Shel Silverstein

If you are a dreamer, come in

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

a hope-er a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...

If you are a pretender, come sit by my fire

For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Come in! Come in!

Oct 7, 2011

What a character...


Procrastinating no longer, I've managed to force myself to put up the character profiles for the Romantic Vampire project.
When I first promised to put up the profiles, a very long while ago, I knew very little about making a character profile let alone enough to conveying the idea of making a character profile. So I psyched by myself out of posting them, for various reason, 'they're too hard', 'they're confusing', 'I can't do it.' All of these entered the mental conversation I had with myself until I gave way to the negative and didn't post them.


If you're a writer you already know this feeling, but if your not and you know someone who is a writer then this bit of information will help you better understand why they seem crazy at times. A writers worst enemy is his/her own head, we have this terrible habit of over thinking everything until it's far too complicate and sometimes we give up.

But the great thing about this blog is I get to look back and learn from my mistakes so I really shouldn't be afraid to put stuff up here--only I hate making mistakes!!

So before this post gets any longer, I'll jump straight onto answering the question 'What is a character profile?'. However, I do think that the character profiles are pretty self-explanatory but here is my quick answer.


A character profile is basically a prologue to the story that the reader never sees, the length of which depends on how long your character has lived or how much you like to write. It is a detailed synopsis of your characters life up until page one. It makes writing, flash backs, past connections and long lost lovers a lot easier. Also it helps to make the characters motives and feelings more realistic when they are based off of passed events. Also your not just making stuff up as you go.

If your a writer, reading this you've probably already realized how much writing an author write that never make it on to the printed pages but is terribly necessary.

Why do we torture ourselves so??

Okay so here is the end to my rambling and you can now check out the character profile for 'Alfonso the Illusionist.' the rest will join him soon.

So enjoy, it was a long time coming
Xoxo

9 comments:

  1. I can relate to what you're saying here. I used to write a chapter a day until I began to read the "how to" books about writing. The more I read, the less I enjoy writing, and finally I tossed them all away.

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  2. Hi! Count me in as a new "Pay it Forward" follower! our blog is gorgeous. :-)

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  3. I can definitely relate to this. I wouldn't call myself a writer but I do write. I have similar feelings when I paint or illustrate. Also my J is a writer so I see this process on a daily basis.

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  4. I hate filling in character questionnaires, but I love doing the profiling (Hmmm that sounds so FBI-ish). ;)

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  5. I absolutely admire all the work that goes into writing, and the editing, editing, editing ... ad nauseum ... that follows. Yes, the writer's head is his own worst enemy! These are wonderfully whimsical images you have chosen to illustrate your blog with. And I love Shel Silverstein!!!

    Thank you for your comments on my blog. Hope we cross paths again soon ;-)

    http://thefoolishaesthete.blogspot.com

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  6. Hello there sweetie! Thanks for the lovely comment over my blog and for following me, it means a lot to me! I'm following you as-well! If you want to check me at your followers list I'll be in the end because I don't have a profile picture(having problems uploading one)
    Great post!

    Hope you're having a great day!
    http://kikisbookofdreams.blogspot.com/

    My cooking blog, support me:
    http://kikiscookingtime.blogspot.com/

    xx, Kiki

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  7. I tried doing the character profiling thing, but as soon as I put it down on paper, my story suffered somehow. I had to just stop writing. So nowadays, I just keep all that info in my head. Kinda better for me that way.

    What a pretty blog.

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  8. Character profiling is one of my favorite aspects of the entire writing process. It really lets you meet your characters, and form bonds with them! :)

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