Scrivener

So in this section I will be going more into depth about how you can use the program Scrivener, from Literature & Latte, to create your characters. I would also like to say, any piece I write about Scrivener is mainly how I have used it. There is so much you can do to tailor it to what you want to use it for. All right lets get into it!

Character Sketch

When you start using Scrivener, in the templates folder for a Fiction Template there is one called a Character Sketch. I have ended up tweaking mine quite a bit so its less of a sketch and more of a biography of sorts. I may end up redoing this because I have made it extremely detailed and some things I just never ended up using.

My current one has everything from physical description, faults, relationships, history to their educations, clothing choices, weapons choices, vices. After many years of adding to the character worksheet it has gotten quite extensive. I will go into each section a little more detailed below.

The one that I had started out with had name, role in story, background, occupation, internal/external conflicts, physical description, mannerisms, hobbies, personality, and a area for other notes.

The Beginning

So the first part I do doesn't really fit anywhere so I am just going to call it the beginning. In this I have things like Name, Titles/Occupations, Alignment, Factions, Birthplace, where they currently reside, role in the story. I also have gender in this section even though it could go in Physical description because I want it to be one of the first things I see. Since I mostly write Fantasy at the moment, I include titles. For example one of my characters in BMC, Callisto, she is both a High Priestess as well as a Princess. She was also born in one place, but resides in another due to a assassination attempt.

Physical Description

In this I put things to help me describe how they look or how to draw them if I get into a creative mood. I would put stuff like hair color, eye color, skin tone, do they have any markings, scars, or tattoos? I also include what age they are in this section.

Personality

I go into what their strengths are, their weaknesses, what their personality is like, what hobbies they enjoy, what their greatest fear is, their likes and dislikes. I also do positive and negative personality traits, Are they a extrovert or introvert, vices/ addictions.

This section is mainly to describe what is going on in the character's head, what drives them to do what they do.

Other

Ok so since this is getting a little on the wordy side I am going to combine Background with Other.

In background, I put who their love interest, family, friends, enemies, rivals, contacts, affiliations. I use background mainly to show who the character has a relationship with in some form.

In Other, I put what they like to wear, what type of weapons they like to use, pets, nicknames, favorite form of entertainment, special abilities, do they have any special accessories (like a enchanted necklace). I also have a area to add anything that isn't already included in any of the previous sections.

In a nutshell, as I have said before, Scrivener is a very versatile program and there is so much you can do with it. I mean you can even include picture references. I do that for clothes and if I find a picture that resembles my character.