How to Create a Character Profile

How to Create a Character Profile How to Create a Character Profile How to Create a Character Profile By Ali Hale Have you created character profiles for the main cast of your novel? While not all authors use character profiles, many find them a very handy tool for keeping track of their characters – and for developing and fleshing out those characters in the first place. Done well, a character profile can help you harness your creativity and really dig into who your characters are.   Sometimes, though, writers treat character profiles as a form-filling exercise, coming up with their character’s eye color, hair color, first job, etc without investing any of this with a deeper meaning. They might diligently complete character profiles for every character in their novel – even the bus driver who only has a walk-on part in chapter five – but they’re not any closer to having any real insight into their characters. So what should go in your character profile and how should you use it? What to Include in a Character Profile Firstly, not every character in your novel needs a profile at all. Characters who have a minor role (like your protagonist’s mother, who only appears briefly a couple of times) don’t need to be fully fleshed out. Of course, you might want to make some brief notes about them but this definitely doesn’t need to be an entire profile. Your main characters, though, should have individual profiles. That probably includes any viewpoint character. If you have an antagonist then it’s worth creating a profile for them too (after all, even if your main character just doesn’t get where the antagonist is coming from,  you  should). It’s entirely up to you how you structure your character profiles. In general, though, I’d suggest that: You don’t focus too much on physical details. You may want to include things like hair color and eye color if you’re ever likely to mention them – but you can leave them out if they’re not going to be relevant. The same goes for height and build: unless they’re unusual and significant, you don’t necessarily need them at all. If you are including physical details, think about how they relate to deeper aspects of your character. For instance, in Harry Potter, the fact that Harry has green eyes is significant because it’s the physical characteristic that links him to his mother. You spend some time exploring deeper questions about your character: things like what’s the mistake they regret most? or in what situations would they lie? or what false beliefs do they hold? These sort of questions will result in a much richer, more real character than a simple list of physical characteristics. The first ebook I ever bought online, back in around 2007, was Holly Lisle’s Create a Character Clinic. This is still one of my favorite resources for character creation: it goes far beyond the typical character questionnaire to dig deep into what really makes characters tick (and it includes lots of examples, too). If you’re using a template or questionnaire that you’ve found online, don’t feel that you need to complete every single part of it – especially if it’s a long one! Focus on the bits that are most impactful or that help you to imagine your character more fully: if you do decide to fill in the rest, you can simply do it at a later stage. Don’t get hung up on creating the â€Å"perfect† character profile before you begin writing – because it’ll almost certainly change as you go along. Which brings me on to Why Your Character Profile Will Need Updating Regularly If you create your character profiles during the pre-writing phase of your novel, you’ll almost certainly find that your understanding of your character shifts as you write the first draft. Perhaps the thing you  thought  they sincerely regretted from their past turns out to be something they’re actually quite proud of – at least initially. Perhaps you realize that it makes much more sense for them to have grown up somewhere rural, not in a city. Perhaps you change them radically: maybe you merge two characters together, or you change a character’s gender or age. (Or their name: a lot of my characters end up changing names part-way through the writing process as I figure out a name that’s a better fit.) Your character profile definitely isn’t set in stone. It’s fine to change your mind and rework it – but do make sure that you actually update it to reflect the changes you’ve made during the writing process. Otherwise, it can be very confusing several chapters later when you want to bring a character back in but you can’t now remember if they’re supposed to be 35 or 25, or whether they’re tall with dark brown hair or short with strawberry blonde hair. Character profiles can be a great tool for creating and fleshing out interesting characters for your novel; they’re also a useful working document that you can use to help you stay on track and keep things consistent during the writing process. If you’ve never created a character profile before, why not give it a go today? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of PhrasesBetween vs. In BetweenThe Difference Between "Phonics" and "Phonetics"

Biography of Edmund Cartwright, English Inventor

Biography of Edmund Cartwright, English Inventor Edmund Cartwright (April 24, 1743–October 30, 1823) was an English inventor and clergyman. He patented the first power loom- an improved version of the handloom- in 1785 and set up a factory in Doncaster, England, to manufacture textiles. Cartwright also designed a wool-combing machine, an instrument for making rope, and a steam engine powered by alcohol. Fast Facts: Edmund Cartwright Known For: Cartwright invented a power loom that improved the speed of textile production.Born: April 24, 1743 in Marnham, EnglandDied: October 30, 1823 in Hastings, EnglandEducation: University of OxfordSpouse: Elizabeth McMac Early Life Edmund Cartwright was born on April 24, 1743, in Nottinghamshire, England. He graduated from Oxford University and married Elizabeth McMac at the age of 19. Cartwrights father was the Reverend Edmund Cartwright, and the younger Cartwright followed in his fathers footsteps by becoming a clergyman in the Church of England, serving initially as the rector of Goadby Marwood, a village in Leicestershire. In 1786, he became a prebendary (a senior member of the clergy) of  Lincoln Cathedral (also known as St. Marys Cathedral)- a post he held until his death. Cartwrights four brothers were also highly accomplished. John Cartwright was a naval officer who fought for political reforms to the British Parliament, while George Cartwright was a trader who explored Newfoundland and Labrador. Inventions Cartwright was not only a clergyman; he was also a prolific  inventor, though he didnt begin experimenting with inventions until he was in his 40s. In 1784, he  was inspired to create a machine for weaving after he visited inventor Richard Arkwrights cotton-spinning mills in Derbyshire. Although he had no experience in this field and many people thought his ideas were nonsense, Cartwright, with the help of a carpenter, worked to bring his concept to fruition. He completed the design for his first power loom in 1784 and won a patent for the invention in 1785. Although this initial design was not successful, Cartwright continued to make improvements to subsequent iterations of his power loom until he had developed a productive machine. He then established a factory in Doncaster to mass produce the devices. However, Cartwright had no experience or knowledge in business or industry so he was never able to successfully market his power looms and primarily used his factory to test new inventions. He invented a wool-combing machine in 1789 and continued to improve his power loom. He secured another patent for a weaving invention in 1792. Bankruptcy Cartwright went bankrupt in 1793, forcing him to close his factory. He sold 400 of his looms to a Manchester company but lost the remainder when his factory burned down, possibly due to arson committed by handloom weavers who feared they would be put out of work by the new power looms. (Their fears would eventually prove to be well-founded.) Bankrupt and destitute, Cartwright moved to London in 1796, where he worked on other invention ideas. He invented a steam engine powered by alcohol and a machine for making rope, and helped Robert Fulton with his steamboats. He also worked on ideas for interlocking bricks and incombustible floorboards. Improvements to Power Loom Cartwrights power loom needed some improvements, so several inventors took on the challenge. It was improved upon by Scottish inventor William Horrocks, the designer of the variable speed batton, and also by American inventor  Francis Cabot Lowell. The power loom was commonly used after 1820. When it became efficient, women replaced most men as weavers in textile factories. Although many of Cartwrights inventions were not successful, he was eventually recognized by the House of Commons for the national benefits of his power loom. The legislators awarded the inventor a prize of 10,000 Britsh pounds for his contributions. In the end, despite Cartwrights power loom being highly influential, he received little in the way of a financial reward for it. Death In 1821, Cartwright was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died two years later on October 30, 1823, and was buried in the small town of Battle. Legacy Cartwrights work played a pivotal role in the evolution of textile production. Weaving was the last step in textile production to be mechanized because of the difficulty in creating the precise interaction of levers, cams, gears, and springs that mimicked the coordination of the human hand and eye. Cartwrights power loom- though flawed- was the first device of its kind to do this, accelerating the process of manufacturing all kinds of cloth. According to the Lowell National Historical Park Handbook,  Francis Cabot Lowell,  a wealthy Boston merchant,  realized that in order for America to keep up with Englands textile production, where successful power looms had been in operation since the early 1800s, they would need to borrow British technology. While visiting English  textile mills, Lowell memorized the workings of their power looms (which were based on Cartwrights designs), and when  he returned to the United States, he recruited a master mechanic named Paul Moody to help him recreate and develop what he had seen. They succeeded in adapting the British design  and the machine shop established at the Waltham mills by Lowell and Moody continued to make improvements in the loom. The first American power loom was constructed in Massachusetts in 1813. With the introduction of a dependable power loom, weaving could keep up with spinning as the American textile industry was underway. The power loom allowed the wholesale manufacture of cloth from ginned cotton, itself a recent innovation of  Eli Whitney. Though primarily known for his inventions, Cartwright was also an esteemed poet. Sources Berend, Ivn. An Economic History of Nineteenth-Century Europe: Diversity and Industrialization. Cambridge University Press, 2013.Cannon, John Ashton.  The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press, 2015.Hendrickson, Kenneth E., et al.  The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Rowman Littlefield, 2015.Riello, Giorgio.  Cotton: the Fabric That Made the Modern World. Cambridge University Press, 2015.