Character synopsisįinally, my original template included headings for notes and scenes. Still, in a complex story with lots of subplots, I might also do this for critical secondary characters. Naturally, I usually do this with the central protagonist and antagonist. Sometimes, I'll also write a character synopsis, telling the story from the character's POV. In a similar step, I might also write the character's backstory - and for minor character's I typically merge this step with the previous one. Here, I have the opportunity to flesh out the character's defining relationships, both during and leading up to the story. Likewise, I do the same for the character's family and their place in society. I can also play a bit with perspective, sometimes writing these descriptions from another POV. For example, I can note down how a character acts in particular circumstances, like stress, boredom, grief or lust. It can also serve to tease out the seemingly incidental but essential stuff, not captured by the boiled-down tabular format. I don't always do this, but I like having the option should the muse encourage me to do so. Descriptionsįollowing the all-important summary and reference tables, I like fleshing out the details of important characters with some descriptive prose. A straightforward way to do this is to roll a D10 and see what you get. You can also add an element of randomness if you find yourself creating characters with the same cliched traits time and again. The slider, or spectrum approach, reminds me to avoid creating characters lacking a broad emotional range, which tends to happen when you merely list a character's virtues and flaws. Still, I find it invaluable as a reference for how a character will act when faced with various situations. Next, I map out the character's personality traits, using a sliding scale (1-10) between two extremes. I break this down further to note how the character reacts to certain smells, colours, foods, and habits in other people. Then it's on to the character's likes and dislikes. Next, I detail the character's physical appearance, and also note their health, fitness and so on. In the first table, I capture the character's background information, place in society, when and where they were born and so on. Presented in tabular format, I find, is much quicker to parse than reading descriptions penned in prose. Next, I include a bunch of tables I use as a reference for the quantifiable traits of a character. You can add pictures to a document's synopsis field and have them displayed in Scrivener's corkboard and inspector. Since the aim is to import the document into Scrivener, I won't bother. Initially, I included a placeholder for a character portrait. For example, are they aligned to the protagonist, antagonist, or are they neutral in the central conflict. Not all characters have to change, and for minor characters without their own subplot and ark, I'll modify this section noting only how they relate to the central characters. Critically for me, I also detail the character's conflicts and change. Apart from their name, I note their role in the story, position in society and their goal and motivation. Summaries, conflict and changeįront and centre, I create a summary page to highlight all the essential ingredients of writing character-based fiction. Since I don't own Microsoft Word, however, I did the formatting in Apple's Pages app. Scrivener's rich-text controls (especially for tables) aren't great, but the app does a pretty good job of importing a formatted word document. I decided to keep the original document in markdown format, but then use a word processor to style it. My original template was in markdown, leftover from the bleak two-year period when I wrote exclusively in Linux. I decided it was time I updated my character templates, both to reflect the different genre, and the way I know approach character design. However, the last time I wrote a novel was back in 2017, and that was a modern techno-thriller. Now that I've decided to rewrite The Weaver's Boy as a full-length novel, I need something a little more robust. When I wrote my first two novellas, the scope of the story was small enough that I could juggle the characters in my head. The Zip bundle includes the template in Microsoft Word, Rich Text, Apple Pages and Markdown format. Tl dr You can download the template to use or hack as needed. I update my old character bio template from their original markdown versions, and import it into Scrivener. Character Templates and Management in ScrivenerĮxpanding my novella to a full-length novel means I have to get serious about managing my characters.
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