Character Creation 101

I know people that start writing on the fly with no idea of who or what they are writing about and through a series of drafts can shake off the slag and draw out a diamond. I am not one of them, I want to know what they look like, how old they are and general personality. Now not to say that I haven't written a story throwing in odds and ends for characters, but the process in proofing out which character had one arm and how many of them have blue eyes frustrates me.

Now you may decide to write some idea that you have and you start typing and before you know it you have twenty pages. It happens.

I suggest writing a general template for yourself, most word processors will allow you to create a macro which will automatically format an entry or enter specific text. My character template is:

*****

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Height:
Weight:
Build:
Hair:
Eyes: 
Tattoos or Distinctive Physical Traits:
Sexual Orientation:
Personality: 
Profession:
Vehicle:
Family & Background:


*****




Now I may not fill in everything all at once, but I will do at least the first eight. Other details can be filled in as the story moves and you become more comfortable with the character. Now if your writing does run away with you and it peters out you can go back and proof, start a new document and key in the information in your form.

Now you may have only casually dropped in:

Name: Jack
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Height: Tall
Weight:
Build: Lanky
Hair: Messy
Eyes: Cold Grey
Tattoos or Distinctive Physical Traits:
Sexual Orientation:
Personality: Has a thing for redheads.
Profession:
Vehicle: White Corvette, all leather interior.
Family & Background:

But being able to refer back to notes will help make you more comfortable as the story grow and you can get more specific. Tall might become 6'3", Hair: sandy blonde.... You get the idea.