Quick 2-page Character Sheet for Novel Writing

And as promised, here’s a quick Character sheet I did for working out my characters.

Basically, it’s an RPG style sheet. At the top is some pertinent story info:  Character’s name, Story Role (Protagonist, Main, Hero, Antagonist, Mentor: Whatever system you’re using).

There’s a block for Description and Bio, and one at the end to keep track of plot elements that you might want to keep track of. I tend to keep these short because I’d rather put them into the novel than the project binder, and it reminds me not to bog the story down unnecessarily.  Keep it short and simple and get back to writing.

The main pieces are the two index cards in the middle: the Internal and External Sheets. This is modified from Dramatica’s Throughlines. Basically, I like character’s who have two or more opposing goals: One external and one internal. For Example, in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade“, Indy’s external goal is always to get the treasure. But he needs his father’s help and to do that he must reconcile with him. Fun, Huh? Give it a try: I think it works well without being too complicated.

Finally I am releasing this as Attribution ShareAlike. Download, Modify and Improve to your hearts content.

If the writing session goes good tonight, I’ve got a couple ideas for a four page sheet also.