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A Character Sheet
Topic Started: Jun 22 2005, 12:29 AM (317 Views)
bananafish
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The following guidelines was made by my BETA, a Miss. Rosie Shute (I recommend her work over at HPFF under minnemcmouse), so all credit goes to her wonderful abilities as a writer! This can be used for an OC-check in fanfics or even with a character in a short story you might be working on. The important thing to any character is to know them, if you don't have a good grasp on them then neither will your readers.

So, fill this puppy out and get some feedback!

Quote:
 
Basic Facts

Character’s full name:
-Nicknames: (If they have a nickname then what is it? Who uses it? Where did the name come from? I want detail!)
-Name meaning: (Lots of character names have meanings in other languages or it stems from a word in another language.  It just seems to help your character be understood and show that you’ve done some background research.  Also you can get some rather good names this way)

Age: (Keep this constant… if you suddenly start saying your character is older than you previously said readers aren’t likely to appreciate it.  Consistency is the sign of a good writer and one who knows what they’re doing!)
-Date of birth:

Place of birth: (Again for consistency – if you say once that they were born in the south of England and then say they were born in Glasgow I will pick up on it and I will not be pleased – it’s just something that is important.)

Current place of residence: (If different from the place of birth then say why, if not then there might be a reason they chose to stick around and I’d like to hear it)

Family

Quite a long section but it’s just so that I can get a little information on who their relatives are.  If they’re related to any of the main characters in the story or anything like that.  If the characters mentioned here are going to play big parts then you will be writing an OC description of them anyway, or I’d like one at least so you can give more information that way.

Mother
Name:
Date of Birth:
Appearance:
Dead/Alive:
Name of her parents:
Are they dead/alive?
Current place of residence:
Marital status:

Father
Name:
Date of Birth:
Appearance:
Dead/alive:
Names of his parents:
Are they dead/alive?
Current place of residence:
Marital status:

Brother (delete if nonexistent or add more if necessary)
Name:
Date of Birth:
Appearance:
Dead/alive:
Names of his parents:
Are they dead/alive?
Current place of residence:
Marital status:

Sister (delete if nonexistent or add more if necessary)
Name:
Date of Birth:
Appearance:
Dead/alive:
Names of her parents:
Are they dead/alive?
Current place of residence:
Marital status:

Extended family: (aunts, uncles, cousins if relevant or will be necessary to be mentioned.  If another character from the books I’d like information on how they’re related and why I’ve never heard of them before.  This also goes for anyone adopted into a family or any guardians who are not biologically related or anything like that)

Close friends: (As with the family, if they’re going to play big parts in the story then you can write an OC form for them as well but I’d like the names of their best friends and if you have any interesting details as to how they became friends then you can put those here as well)

Spouse: (as above – I’d have thought any spouse would be present in the story but if they’re dead then you can put information here about them.  If there are interesting tales of how they got together then here’s the place for it)


Appearance

Hair Colour:

Hair Length:

Eye Colour & Shape:

Height:

Body Type:

Nails (Long, Short, Painted?):

Make Up:

Favourite Outfit:

Distinguishing Characteristics: (Does your character have an extra ear? do they have the most bizarre tattoos?  I’d like as much information in this section as you can give so that you can then write in detail about them yourself)



Skills

Level of education reached:

Career:

Qualifications attained:

Schools attended and years which they attended them:

Specialist skills and where they attained them if applicable: (So can they do a triple back flip whilst barbequing a small hog? Or are they good at cooking? Can they lie exceptionally well?)

What your character isn’t very good at: (Quite the reverse of the above so does your character break their ankles when they walk down some stairs in a pair of heels? Do they always burn their toast? Do they fail every test they’ve ever taken?  Basically I want to know what things they can’t do, I don’t want to know any personality failings now and if this section is left blank I’m going to badger you until it’s filled in or until one of us is crying.)

Interests/hobbies: (Unless your character is like me then it will have interests and hobbies, it will enjoy making curtains from lead or dancing the tango on full moons…)

Favourites
(Not really the most necessary of sections but you might want to know what your character’s favourite things are one day and at the same time you can fill in the things that they dislike as well so they might love lettuce but they’d rather die before eating a beef casserole or they love to read things by George Orwell but they can’t stand Jane Austen)

Food:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Drink
Dessert
Sweet/chocolate

Book:

Animal:

Colour:

Mode of transport: (It’s these little details that can make all the difference and if readers can clearly see what you’re seeing in your mind then you’ve cracked it!)

Detailed living arrangement: (You’ve probably already told me that your character lives in a hut/mansion/shed/mystery box but I’d like detail of what it looks like and perhaps even a map drawn if you’re that into this… Being able to clearly see the layout of the location of your characters will be a good thing, very good. Even if we don’t see them then you might want to slip in description here and there about their missing their home.)

Financial Situation: (Does your character sleep on a bed of solid gold? Does he or she sing on the streets for a bread roll each night? If they’re wealthy then how? If not then why not? Did they once have money but now they don’t? Tell me…)

Personality

Positive things: (Tell me the good stuff – are they loyal, compassionate, loving, caring, intelligent [not really personality as such but you know…]?)

Negative things: (Are they forever butting into conversations? Are they hot-headed? Do they react without thinking? Do they have the insatiable urge to bite passing friends? Every character has to have negative things and yours is no different so tell me just what it is about them which ain’t all that great)

Fears: (Your character is afraid of something – personally I fear being alone with two pints of liquidised toads… Just tell me what they’re afraid of and it can be loads of things or just a couple but if I get this back and there’s no fears then you’re in for a world of irritating emails!)

Lastly: Describe your character: (DETAIL!! I cannot stress this enough! I want to know about their personality in detail, I want to know what they like, what they hate, how they’d react to a crisis, do they like chaos? Do they throw up when you throw vinegar on them? [not personality but it amused me…] come on… it’s the last question so be helpful here!)
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