Outlining Characters

It's very simple. All you have to do is think up what exactly you'll need to know about your character, and then you write it down. It comes in handy, especially if you have a hard time remembering the eye color of your character (like I do). You can keep it in front of you when you write, so when you have to look something up about your character you don't have to go skimming all the way back through your work.

Some things to get into an outline: general information, like their full name, age, etc; appearance, as in height, build, eye color, hair color; personality, such as faults, weaknesses, good qualities, strengths, reactions, so on.

An outline can be anything from basic to extensive. On this post, I'll post a template for a more basic outline. To show you what you might fill in, I'll make up a random character.

GENERAL
name: Susanna Smith
age: 17
book they appear in: Candle in a Dark Time

APPEARANCE
height: 5'7"
build: tall, slim, long, delicate
posture: arrow straight
hair color: light blond
eye color: dark brown

PERSONALITY
faults and weaknesses: timidity, insecurity
good qualities and strengths: gentleness, humbleness, trustworthy
one word sum-up: quiet
reactions to loss: quiet turmoil
reactions to emergencies: panic, fear
reactions to surprise: edginess
reactions to a love confession: shock, joy
reactions to embarrassment: humiliation, shyness

MISCELLANEOUS
family: father and brother Herbert (20) in WWII, mother and Susanna in city, youngest sister Bridgett (age 11) in the country
Living in: London, England
occupation: student
famous connection: uncle and cousins in Underground
notes: secretly begins to work in the Underground, with mother's permission runs away to Norway to assist there.

Susanna Smith is (c) by me, by the way. I'm planning to write a book about her sometime. However, feel free to use my outline as an example! Here it is, not filled out, so that you don't have to copy and delete the stuff I put in the first one:


GENERAL
name:
age:
book they appear in:

APPEARANCE
height:
build:
posture:
hair color:
eye color:

PERSONALITY
faults and weaknesses:
good qualities and strengths:
one word sum-up:
reactions to loss:
reactions to emergencies:
reactions to surprise:
reactions to a love confession:
reactions to embarrassment:

MISCELLANEOUS
family:
Living in:
occupation:
famous connection:
notes:

Also, for every character an outline can have different information. While Susanna Smith doesn't have a sword (she has a gun sometime in the book), for another character you might want to have information on the sword name, appearance, type, etc.

Have fun outlining your characters! For me, it's a cool activity in which I actually think about how I want to portray my character. It's a good way to figure out where you're going with your character, how you want others to see him/her, and so on. It's like having a chat with them. =)