A lot of times when I'm plotting a new book, I store all the information away in my head, where, inevitably, something gets forgotten. Sometimes it's not anything very important, but other times I find myself asking, "Wait... how old was that character again?"
When that happens, I wish I had written such necessary specifics down. Something that makes it much easier and organized is a character development sheet. (Sometimes called a character creation questionnaire). It's simply a list of questions that help you nail down little details like a character's age, physical appearance, hobbies, hopes and dreams, etc., so you can refer back to it later, when—imperfect human that you are—you forget your dear character's eye color. (No really, I'm speaking from experience here... nothing's worse than opening up a proof and finding a character's eye color has changed between pages five and eight). Although the above-mentioned example was largely a lapse in editing attention on my part, it would have been very helpful to have a character development sheet to refer back to whenever I had a question about details like that. And so, I have taken the liberty of creating my own version of a character creation questionnaire. I tried to cover all the bases when I made it, with the result that you probably won't need to use all of the questions—after all, I don't think a fifteen-year-old MC will have grandkids—but I put the slot in anyway, in case you have an elderly main character. I should also mention that there are two versions of it. My favorite, the one I fondly refer to as "the pretty one," has a header image much like the one at the top of this blog post. The other version is for ink-saving individuals, and is only black and white. :P Feel free to use/print/download however many of these you want. It doesn't really matter which you choose, since they have the same questions. • Character Development Sheet #1 (The Pretty One) • Character Development Sheet #2 (The Practical One) I hope you found these helpful, and if you have any ideas for more questions that I could add into the development sheet, fire away in the comments. I'll try and add them in!
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In my last post I provided a list of male Irish names, but since I'm pretty sure you have some female characters too, here's a list for them. Looking at this list you might think, "Well those look cool, but how on earth am I supposed to pronounce them?" If that's you, you can find many of the pronunciations on the website I took the names from. (There's a link at the bottom of this post).
Although Irish names are really cool and full of history, I've also made lists of male and female English names, and male and female Hebrew names in case you're looking for something a little different. Hopefully you'll find this list (or one of the others) helpful for naming your characters! A Aideen – jealousy Aignéis – chaste Ailbhe – white Aileen – ? Ailís – noble; kind; sort; type Áine – radiance Aislin – dream; vision Aisling – dream; vision Alastríona – defending men; help Aoife – beauty Aran – name of the Aran Islands of the west coast of Ireland Ashling – dream; vision B Bébhionn – fair lady Bébinn – fair lady Bedelia – exalted one Bevin – fair lady Biddy – exalted one Bláithín – little flower Breda – exalted one Bríd – exalted one Bridget – exalted one Bridie – exalted one Brigid – exalted one Brogan – shoe Brónach – sorrow |
Welcome!Welcome to Katelyn Buxton Books! I'm a Christian author and blogger, with a passion for writing stories that are not just enjoyable, but also lead people closer to Jesus. Feel free to look around, and enjoy your stay! Archives
October 2021
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