Character profile templates and information sheets are popular, but are they actually helpful? Should you use them when writing your novel? In this post, I’m going to talk about the pros and cons of using these writer tools and about where you can find good ones.
The context for all of my posts is that I assume you want to write a really good novel that you want to get published somehow. If you’re writing just for your own amusement or you’re still practising, then everything I say might not be relevant to you, so keep that in mind 😊
Related posts: How to describe character appearance – How to write character feelings – The right way to write character flaws
What kind of writer tools should you use anyway?
The truth of the matter is that whatever actually works for you is helpful. That’s it. You don’t need to keep all your planning and ideas inside your head if that doesn’t work for you, but neither do you have to have an aesthetic Notion database to write a good novel.
You don’t need to use anything that doesn’t help you write a better story more efficiently. I know that cool productivity systems and planners make good, visual content, but your best planning tool could actually be an ugly yellow legal pad.
You also need to play to your strengths. If you find it easy to visualise your settings, you might not need a worldbuilding planner that helps you get clear on all the exciting details of your world. Likewise, if you’re really good at seeing your characters as full and interesting people already inside your head, you might not need extra help with putting all that on the page.
With that out of the way, let’s get back to talking about those character planners.
What is the best character profile template?
Now, a character’s appearance isn’t completely irrelevant to your writing, but it might be almost entirely irrelevant to your plot. A few key details mentioned organically in your story – usually through some kind of action – are enough to give your readers an idea what this character is like so that they can imagine them inside their heads as they read.
That’s why any character planner worth their salt doesn’t just include a list of physical characteristics. Heck, even listing personality traits could be completely irrelevant if you don’t know how to introduce them in your story and they’re not actually relevant to anything that happens.
If you just like coming up with your “OCs”, and imagining what they look like is 90% of the fun, then go ahead, use character bio sheets that just list different details and are mostly appearance-focused.
But if you want a PLOT, and a good one at that, then you’re going to want to use a character planner that helps you create a character who has things going on for them (and aren’t just waiting for your story to happen with their dark locks and icy blue eyes).
When you know what your character is like as a person, it’ll become obvious to you how they’ll act in any given situation and how they need to change over the course of the story to reach their goals.
Okay, but where do I get this super awesome character planner then?
There are a lot of free character sheets going around on Pinterest, but most of them aren’t very substantial and they’re definitely not doing what we just discussed that a good character planner should do.
I’m not going to pretend I didn’t write this post so I could talk about my own products, but I’m actually really proud of everything in my Etsy shop, and how would you know about these tools if I didn’t tell you about them? You’re not psychic, probably. You can decide for yourself if they’re something you need and want.
When I created The Ultimate Character Workbook, I wanted to make sure you could use it to create characters that carry the story for you. You can’t just have a character who stuff happens to, they also need to make stuff happen. All characters do it in their own way, and that’s why you need to get to know them.
This workbook has four different formats:
- The fillable PDF workbook that comes with a more minimalistic printer-friendly version
- The Goodnotes version that comes with linked pages (can be used on other note-taking apps too, of course)
- The Google Docs version so you can plan your characters on the go
Not just questions and empty spaces
Although it’s totally fine for a character profile template to be nothing but questions and then space for you to answer them, I wanted more from my workbook, I wanted you to actually learn something from it.
That’s why I also tell you what matters in character creation, I give you ideas for different characteristics and I even show you how to include all these details in your writing. I want to set you up for success.
Character profile templates for different genres
Character creation works the same for all genres, so you don’t need different info sheets for different genre stories.
That said, if you’re writing romance, I do happen to have character sheets specifically for romance novels. It’s not because you need to create different kind of characters, but because the relationship is in the centre of those stories and you’ll need to take it into account. If you want to create a fictional couple that your readers will be rooting for, you need to make sure we know why those two people belong together.
These romance character sheets will help you create that swoon-worthy couple your readers will be obsessed with, and because your couple could be made of any genders, I included versions with her, his and their pronouns.
Use character flaws to create your plot
Character flaws are absolutely integral to your story, but did you know you could even use them to create your story along with your unique story problems?
A few years ago, I had a novel idea that had a really cool backstory, but the actual story was missing real substance. My protagonist wasn’t really doing anything besides waiting to get the information that would reveal the secret that she needed to uncover, and that’s a real problem if you want to write a good story.
Instead of scrapping that story idea, you know what I did? I decided to solve that problem, and then share my problem-solving tool with others, and that’s how you get the Troublemaker Method. First, you get the video workshop that explains how it all works, and then you get the interactive plotting sheet that walks you through the whole process. I really think it ties character creation really nicely together with plotting.
If you’d like the Ultimate Character Workbook bundled together with the Troublemaker Method AND all my bestselling outlining tools, you should get the Genius Plotting System because it’s a lot cheaper than buying them all separately.
Free writer tools
I don’t currently have free character templates to share but I do have many other kinds of free resources for writers.
Plotting is my thing, so out of all my free tools, I think the Simple Plotter is my favourite. You should get it! I think you’ll like it.
Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.
