Examining some important elements that should go into every character profile, before, during and after the writing process…

As you’ll have seen in previous posts on this site, along with pretty much every other writing blog out there, character should be the writer’s Number One consideration. Crafting three-dimensional characters is a gradual process. They fill out as you progress with your work. Having a profile for each major player in your story can help you keep track of their development, their personality, their reasons for being themselves. This post centres around building a comprehensive character profile, and what things you should consider to inform their development and the greater story.

Relationships with other characters

Like real life, you can tell a lot about a person based on how they interact with others. When building a character profile, one of the first things I note is that character’s relationship to others in their sphere. Who their closest allies are, and their enemies. Are they close family or estranged siblings? Are they co-workers locked in a rivalry? Or are there ex-lovers and ex-partners who have made a return to the scene?

Also, it doesn’t matter if these other characters don’t actually feature in your story. Your main character may have a sister that they don’t speak to. That fact alone can tell your readers a lot about your main character. Perhaps family ties are not important to them, or maybe they’re stubborn and have stood their ground in an argument. We never have to meet the estranged sister. The readers will be looking deeper at your main character.

Religion, politics and social attitudes

Remember, the core of a good story is conflict. What’s often at the centre of a good conflict? Religion, politics, and/or society. So when you’re outlining your characters, take a moment to consider… what’s their political leaning? Are they conservative or more liberal? Do they have a religion? If so, how devout are they? What’s their take on social issues? Are they vocally in favour of one thing, or virulently against another?

Remember that all of these will be affected by the period you’re setting your story in. And they all go back to our previous point about relationships with other characters. How will a controversial opinion or decision by one character affect their friendship circle? Do they form a united front, but with some reluctance by one or two members? How is that reluctance dealt with? In short, how do these attitudes inform the conflict of the story?

What is their core principle or philosophy?

These may be tied to politics, religion etc. if you wish. Essentially, when you boil your character down to the bare bones, what’s the one thing that’s driving their existence, their actions and their thoughts?

If I’m to give examples from my own work, in Sin & Secrecy, Lady Vyrrington’s core principle is to love as few people as possible, to stop anyone getting punished for her sins. Abel Stirkwhistle’s philosophy is that he is the judge, jury and executioner for anyone he sees as a sinner or criminal.

In You Can Hear Chopin, the core principles of my main antagonist Leopold Upfauer are tied to those of the Nazi Party, with focus on their idea that mentally ill people were unworthy of life. That philosophy directly affects my main protagonist Heinrich Oeunhausen, whose wife Sofie has schizophrenia. All the same, he has to suppress his own principles and join the Nazi Party in the hope that he will be better protected. Which takes us back to conflict again. Mapping the core principles out can lead you to examine how they clash with those of other characters.

Do they have any quirks, eccentricities, or defining characteristics?

Use your character profile to note down anything unique about each person. Do they have a catchphrase? Or any tics, tells or quirks that stand them out from the crowd? They don’t even need to be anything extraordinary. In You Can Hear Chopin, Upfauer is always cold and stands by a fire when there’s one in a room, and complains when there isn’t one. Meanwhile, Heinrich often refers to his watch, always conscious of time, as anyone who works in a hotel should be. They don’t necessarily have to affect the story, but they add believable human qualities to the characters. Which is what readers want to see.

The question of good and evil

What side is your character on? Are they hero or villain? Good, evil, or neutral? Or, as with real life, are they capable of being more than one? Can your protagonists occasionally make a decision that will take them down an evil path? Or is your antagonist capable of occasional kindness? What does this say about them as characters? A villain who does the odd bit of good could be construed as manipulative, for example.

Don’t forget to answer WHY?

When you’re defining all of these elements in a character profile, don’t forget to be conscious of the reasons behind your decisions. Why don’t these two siblings speak to each other anymore? Was it a childhood disagreement that festered into adulthood? What broke down this ex-couple’s marriage? Was it a difference in politics? Knowing the answers to these can enrich characters’ backstories. It also gives you a much clearer image of the characters when you’re writing your story.

Keep your character profile updated

As we know, a lot can change in the course of writing a story. That’s why it’s important to check your character profiles regularly. Update them according to the latest version of your manuscript. If two characters you had down as friends suddenly have a falling out, make sure that’s noted down. Again, include the reasons why. These decisions might affect other character development and plot points.

Thank you for reading. Is anything missing from this list? Get in touch via my Facebook and Instagram pages. Also, read further posts out more about my latest novel, and stay up to date with my podcast.

Get an idea for the process I (usually) go through when it comes to planning a new book…

There are writers who plan, and those that don’t. I have given the latter a go in the past, and I can truthfully say it doesn’t work for me. It kinda goes against my programming. For me, planning a new book gives you an invaluable asset for the greater creative process. It serves as your log, your journal and your Bible for ideas, plot points, characters and everything else, really.

If you, as a writer, prefer to run with an idea and just see where it takes you, this post probably won’t be much use to you. But if you’re only just starting and think you could use a plan, I’ve reflected on the steps I take in planning a new book for you to follow.

1. Logline for the idea

It’s best if you know exactly what you’re writing about. Best way to get the main focus of your story is writing a logline. Essentially reducing your idea to one or two sentences. For example, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic‘s is: A hotel manager in 1940s Germany must hide the existence of his schizophrenic wife from his Nazi Party clientele. 

2. Cast your characters

Once you know the general premise, it’s time to plan the characters who will feature in the story. You can do this as a simple bulleted list with a couple of details. Or you can write profiles for each one, building on these as you go, including things such as physical description, personality, likes and dislikes, friends enemies and relatives, so on. I find that characters are the most changeable element of a story plan. The journey I set them on at the start can end up looking very different in the end product as we come to know the characters better.

3. Pinpoint your key story points

Okay, so you’ve got the basis for your story, and you’ve got the characters. Now it’s time to map out the course your story will take. Where your main characters are going to start, where they’re going to end up, and then key points of development in between. The inciting incident that sets the plot and the character development in motion. Pivotal points at which the characters’ relationships, psychologies, philosophies, etc. intensify, switch, or whatever else you can think of. Is there going to be a twist? If so, make sure that’s pinpointed. And of course, there’s things like climax, dénouement, resolution, and so on.

The number of key story points will depend entirely on the nature and complexity of your story. If you’re only following one main protagonist, you may find you only have to map out five or six points. For more expansive literary efforts that follow a number of characters, your story will have continuing series of peaks and troughs. And, like the rest of a plan, these points can be whittled down or outright changed as you write your story. Neither of The Berylford Scandals books ended as I had originally planned them. The same will be said for You Can Hear Chopin, from which I have decided to cut a substantial chunk from the end. So the ending point for many of the characters has shifted considerably.

4. Expand into a full synopsis

From those key story points, now you need to fill in the gaps. A synopsis is a summary of the full work. So this is where you can plot the events that drive your story and character development towards those key points. Here, you can note where relationships change, how events affect your characters and their decisions, and how emotions are shifting. By the end, you should have a more-or-less full map to follow for writing your book from start to finish.

I tend to go one step further when I’m planning a new book and do my synopsis by chapter. Main reason being, I usually follow several characters, so it’s important to know whose point-of-view we’re following, whose development we’re concerned with.

Again, this synopsis is not a set-in-stone part of the document. What seemed like the most natural or sensical thing to do during the planning stage may seem completely wrong when it comes to writing it. Just be mindful that if you deviate from your plan, it may affect the direction of the rest of your story.

5. Don’t forget your research

After I’ve finished my chapter-by-chapter synopsis and my character profiles, I tend to go back through with all the notes I’ve made from my research. Better to nip any potential issues in the bud before you actually start writing the book itself. Are there any historical elements that could derail your story? Is there anything you found in your research that could be a nice touch for your antagonist, but could make some of their later actions nonsensical?

I tend to keep my research notes in my plan document alongside everything else so that it’s all there in one place.

6. Start writing… but keep your plan close. Planning a new book is an ongoing job…

I cannot work on You Can Hear Chopin without my plan document in another window. It helps keep me grounded in the direction the story is taking. I’m also somewhat forgetful when it comes to important details for plot and character. So the plan keeps me reminded that something that may seem insignificant might actually come back to bite me later on. But also, if I ever have a last-minute epiphany about a plot point or a character, it serves as the canvas to log those ideas and mess around with them later. Keep the plan on-hand at all times and update it as you work through your draft. It’s an invaluable asset.

Thank you for reading. Want to know more about my writing process? Get in touch via my Facebook and Instagram pages. Also, read further posts out more about my latest novel, and stay up to date with my podcast.