Character profiles

I’m skimming through a book on creating characters, but had to take a break to think of my own over-complicated scheme for defining characters. That is what I do: I complicate things.

First of all, most of what I’ve read hasn’t considered the difference between a character’s personal and public personas. And beyond that there is also how people interact with family and friends. There needs to be context.

So those are my main three columns: Personal, Public, and Familiar. To explore each of these contexts, I’m focusing on six executive functions: Introspection, Speech, Time & Sequence, Vision & Models, Action, and Emotion. This leads to a whopping 18 categories.

1. Focus: Internally, what does the character focus on, or are they oblivious to their own inner experience?
2. Attention: What does the character focus on in the environment that you can physically see?
3. Reflection: What do family and friends reflect back to the character?
4. Self-Talk: How does the character talk to themselves?
5. Verbal Cues: What sort of verbal cues tell something about them?
6. Internalization: Of the things that family and friends reflect, what have they internalized?
7. Autobiography and Vision: What are key moments they feel define their life story and what vision do they have for their future?
8. Traces and Projections: What physical characteristics remain from past experiences, and how do they physically project a view of themselves?
9. Stories and Expectations: What stories do friends and family tell about them and what expectations do they feel?
10. Self-Image and Worldview: How does the character view themselves and the world at large?
11. Poise and Grace: How does the character tend to hold themselves and how do they interact with other people?
12. Roles and Relationships: What sort of roles do they inhabit, and what are their relationships like?
13. Habits and Capabilities: What sort of habits do they have when they think they’re alone and what are some important capabilities they have?
14. Tells and Activities: What sort of tics give away their thoughts, and what sort of activities would you see them doing?
15. Constraints and Affordances: Among friends and families, how do they restrict their behavior or loosen boundaries?
16. Experience: What is their internal emotional experience like?
17. Expression: How do they express (or not express) their emotions?
18. Triggers: What sort of buttons might family and friends push with them, or others may inadvertently trip?