Writing compelling characters that will captivate and hook your readers consists one of the main challenges that you will face while writing your story.
How can you write reliable, consistent and compelling characters? How can you include all your characters’ information in an organised and practical way where you can instantly find and modify any information you may need about them? By creating character profiles for every character!

This blog article includes:
Definition of a character profile
The reasons you need a character profile
When do you need a character profile? 
What to include in a character profile?
Questions to ask about your characters
Conclusion (+free character profile template)

Definition of a character profile
A character profile is a description of your character’s life. A character profile can help you brainstorm all the information you need to know about your character. It can be a one-page document in a bullet-point format or a twenty-page essay with detailed information about every aspect of your character’s life and pivotal backstory events.

The reasons you need a character profile
Character profiles are important because they can help you

• write consistent characters (e.g a character’s blue eye doesn’t turn brown throughout the story without any further explanation).
• write faster stories because you have all the information you need about your characters in one place instead of going back and forth through your manuscript to find details you wrote weeks ago. 
•  create meaningful characters with depth and build stronger emotional relationships between your characters. 

The main characters (protagonist and antagonist) of your story should have a detailed character profile with as much information as possible. Secondary or minor characters don’t need to be fully-fledged. Their character profiles only need to have some basic information necessary for the story.

When do you need a character profile? 
A character profile can be useful while planning, writing and revising your story.  Some authors prefer finishing their characters’ profiles before start writing their stories. Others prefer only writing down some basic information before they start writing and others dive directly into the story and complete their characters’ profiles as they go. 

There is no right or wrong way to create a character profile. I advise you to brainstorm and write down as much information as possible about your main character(s) before you start writing your story. Hoverer, the choice is yours. If you have thoroughly developed your character in your mind, you can start writing your story right away. Just make sure to include all the information about your characters (at least the main ones) in a separate document from your manuscript and in an organised way.
  
What to include in a character profile?
You can start your character profile by writing down some basic information about your character. Note down their name, age, occupation, nationality, location (country, city) and social class and write about their physical appearance, personality, important backstory events, personal relationships, home life and work life.Then, decide the 3 most important elements of your story: the main character(s) goal, the main character’s flaw and the story’s theme.
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1) Think about your character’s goal. What is your character’s desire? What does your character want?  Your character’s goal must be tangible, important for your character and big enough to sustain the whole story. Think about what will happen if your character achieves their goal. Think what will happen if your character fails their goal. Keep in mind that the main characters (protagonist and antagonist) need to have equal and opposite goals to create the central conflict of the story and to prevent them from easily achieving their respective goals.

2) Think about your character’s flaw.  A  flaw is a  misbelief that your character falsely believes about themselves or the world around them and prevents them from achieving their goal. It is best if your character has a lot of internal and external flaws (or one big flaw) that take over all aspects of their life (home, friends, work). 

3) Think about the story’s theme. The theme is the universal message that the story contains and the “truth” that the character discovers about themselves and/or the world around them. The theme is the opposite of the main character’s flaw/misbelief. The main character(s) learn the theme, overcome their flaws, and become better and improved people by the end of the story. The main characters usually learn the theme at the beginning of Act 3 of the story (or the Break Into 3 beat in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody).

Questions to ask about your character
Here are some questions that you can ask about your characters. Brainstorm and write possible answers in the respective character profiles.

• What is your character’s basic information (name, age, occupation, location)?
• Can you briefly describe the main character’s goal?
• What will happen if the character achieves their goal?
• What are the consequences if the character fails their goals?
• What is your character’s flaw that prevents them from achieving their goal?
• What is the theme of the story?

Conclusion (+free character profile template)
 Character profiles are an essential tool for all the stages of your story and they can help you create fully developed and consistent characters.
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​You can open a blank document and start creating your own character profile from scratch or you can download the free character profile template and start planning your character right away. The character profile template is meant to make your writing life easier and inspire you to write compelling characters. You can copy/paste the character profile template and use it as many times as you want to create character profiles for all your characters. Happy writing!

​Completing the first or fifth draft of your story is already a significant achievement that you should celebrate! The next step is to have your manuscript professionally edited but you are not sure what kind of editor you need. This article analyses what developmental editing is and explains the difference between developmental editing and other kinds of editing.

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​This article analyses:
Developmental editing
Developmental editing vs coaching
Developmental editing vs line/copy editing
Developmental editing/ proofreading
Summary
Advice about editing

Developmental editing
Developmental editing (also known as structural, substantive or content editing) is the first step in the editing process and it solves the big-picture storytelling issues in your manuscript. It is the first kind of editing authors should look for after they have completed their first draft of their manuscript. 
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The developmental editor addresses the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and can provide comprehensive feedback on the following issues:

• theme: The message that the story conveys. The lesson that the main character(s) learns at the end of the story changes their perspective about themselves or the world around them.  The theme must be universal, so that people regardless of age, gender, location and culture can relate to it. For example, the main theme of romance stories often is “love conquers all” where the main characters must overcome many obstacles and be happily together by the end of the story.

 

• plot and structure: One of the most popular story structures in fiction is the 3 act structure.  Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody are two of the most popular structure guides for fiction authors. The books analyse the 3 act story structure through 15 “beats”  that make up a complete and effective story.

 

• characters: Basic information about the main characters’ goals, motivations, and internal vs external (emotional vs logical) conflict. Information about their physical appearance, occupation, education, background and relationship with other characters in the story. 

 

• setting and timeline: Where does the story take place (e.g. in which country, city), the historical and seasonal time of the story as well as the history, culture and politics of the setting. The setting of the story needs to be believable and consistent. The author should avoid overly descriptive details of settings without context (info-dumping) and show why a particular setting matters to the story. 

 

• point of view: The number of viewpoint characters and their importance to the story. For example, romance stories have one or two POV characters, the main characters and the love interests of the story.

 

•  pacing: Slow pacing that causes the reader to lose interest in the story, unrelated, unnecessary or repetitive information that does nothing much to progress the story.

 

• scene and narrative summary (show vs tell): Balance between summarised scenes (unimportant events) and the most important scenes where the author shows in greater detail the events of the story.

 

• voice, tone and imagery: the characters of the story have consistent, effective and distinct voices, the word choices are appropriate to the genre and the time period of the story.

 

• genre expectations: For romance stories (e.g contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance), the development of the love relationship must be the center of the story. The main characters display physical attraction that creates physical and emotional reactions that evolve into romantic feelings by the end of the story.

​You can always ask for the professional services of a developmental editor but you can benefit most from the services​ of a developmental editor when:

• you are a new author and you are currently editing your first manuscript
• you have been revising your manuscript for so long  and you are too close to your story and don't know how to further improve it
• you're getting conflicting advice from beta readers
• you are getting rejections from publishers or agents and you sure how to fix the issues discussed in their rejections

If one of the above describes you, then you need a professional developmental editor to read your manuscript and help you unlock its full potential!

Developmental editing vs coaching
While developmental editors help authors refine their completed manuscripts, book coaches help authors from the first idea to the completed first draft.

Book coaches can have weekly or monthly sessions with the author to check on writing goals and provide them with commentary or notes about their next moves. 

The book coach can be an assistant to the author but they don’t ghostwrite or rewrite part of the story. Book coaches can work with an author for about 6 months to help them finish the first draft of their story. 
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Book coaches can help authors:

•  develop their characters and expand plot ideas

• develop consistent writing habits
• answer questions about the story and overcome writer’s block
• improve their skills and knowledge about the writing craft

Developmental editing vs line/copy editing
Line editing/copyediting is the second step in the editorial process. While developmental editing focuses on the big-picture issues of the manuscript, line editing/copyediting focuses on the finer details of a manuscript. 

 Line editors/copyeditors focus on improving sentence-level errors and go through your manuscript line by line.
Line editing/copyediting focuses on:

• grammar, spelling, syntax and punctuation
• sentence structure and flow
• word choice (consistent style, redundancies, confusing or unnecessary words)
• sentence coherence, clarity and tone
• inconsistent formatting
• readability

Developmental editing/ proofreading
Proofreading is the third and final step of the editorial process.

Proofreaders read the manuscript to catch grammatical, spelling, punctuation and formatting errors that previous editors missed during the editing process and ensure consistency in formatting and style throughout the story.

Summary
Developmental editing: It solves the big-picture storytelling issues of a manuscript (theme, plot and structure, characters, setting and timeline, point of view, pacing, voice, tone and imagery, and genre expectations). Authors should be looking for this service after they have completed the first draft of their manuscript.

Coaching: Book coaches help authors during the writing process, from the first idea to a completed first draft.

Line editing/copyediting: Editors go through the manuscript line by line and improve sentence-level errors.

Proofreading: Proofreaders check the manuscript one last time for minor typos and errors before the manuscript goes to publication!
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Advice about editing
Be open-minded about the process of editing. You are paying a professional editor to improve your manuscript. Listen to their feedback and be open-minded to their ideas.

​Prepare to rewrite certain scenes of your manuscript, rearrange scenes or sentences and make the necessary changes to improve your story and make it the best it can be.

But remember, at the end of the day, you are the only one who has the final word about your manuscript and you should only make the changes you feel comfortable!

Further reading
How to brainstorm your novel’s genre and main characters
How to write a romance novel using the 3-act structure
How to create a consistent writing routine