The Survey

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1. Basics

Names

What are your characters names? (first, second, third, etc. and last name)

Nicknames

What are your character’s nicknames, if any?

Age

What age is your character?

Year of birth

In what year was your character born?

Place of Birth

Where was your character born?

Religion

What religion is your character part of, if any?

2. Exterior

Example of Physical Appearance

Select a picture of someone that looks like your character and paste the url (including http:// and www)here

Weight

What does your character weigh?

Height

How tall is your character?

Body Mass Index

Calculate your character’s BMI here by entering your characters height and weight.
What is your character’s BMI?

Body Type

Review this website and select the body type your character has.
What is your character’s body type?

Scent

How does your character smell?

Skin Type

What is your character’s skin type?

Skin Color

Review the table on this site and determine your character’s skin color.
What is your character’s skin color?

Clothing Style

What is your character’s clothing style?

Frequently Worn Clothes

What are your character’s favorite pieces of clothing?

Natural Hair Color

What is your character’s natural hair color?

Dyed Hair Color

What is your character’s dyedhair color?

Hair Style

What kind of hair style does your character sport?

Eyecolor

Select more colors in case of heterochromia or mixed eyecolor, see this website for more information
What color(s) are your character’s eyes?
Green Blue Gray Brown Black Violet Hazel Amber Albino

Eyesight

How well does your character see, does your character wear glasses or contacts?

Hearing

How well does your character hear?

Speaking style

How does your character speak?
Select multiple if necessary
Speed Slow Normal Fast
Loudness Loud Soft Normal
Style Normal Formal Accented Mumbling Stuttering Disorganized

Physical imperfections (in your and your character’s perception)

Does your character have any physical imperfections? Is there anything he/she would like to change about his/her body?

Physical illness or afflictions

Does your character suffer from any physical illnesses or afflictions? (Neurological defects – not mental illness – goes in this category as well)

Other distinguishing physical traits

What other physical traits can you distinguish your character by?

3. Relationships and history

Persons close to character

What other characters are close to your character (friends, parents, colleagues, mentors, etc.)?

Current love relationship/interest

Who is your character currently in a relationship with (and what is their marital status)?
Or who is your character interested in (why this person)?

Past love relationships

How many past relationships has your character had? How and why did they end? What kind of relationships were they?

Describe home life and socioeconomic status

For further information on socioeconomic status, see this site.

Children

If your character has children, how many? How does your character feel toward his/her children?
If your character does not have children, does he/she have the wish to get children? How does he/she feel toward children?
How does your character feel toward children that are not his/her own?

Brief Family History

Provide a (short) history of your character’s family

4. Education, Occupation and Talents

Level of Education

What is the highest level of education your character has completed?

Special Training

What kind of special training has your character had that is not taught in (our world’s modern) schools?

Current occupation

What job does your character currently have? Enter “none” if your character has no job

Past occupations

What jobs has your character had in the past?

Skills, abilities, talents

Does your character have any special skills, abilities or talents?

5. Personality and Mental Wellbeing

Big Five Personality Test

Perform the test on this site (pretend you’re the character) and read more about the Big Five Personality Traits here. Enter your character’s scores on the Big Five Personality Test
Level of Openness

Level of Conscientiousness

Level of Extraversion

Level of Agreeableness

Level of Neuroticism

Additional Big Five Traits information

After you have taken the test, you will receive some information about the traits of your character. You can past it here, if you want, or paste the general Big Five info on the traits here.

Positive personality traits

Strengths or virtues (look here for inspiration and don’t forget the results of the Big Five test)

Negative personality traits

Weaknesses or vices (for inspiration, see this page and don’t forget the results of the Big Five test)

Eccentricity, tics, odd/bad habits

Look here for information on eccentricity, look here for information on tics, and this is an interesting article on frequently hidden habits

Anger

For information with dealing with problems or feelings, see this page for more information about coping strategies.
What angers your character?

How does your character cope with anger?

Embarrassment

What embarrasses your character?

How does your character cope with embarrassment?

Fear

What does your character fear?

How does your character cope with fear?

Pet Peeves

For more information on pet peeves, this is an interesting article
Does your character have any pet peeves?

Sense of Humor

What kind of sense of humor does your character have?

Mental Illness

For more information read this article, for more information on specific disorders, click the name of the disorder. If you need any additional information on disorders or if you are unsure how to incorporate the disorder in your character’s daily life, I study Clinical Psychology and have some insight on how illnesses affect persons. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any help :)
If your character has a mental illness, which?

What are the causes of the illness? (think: biological, hereditary, traumatic life events, substance abuse, side-effects of medication, etc.)

25. Behavior

Most important and/or painful events in the character’s past

These events have, most likely, influenced your character’s behavior, why they act the way they do, why they make the decisions they make.
What are your character’s most important and/or painful experiences?

Distinguishing behavior or habits

What does your character do that distinguishes him/her from others? For instance “scratches head often”, or “bites on lip often”, or “frowns a lot”, etc.

Distinguishing verbal behavior or habits

Is your character talkative or silent? What does your character say a lot that distinguishes him/her from others? For instance, “oh my,” or “really?” or “ah”. Also, think of clucking one’s tongue.

7. Favorites and Interests

Hobbies and Interests

What kind of hobbies and interests does your character have?

Favorite food and drinks

What are your characters favorite foods and drinks?

Favorite books, movies and music

What are your character’s favorite books, movies and music?

Favorite colors and places

What are your character’s favorite colors and where does your character like to be most (doesn’t necessarily have to be somewhere he can go (easily))?

Favorite items

What items are special to your character?

8. Character in the Story

Goals

What are your character’s goals in the story? What does he or she want?

Motivation

Why does your character want the above?

Inner demons and conflict

What inner demons stop the character from achieving above goals?

Outer conflict

What conflict, caused by the character’s environment, stops your character from achieving his or her goal?

Character Arc

What development does your character make in your story? Was s/he cowardly and did s/he become courageous? Was s/he an alcoholic and did s/he overcome the addiction? Etcetera.


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