Character Questionnaire

I  completed a 30-day version with the two main characters of Victims of the Bridge, and, although there were many interesting questions, there are obviously a lot more my characters could bear to answer for me. As such, I decided to put together a few more questions for the lot of us to enjoy.

1. What does your character like on his/her omelettes?
2. How important does your character consider his/her heritage to be?
3. How many volts would he/she go to if he/she had been a teacher in the Milgram experiment?
4. Describe your character's typical scent.
5. What kind of video games does/would your character play (puzzle, first-person shooter, etc.)?
6. What is your character's preferred style of footwear?
7. How does he/she feel about musicals?
8. What breed or kind of dog is his/her favourite ("dog person" or otherwise)?
9. What's your character's favourite smell that brings up memories?
10. What's your character's favourite smell that doesn't bring up any particular memories?
11. If your character were forced to start a triathlon, how far would they end up going?
12. How short a skirt (if any) would your character wear?
13. If your character had the chance to buy everything from a single store, what store would it be?
14. How many minutes early or late does your character intend and/or tend to get to scheduled events?
15.  What is your character's ideal vacation environment?

Making a Character Kernel in Three Easy Steps

This certainly isn't a complete guide to putting a character together, but it might be an interesting method if you don't know where to start.

Step One: Typification

In one or two words, what is your character's role? Interpret that however you like. Archetypes, occupations, whatever you neeed a character to do or whatever you happen to come up with.

Examples:

• The mentor
• The rogue
• The murder investigator

Step Two: Contradiction

What is the opposite of the role you just put? What is a quality someone is such a role couldn't or shouldn't have? Assign that quality to your character.  (The same one it doesn't fit.)

Examples:

• The inept mentor
• The loyal rogue
• The softhearted murder investigator

Step Three: Reconciliation

We kind of made everything a mess in the last step, so let's put things together a little more. Is what you put really a contradiction? I'll tell you right now: no. It isn't. Now you tell me, why isn't it? How can those two seemingly opposite things coexist in the same person? Is one of the two aspects not quite what you may have thought it was? Does one side override the other most of the time? What conditions bring the other side to the forefront?

Examples:

• The inept mentor is the most leader-like individual thrown into the situation. Everyone in the situation has to figure out certain skills; our mentor is no exception, but he takes it upon himself to teach the others regardless.
• The loyal rogue is only a rogue as far as skill set is concerned; she's sneaky, prefers to work on her own, and knows all of the best pickpocketing techniques, but she still has friends, and she'll put her neck on the line for them.
• The softhearted murder investigator is usually one or the other. Her default is softhearted, but she steels herself for her detective work. Of course, she's not living altogether separate lives—the more grotesque murders still shake her up and haunt her sleep, and she can shut off her sensitive in her daily life when those situations become bleak.

Now you should have a good starting place. I've heard the main difference between round and flat characters is a sort of inner conflict—and most characters made with this method will have that from the get-go.

What do you think? A worthwhile tool for your writing arsenal?

"30 Days of Character Building," Part 2

And the latter 15 days of the character-building exercise.

16. Are there any blood relatives that your character is particularly close with, besides the immediate ones? Cousins, Uncles, Grandfathers, Aunts, et cetera. Are there any others that your character practically considers a blood relative?

Becky: She’s not particularly close with anyone. Some of her cousins would come over to play Barbies some time ago, but Becky hasn’t really formed strong relationships with them since. She was close enough to consider all of them family, but not favouring anyone in particular.

George: He lived pretty close to some of his cousins, and they would run around and injure themselves a lot. George’ll still keep an eye on them from time to time, but at this point he mostly avoids people he knows since it’s hard to accept he’s no longer in their lives.

17. What’s your character’s desk/workspace look like? Are they neat or messy?

Becky: She’s the kind who organises without actually putting anything where it should be. Her desk at school has a clear area for working and all kinds of junk pushed to the sides.

George: He’s pretty messy. I don’t know if he really has a desk where he worked, and he picked up after himself, but where he actually lived was not safe for females or the more OCD to enter.

18. Is your character a good cook? What’s their favourite recipe, whether they’re good or not? (Microwave mac-and-cheese applies.)

Becky: She doesn’t care much for cooking. She can basically do any kind of simple pasta, and that’s about all she’s put her mind to. Old-fashioned macaroni and cheese is her favourite.

George: He’s actually pretty decent. His favourite would be meatloaf.

19. What’s your character’s preferred means of travel?

Becky: Car. It beats walking, and she does have a license.

George: Walking. It’s a little too much trouble for him to stay focused enough to not just phase through a moving vehicle. He was fine with driving while alive, though (although he probably wouldn’t have wanted to be in a car for a while if his accident weren’t quite so fatal).

20. Does your character have any irrational fears?

Becky: Who doesn’t? She’s afraid of snakes. Regardless of toxicity, if its bigger around than her index finger, it’s too much for her.

George: When basically nothing can actually touch him, most fears would be irrational. He is afraid of needles and sometimes doctor’s offices in general. Not sure if it's a phobia, but he's a bit paranoid about spies, too.

21. What would your character’s cutie mark be? [I've only seen a few episodes of MLP, so I really have no idea what I'm doing with this one.]

Becky: She’s intelligent and sciencey, so a classical atom or something?

George: If he has any special talents it would be his attitude, so smiley-face? Or maybe a leaf or something for his landscaping, er, skills.

22. If your character could time travel, where would they go?

Becky: Again, she wouldn’t go for it if it had a chance of messing up space-time somehow. If there were some guarantee it wouldn’t… She’s not a huge history buff and she's pretty much afraid of the future, so there wouldn’t be any particular events she’d want to watch unfold. She might check out an original Shakespeare play or something.

George: He might just want to relive his three years with Elise. Otherwise, as much as he likes his growing up in the eighties, he’s a bit of a fifties fanboy, so he’d probably run around in that time frame for a while.

23. Is your character superstitious?

Becky: To a normal degree. And then she can actually see ghosts, so I don’t know if that counts as superstitious.

George: He is a ghost, so I don’t think it can be called superstition there, either. He’s pretty big on gambler’s fallacies, if that’s superstition.

24.) What might your character’s ideal romantic partner be?

Becky: She’s not that interested in general, but I guess someone very supportive, and low-key. Maybe a bit of a daredevil.

George: Before he met Elise, he’d probably give some dumb answer concerning physical attractiveness and big hair. After he met Elise, he would say Elise. And these days, he’s kind of dead, so he’s not really chasing anybody else.

25.) Describe your character’s hands. Are they small, long, calloused, smooth, stubby?

Becky: She has good piano-player hands (although the only lessons she’s had were with her grandmother). Her fingernails are kind of stubby, though. Her hands will get dried out in allergy season, but otherwise they’re pretty smooth. She hasn’t done much repetitive activity that would cause calluses.

George: His hands are freaking huge. Not that excessively, but enough that he's self-conscious about them. Probably a few calloused areas from his job.

26. Second day of favourites! Favourite comfort food, favourite vice, favourite outfit, favourite hot drink, favourite time of year, and favourite holiday.

Becky: Fried things drowning in gravy, sloth, blouse and slacks (skirts make her uncomfortable), apple cider, spring, Christmas (being a break from school helps).

George: Meatloaf (this already came up), beer, jeans and a rock T-shirt (preferably Bon Jovi), coffee (only reasonably distant from black), fall, Thanksgiving.

27. Pick two songs that describe your character at two different points of their life, and explain why you chose them.

Becky: Around the time the story starts, “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence would be pretty good. Even though how she’s “brought to life” is by dying, it describes her pretty well. For a second one… “Land of Confusion” by Genesis for after the story. Because she still thinks the world more or less sucks, but she’s more willing to do something about it rather than whine and try to escape it altogether.

George: The stages of his life are pretty much “0-18: Loser” and “18-21: Loser with a girlfriend” so… Probably have to go with “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel for the latter with the whole “how the heck did a guy like me end up with a girl like you” thing. For the first part, I have no idea. “I’m Alright” by Kenny Loggins.

28. If your character’s life was a genre, what would it be?

Becky: Supernatural would probably be a good choice because she can see ghosts and later become one. Otherwise, there’s not much interesting going on, so I’d be hesitant to say YA or something.

George: His life, specifically? Not Supernatural then. Slapstick comedy, with a touch of rom-com.

29. How does your character smell? Do they wear perfume or cologne?

Becky: She doesn’t do perfume or scented lotions because she’s allergic. She has some scented hand sanitiser, so her hands sometimes smell like cherry blossoms. Otherwise she just smells like a human.

George: As a ghost, he doesn’t have a smell. When he was alive, he probably wore some cologne that didn’t actually smell as pleasant as he thought.

30. And finally: Write a letter to your character, from yourself. [I'm terrible at this as well.]

Becky: Um, you’re cool. We should study for the MCAT together. And watch a dumb ripoff movie to make fun of it.

George: Hey, you should come to that one upcoming classic rock concert with me. It’s not Bon Jovi, but hey. It’ll be cool and remind you of the good old days and such.

"30 Days of Character Building," Part 1

It was a challenge on HabitRPG.com, and I decided to go for it with the two main characters of my weird little ghost story. I did it by day, as suggested, but here's the first half of the exercise.

1. Describe your character’s relationship with their mother or their father, or both. Was it good? Bad? Were they spoiled rotten, ignored? Do they still get along now, or no?

Becky: She chafes against her parents about as much as she does everyone else. She’s been rather spoiled by them in the past, mostly from her father (who likes to think of himself as the cool dad). Her mother doesn’t spend much time with her but does care about her and expect great things from her.

George: Easiest part: No, they don’t really get along now because they’re all dead, and he’s the only ghost. Ahem. He was totally a mama’s boy, although his father would still come to his baseball games. He got along with each of his parents better than they got along with each other, and they didn’t divorce until he was out of the house.

2. What are your characters' most prominent physical features?

Becky: Does her glare count? Probably not. Er… Her hair’s nice? It’s really curly… I don’t know. She doesn’t stand out much physically.

George: Probably just his size. He’d be pretty intimidating if he wore a big trenchcoat or something. Unfortunately, he’s kind of stuck in his T-shirt and jeans, so it’s easier to tell that he doesn’t really have any muscle to go with that big-bonedness.

3. Name one scar your character has, and tell us where it came from. If they don’t have any, is there a reason?

Becky: If she does, it’s probably from a hair straightener or something. She’s never been very athletic, and her life is pretty sheltered in general. She could potentially have some cutting scars, but probably not. In that case, they would be more like hesitation marks than anything else.

George: He has one on his forearm from an open fracture when he fell off a tree. He’s gotten himself into all kinds of trouble and injuries, but he’s had good medical care, so there wasn’t much scarification. There’s that fatal car accident, but wounds don’t stick around once you’re a ghost in this story, so he doesn’t have any physical scars from that (even his clothes got out unscathed).

4. How vain is your character? Do they find themselves attractive?

Becky: No self-esteem here. She doesn’t think she’s ugly, per se, but she’s well aware that she’s overweight and not particularly attractive. She doesn’t really care about that. She’s not generally vain in other areas, although she does default to believing she’s more intelligent than others.

George: Yeah, he thinks he’s attractive. It’s within reason, but he probably has slightly too high of an opinion on himself in that aspect. Otherwise, he knows he’s a loser. He tries not to worry about it too much.

5. What’s your character’s ranking on the Kinsey Scale?

Becky: This is romance stuff, so I have no idea what I’m talking about, but… I dunno. 0, I guess. She’s dated a few boys unsuccessfully. She’s just not really a romantic person, especially at this point in her life when she’s pretty much done with everything.

George: Hm. Well, the love of his life was female, but he may not be entirely straight? At the same time, I can’t see him ever being seriously attracted to a guy, so probably 1. Maybe 2? I’m bad at this. This is why I don’t really put any romance into plots.

6. Describe your character’s happiest memory.

Becky: It was another lonely Valentine’s Day at her high school. As she rushed between classes, she kept passing a student government-sponsored stand selling a variety of plushies. Although she’s not very girly, she does have a sense for the cute, and she fell in love with an adorable caterpillar plushie. She didn’t have any money, though, so she walked straight past. After another class passed, she considered asking her father, who taught AP Biology at the school, for some cash, but when she next saw the stand, the caterpillar was gone. Nothing else at the stand compared, so she just sighed and went on to lunch. It was just a dumb plushie, anyway. She didn’t need more useless stuff cluttering her room. A smiling little caterpillar face wasn’t going to make everything better whenever she looked at it, either. No big loss. Just another of life’s disappointments.

At least, it was until she got home and found that her father had bought the caterpillar for her during his planning hour that day. She considers it all a little silly, but now the caterpillar is like her symbol of things somehow going right sometimes, so it’s pretty important to her.

George: Well, it’s got to be something with his girlfriend Elise. I don’t know if he would really rank the memories, though. And the positive ones would basically all be the same. Cutesy stuff, George does something dumb and embarrassing, Elise cleans up after him, and then more cutesy stuff. 

7. Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?

Becky: Hm. Well, if she was actually given an opportunity, she’d be the type to avoid messing with the space-time continuum and all that jazz (even though she’s fine with messing with the material world when she’s in ghost form, but that’s different…?). Assuming the change wouldn’t mess up anything… I don’t know. She tries not to dwell on the past much, so it would be hard to determine what change would do her the most good. I don’t think she’d end up going for it.

George: I hope it’s not cheating to say his death. He died pretty young, which is bad enough, but as a ghost he ended up seeing how hard it was on all of his loved ones. Not to mention basically putting his girlfriend-eventually-fiancée-someday-hopefully in despair for fifteen years and then seeing her find another guy. It’s been kind of rough for him, especially since he has no way of interacting with the human world anymore, not even to give a hug or make his presence known.

8. Day of favourites! What’s your character’s favourite ice cream flavour? Colour? Song? Flower?

Becky: Chocolate chip cookie dough, scarlet, ??? (I feel like she’s not a huge music fan in general. She might have a song she associates with good times, but it’s probably something modern, so I wouldn’t know it.), those purple-budded weed things.

George: Vanilla I guess? (He’s not big on ice cream, but he doesn’t mind sundaes, so that counts as vanilla, right?), yellow, “Runaway” (he basically has my music tastes but is a huge fan of Bon Jovi rather than Journey), crepe myrtles maybe? (I wouldn’t think he’d pay much attention to flowers, but then again he worked as a landscaper).

9. Who does your character trust?

Becky: Apparently she trusted George enough to risk killing herself permanently, but she was also kind of in the mood for that, anyway, so I’m not sure if that counts… The people she trusts the most are probably her online friends. She shares a lot more with them than her parents, that’s for sure. She’ll tend to follow instructions from authority, but she doesn’t really trust them to guide her down the best path, either. Or she just thinks the best path is still too dismal to be happy about.

George: He’s the kind who will trust most people to a certain extent without really knowing them. That can still be broken or strengthened, though. As for people in particular, there really aren’t any options other than Becky seeing as no one else seems able to detect him. So he does trust her, although it’s more out of necessity when things are just starting.

10. Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.

Becky: It’s a little hard to say. Probably the biggest influence on her depression was giving up on trying to be an original watercolour artist as an occupation. It was her dream for some time, and she had certainly been improving, but she finally decided it just wasn’t realistic and that she’d do med school like her parents wanted. But she also gets a positive turning point in the course of the story. No need to spoil it just yet, though.

George: Hm. He honestly does more running in circles than anything; he’s not that dynamic. I think his outlook on life was really too gradual to attribute to any turning points. Aside from that, he’s had all of the basic schooling, he played baseball for a while, he got a job landscaping, and he got a nice girlfriend. And then he died, but he didn’t change too much after that, aside from giving in to the sadness for a while. So no, I can’t really define one.

11. Is there an animal you equate with your character?

Becky: I hadn’t really thought about it. And nothing really comes to mind. Depressed and snarky animals… Yeah, I don’t know. So no, there isn’t.

George: Um, fainting goat. Yeah, why not? He does tend to be out for the count every time things get dire.

12. How is your character with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or email?

Becky: She is totally savvy. She can’t program or anything, but she can basically work whatever fancy computers and lab tech you want her to. Definitely email.

George: Considering he hasn’t been able to actually interact with technology in the last thirty years, he’s a little behind. He’s at least familiar with those fancy smart phones and such and such, but only what he knows from observation. He definitely never owned a computer, so snail mail.

13. What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?

Becky: She’s a side sleeper, and a slight insomniac. She’ll wake up with her sheets either off the bed entirely or in such a mess she doesn’t even bother to properly make it up. She would be curled around a pillow, though.

George: Well, as a ghost, he doesn’t get much sleep these days, but when he was alive… I feel like he would nearly always be exhausted when he finally hit the hay, and he’d just flop onto the bed and sleep. Back sleeper. Probably forgot to pull the covers over him half the time. He did roughly make his bed every morning, though.

14. How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?

Becky: Well, she hates them. Cold more than heat. If it’s that extreme, she won’t even step outdoors/approach it.

George: He’ll tough it out. He’ll get uncomfortable pretty quickly, but his job entails a lot of outdoor work, so he’s learned not to throw in the towel in such situations.

15. Is your character an early morning bird or a night owl?

Becky: Neither, really. She tries to get as much sleep as possible. Given the choice, she would rather wake up early, though.

George: Definitely an early-bird type. He’s kind of awake all of the time these days, but he's still freshest around dawn.