.

Who are their other significant friends? 👋

Enemies? Describe them. 😡

How are they perceived by:

strangers in the street?
acquaintances at a work function?
colleagues in the office?
authority figures?
friends in their friend circles?
children?
the opposite sex?
extended family?

What social media platforms are they on?

X (formerly known as Twitter)
TikTok
Facebook
Reddit
Instagram
Snapchat
BeReal
Tumblr
Other? If so, explain.

How would they use their social media platforms?

How would they fill out an online dating profile for themselves? ✨

What’s their role in a group dynamic? 💡

Leader
Joker
Parent
Hype man
Mooch
Other? If so, explain.

Who do they depend on for:

practical advice?
mentoring
a wingman?
emotional support?
moral support?

How quickly do they respond to emails? 📨

What do they want from a relationship?

Who would be their ideal partner? 💖

Who is their significant other? Describe them. 💕

How many people would attend their funeral?

Q: Are there drawbacks to creating detailed dossiers on characters before the drafting stage?

Suggested answer

Writing is chemistry. It involves experiment and trial, and like every experiment there are occasionally unexpected results. With fiction especially, you may not have a full idea of a character until you begin writing them in different scenarios and relationships -- and I think this is an advantage when you begin your project. Having a fully detailed dossier on a character before you begin can limit your options or contribute to writer's block. After all, characters are not stagnant. They grow and evolve with you as the project forms. You may not realize an aspect of your character until you begin writing and imagining them, or until you have a rough draft. Remember, writing is revision and part of what may need revision are your characters. Having the flexibility to revise may involve leaving part of your characters with only small amounts of scaffolding.

This isn't to suggest you shouldn't have someidea of who your characters are and where they're going. Identifying some core attributes or principles can serve as handy rules for how your characters will act, think, and talk in different scenarios, which can ensure consistency while giving your characters the flexibility to grow into fully fledged personalities. What is their positionality? Their hopes and dreams? Their purpose? What end do you wish them to have? These are open ended questions to ask yourself about your characters that don't commit them to a full dossier.

Absolutely! The main drawback is that creating dossiers can get in the way of writing the book. It's easy to get lost in the fun of research and imagining backstories and details (which may or may not matter). And it's even easier to feel like we're being productive while crafting character sketches or other support documents, when in fact, we're really procrastinating! I find it more helpful to jot down quick notes about the character as I'm writing. This helps me keep things straight while also forcing me to write the story not the sketch.

I find it helpful to have at least the basic character arc for the main character. I can also provide my clients with a multi-page character development Q & A, which writers may find a useful tool for later characterisation, even if not all the details end up on the page.

Like world building in any novel, creating detailed character profiles can be beneficial to some authors. They're a way to 'get a feel' for you characters before diving into the story. But going too detailed can lead to a few drawbacks:

If you have too much on your character, when you actually start writing it might not feel as organic to explore who these characters are, since much of them has already been mapped out
Sometimes you won't know everything there is to know about a character, and spending too much time pre-writing trying to figure it out keeps you from actually writing it
Similarly, with any kind of plotting, worldbuilding, character building, and more, I sometimes see authors get so caught up in planning for the book they're going to write that they don't, you know, write the book.

Writing a book is a daunting task, so it's understandable that you want to have as much planned out as possible. But what I always recommend to authors I work with, and especially authors who are stuck on where to go next with their book or how to start, is to get just enough down to where they feel like they have a rough idea of where the book's going, and then to simply start writing. You might have a few hiccups, you will very likely have to edit some things or pause to redraft parts of your outline (if you use one), but once you start writing typically ideas start to flow and you're able to fill in more of the gaps that were empty before.

One of the main drawbacks to detailing too much of your characters at the outset is that you'll feel like there's less room for them to act spontaneously when various situations (that you don't yet know about!) come up in the story. I'd generally recommend taking a more broad strokes approach to character detailing so that you've got more wiggle room, and don't feel so hemmed in by your original conception of who your characters are. Let them breathe. Let them react more in the moment as you write.

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Part 3. Understand the character's goals and motivations

We’ve come now to the “core”: who your character is deep down.

This section in the character profile worksheet covers the “heart” of your character. If a backstory shapes a dynamic character, this will define them. More importantly, it will help inform the two most important points leading up to your novel: the character’s story goal and what drives them.

Psychology 💭

What do they do on rainy days?

Are they:

Street-smart or book-smart
An optimist or pessimist
Introverted or Extroverted

What is their favorite sound? 🔊

Favorite place in the world? 🌎

What secrets do they keep? What are they most afraid of people finding out? 🔒

What do they want the most? 🔍

What's their biggest flaw?

What's their biggest strength?

What's their biggest fear?

What is their biggest accomplishment? 📈

What is their idea of perfect happiness?

What's their favorite quote? 👌

Do they want to be remembered? What for? ⌚

How do they approach:

power?
ambition?
love?
change?

What is the one object or possession that they would rescue from their burning home? 🔥

What (or who) bores them? 💤

What makes them angry? 💢

What do they look for in a person?

How strong is their moral compass? When, specifically, are they willing to compromise their morals?

List the last 10 books they read. 📚

Which fictional world would they most wish to visit?

If they didn’t have to sleep, what would they do with the extra time?

What are their pet peeves? ⚠

If they won the lottery, what would they do?

Describe the character’s bucket list at the ages of 15, 20, 30, and 40.

List the 10 songs that would occupy their All-Time Most Played playlist on Spotify. 🎵

What is the best compliment that someone ever paid them?

In an elevator, do they push the elevator button more than once? 🚪

What would they want their tombstone to say?

The Present and Future 🔮

What is their story goal? (answer in a single paragraph)

Story motivation (answer in a single paragraph)

In other words: what does your character want in the story? And why do they want it?

Every other answer in the character profile template builds up to this. It's critical information to know because it’ll make up the unshakable foundation — and raison d'être — for your story. Whenever you feel like your story is straying off course, go straight back to your character’s story goal and motivation, and you'll find the beating heart of your book.

– Originally published on May 31, 2018

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