How to Create a Character Profile for Your Fiction
Get ready to create well-rounded characters that serve your story well—it’s time to create a character profile.
What’s a character profile?
A character profile is a detailed collection of information about a character in your story or novel. It’s also sometimes called a character sheet. It stores all the relevant information in one place so you can easily refer back to it.
Why do you need to make a profile for your characters?
Do you really need to create a character profile? You could just wing it, writing your character as the story comes to you.
But creating a character profile first can have several benefits.
It helps you keep track of details and avoid continuity errors.
You’ll save yourself time and trouble by having one easy place to refer to when you need to remember a character detail. You won’t have to reread everything you’ve written so far to remember which arm your character’s tattoo is on, because you’ve already logged that it’s on his left.
And it’s less likely that you’ll accidentally give a character blue eyes when they’re supposed to be brown, because you already have your character’s eye color listed in their character profile.
It helps you track the progression of changes.
In a strong story, your characters will go through changes. They might heal from past wounds, gain new skills, or change their appearance.
A character profile can help you track your character’s arc, so you know exactly what their status is at each point in the story.
It helps you create well-rounded characters.
Have you ever read characters that just seemed to fall flat? They might come across as one-dimensional, like a villain whose only quality is being villainous.
Compare that to the characters you’ve read who were dynamic, relatable, and complicated—just like people in real life.
If you struggle to write characters who feel alive, a character profile can be a big help. Creating one can help you think through multiple aspects of a character, so they end up being just as well-rounded as real people.
This process can also help you get to know your characters, getting answers ahead of time to questions that might come up while you’re writing.
Ready to get started? Create your character profile now with Sudowrite!
How to make a character profile
With just a few simple steps, you can create the best character profile to fit your needs.
You’ll need to decide how much or little detail to include in your character profiles. How do you decide? Consider these factors.
It depends on the character. For example, if your main character is a book nerd, you’ll want to know her favorite book. On the other hand, for a character who only appears occasionally as a sports coach, thinking up their favorite book would probably be a waste of your time.
It depends on the character’s role in the story. You may need to know more detail about your main characters and less about supporting characters. For the mailman who only appears briefly in one scene, you probably don’t need to fill out a character profile at all.
It depends on your genre. For a romance book, you need to know about your characters’ past relationships and what they want from a partner. For action-adventure, you might need to know your characters’ level of combat skills.
It’s easy to get caught up in building details while you procrastinate on writing the actual story (ask me how I know!). Sticking to the relevant details can keep you from going overboard and getting lost in this process.
Accept that you’ll likely end up knowing more about your character than your readers do. You don’t have to pack every detail from your character profile into your story. Some information might get left out, and that’s okay.
Bonus Tip: Did you end up with a bunch of tidbits of interesting character information that didn’t make it into the book? Share extra character info in your newsletter to help create superfans and generate more interest in your books.
Ready to craft unforgettable characters? Get started with Sudowrite’s character tools now!
4 Steps to a Complete Character Profile
Remember—you decide what information you need to know about your character. Feel free to follow these steps with as much or as little detail as you need.
1. Decide on your character’s role in the story
- Give your character a label—are they the story’s protagonist, antagonist, love interest, a supporting character, or something else?
- Get specific about the character’s role in the story—for example, is this the protagonist’s best friend and voice of reason? What’s their relationship with other characters, and how do other characters see them?
2. Fill out your character’s physical description
Elements to include:
- Hair color
- Hairstyle
- Eye color
- Height
- Body type: Athletic, husky, slender, etc.
- Skin color
- Typical clothing and style
- Accessories: glasses, jewelry, piercings, etc.
- Tattoos, scars, and other distinguishing markings
- Posture and gait: confident, slouched, stiff, etc.
3. Fill out the basic demographics
Elements to include:
- Full name
- Nickname(s)
- Age
- Pronouns
- Sexual orientation
- Occupation
- Income level
- Family members and relationships with them
- Role in family
- Where this character lives
4. Think about your character’s personality
Elements to include:
- Introvert, extrovert, or somewhere in between?
- Dialogue style and speaking patterns
- Habits and mannerisms
- Short-term goals
- Long-term goals
- Desires
- What motivates this character
- Emotional wounds
- Biggest strengths
- Biggest weaknesses
- Fatal flaw(s)
- Biggest fears
- Special skills and talents
- Internal conflicts
- External conflicts
- Typical role in a group setting: leader, peace-maker, observer, etc.
- Unique quirks
- Favorite foods
- Hobbies and favorite activities
- Biggest dislikes
5. Come up with your character’s background
It’s not just about looks and personality—your character’s backstory can have a big influence on who they are today.
Elements to include:
- Hometown
- Educational background
- Religion, spirituality, or moral philosophy and how it was formed
- What this character’s childhood was like
- What this character is most proud of
- What this character is most ashamed of
- Favorite memories
- Least favorite memories
- Past relationships and romantic history
Fun ways to develop your characters
Are you having fun yet? Creating character profiles can be one of the most enjoyable parts of writing a story, if you let it be.
Here are some extra ideas to add some fun to the process.
Find an image or multiple images that remind you of your character.
You can make a Pinterest board, find an actor look-alike, or use A.I. tools to give you a visual feel for your characters.
Use character types like Myers-Briggs or astrology signs.
No matter how much you buy into the concept of personality types, it can be fun to explore them through your characters. You can even take a personality quiz as your character to find out how various classification systems would describe them.
Have a conversation with your character.
You can interview your characters, use a questionnaire, and write answers in your character’s voice. This can also help with establishing how they speak and giving them distinctive dialogue patterns.
Now, you can get to writing
Hopefully, your character profile can help you write with confidence. You know you’re avoiding continuity errors like mixing up eye colors. You’ve given your character a solid backstory for a well-rounded, realistic character arc.
And you might just be well on your way to creating those unforgettable characters that your readers will think about long after they’ve finished your book. Happy writing!
Ready to dive deeper into character creation? Discover Sudowrite’s full suite of writing tools now!
Get to your final draft, faster
Our Write feature can generate your next 100-500 words in your style, helping you finish drafts in record time. Choose from multiple options. Edit as you like.
Polish without losing your voice
Using Rewrite, you can refine your prose and still be your unique self, by choosing from multiple AI-suggested revisions designed to capture your voice.
Paint descriptions with more pop
Describe helps you make sure readers feel like they’re really there, proposing new ideas for enriching scenes — whenever some are needed.
Build out scenes with ease
With Expand, you can smoothly and quickly build out scenes, slow pacing, and add immersive detail, all without breaking your flow.
Effortlessly outline your story
Story Bible gets you from idea to outline in a flash, helping you structure plot, character arcs, and themes — step-by-step.
Revise faster with instant feedback
Sudowrite’s Feedback tool delivers AI-powered suggestions for improvement on demand, as often as you need, and without complaint. Make room, beta readers.
Banish writers block – forever!
Creative prompts from Brainstorm keep you flowing, and the tool learns more about how you think, the more you use it. Bye bye, blinking cursor.