Character Profile Template for Novel Writers
Copy a character profile template for your novel, with a completed reporter example and scene prompts using goals, flaws, secrets, and relationships.
This template brings together a character’s goals, flaws, and relationship conflicts. Copy it for your story, or use reporter Claire Lin’s completed profile as a starting point.
Blank character profile template
Leave unanswered fields blank and fill them in as you work on the story.
Name:
Age / role:
One memorable feature or habit:
What do they want right now?
Why does it matter to them?
What will they lose if they fail?
Their most troublesome weakness:
A secret they don't want others to know:
A line they won't easily cross:
Their most important relationship:
What does each person want from the other?
What remains unresolved between them?
What do they believe at the start?
How might the story change that belief?A completed example
Claire Lin is a fictional twenty-nine-year-old reporter investigating an old harbor accident:
| Field | Character detail |
|---|---|
| Memorable habit | She listens to interviews twice, looking for pauses she missed |
| Current goal | Find out what caused the old harbor accident and publish the report |
| Motivation | Her father once took the blame for someone else; she won’t let it happen again |
| Cost of failure | The witness will leave town and the accident will be dismissed |
| Weakness | She trusts her first explanation too much and resists contradictory evidence |
| Secret | She once removed part of an interview because it made her father look bad |
| Boundary | She won’t identify a child in her reporting |
| Important relationship | An old friend helps her find leads but now handles publicity for the harbor |
| Relationship conflict | She wants the truth; her friend wants the story withdrawn. Both want to keep the friendship |
| Starting belief | Once people see the evidence, things will get better |
| Possible change | She learns that publishing the truth may not end well, and accepts responsibility anyway |
Make goals, weaknesses, and relationships specific
Goal: Replace “find happiness” with “get the accident report before the witness leaves town.” Now you know what she needs to do in the scene.
Weakness: Instead of just writing “stubborn,” have Claire miss a second witness because she won’t reconsider her theory.
Relationship: Add “Claire wants to publish; her friend wants the story withdrawn” alongside “old friend.” They have a reason to confront each other.
Use the completed profile to draft a scene
- Paste the completed profile into an AI conversation.
- Ask for scene choices before prose. For example:
Using Claire’s profile, plan a confrontation with her old friend. The friend offers the accident report on condition that Claire omits one name: her father’s. Suggest three choices Claire could make and what each would cost her. Don’t draft the scene yet.
- Choose a direction. If Claire accepts the condition but changes her mind after reading the report, send:
Draft the scene where Claire decides to publish her father’s name after receiving the report. Her friend discovers she’s breaking the agreement and demands the document back. Show the argument through actions and dialogue, without narrating their biographies.