: What is an easy way to create a detailed character profile for a short story? What is an easy way to create a detailed character profile for a short story? I'm new to this Stack Exchange,

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One of the best ways I ever saw was with those for-entertainment-only personality quizzes; such as "What Disney Princess/Prince are you?" or "What's your Myer's Brigg's personality designation." Usually, these quizzes have about 20 questions associated with them, so they don't take that long. The key is to answer each question as your character would. This will result in a tidy character description that reflects the internal workings of the person. For appearance, simply pull a pic from online, or a magazine. For family/friend/occupation, add this information as necessary for the story, and to give you, the writer, the sense your character is a complete person.

Lastly, identify all the conflicts in this characters life. Spend a little time on this and try to be original. Perhaps his boss is his best friend, but he's uncomfortable with his landlady because she's always hitting on him. Whatever conflicts he has (even separate from the major one the story is about), these are what will serve to bring your character to life.

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Well, first off it depends on what your genre is. You will always have a genre with a short story, or any story. So if its along the line of romance, or love, you want to have some intake on past relationships, mention a name or two. Or put in some info about the character that would motivate to the plot. If its just a narrative, with a plot, not so much with a certain genre of fantasy, or myth, or realistic fiction, then the character development will be a lot easier. So name his/her name obviously. Not so much appearances, because, as well as the reader will want to imagine the character, the reader wants some information to help your story balance. But if your story is set on how the chracter looks, than its a good idea to mention it. Then use starter phrases such as, "I am a very ... person." If its in first person or, "SoandSo does ... for this reason." Make sure it's efficient for your story. I hope this helps in anyway. I am still learning the basics in writing myself.

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Consider the essential things you need to know about that person in the way they look, what they do currently, and what drives them. Create a dossier of those things.

Do this for every major character.

Then, start writing. And watch how much of the stuff you wrote down changes.

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There's no One Correct Way. You can have a list of attributes as if you were creating a D&D character. You can jot down notes so you have guidance for the important parts of your story. You can use one of the email or tumblr questionnaires which circulate from time to time and answer it from the perspective of your character.

Essentially, a profile is whatever helps you to create your character as a rounded, living person in your head so you can figure out what that person would do and say. The form of that is whatever works for you.

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