Character Breakdowns

[Ann]

Do you write a profile of a character before you start writing?


Or do you just start and see what happens?

I've recently taken some old characters and made a sort of, breakdown of their overall emotions, like I do in a chapter break down (kinda...sorta)

Do you?

[Brittany]

I love writing character profiles!

I think, for me, part of the enjoyment comes from my RPGing days. Those forum-based role-playing games always asked for character profiles (which included everything from basic biological/physical details to personality traits and history), and I've been creating similar profiles for my own stories ever since.

I'm actually planning on starting a wikia page for my little sci-fi universe at some point. That way, I'll be able to put all of the information I've gathered to good use. :D

[G.R.]

I'm very much a character driven writer and my previous three characters developed as I wrote. My current MC could likely use a character sketch/profile because I cannot get in her head.

[Paul]

I know many writers and editors prefer we write character descriptions to help us writers keep consistent. However, I can't do that, at least not consistently. Once I get a character in my head, and on paper/computer I identify with that character.

[Brian]

I'm like Brittany, coming from a pencil/paper RPG background. I still use the GURPS character creation books to build all of my main characters. Sometimes I pull out the dice to decide if what my character is trying to do will work.

[G.R.]

Brittany wrote: "I love writing character profiles!

I think, for me, part of the enjoyment comes from my RPGing days."

Brian wrote: "I'm like Brittany, coming from a pencil/paper RPG background."

And that makes sense Brittany and Brian. I spent most of my childhood life playing RPG and I loved the process of creating a characters. For me, character development as a process to follow, never carried over into my writing years later. But I will say, RPG, both as a player and DM, played a significant role in developing my imagination and creativity with writing today.

[Zee]

I build mine, but it mostly stays in my head. Once I get to 'know' a character, it feels like I know a person and I go with that

[Eugene]

The first two books I wrote, for the most part, I let the character's grow as the story progressed.
The book I'm writing now, I decided to try it out a different way. Besides the main character in this one, is very complex, and contradicts himself a lot so needed a something on paper to glance at, in certain thoughts and in specific situations.