Starting Point for My Project
So I was building a character named Grace Fryer for my novel and needed to map out her personality. My old notebook was messy with random notes – “tough childhood,” “trust issues,” “works with animals” – scattered everywhere. I opened a blank doc feeling overwhelmed, just staring at the cursor blinking.
First Move: Dumped every single thought about Grace into the doc without filtering. Didn’t care about order or spelling – wrote stuff like “hates small talk,” “secretly gardens,” “explosive temper but tries to hide it.” Took 20 minutes of pure brain-vomit until the doc looked chaotic.
The Sorting Chaos
Next morning, I printed that mess and grabbed highlighters. Used:
- Pink for personality stuff like “stubborn” or “compassionate”
- Yellow for backstory details like “ran away at 16”
- Green for skills and interests like “fixes motorcycles”
Taped papers all over my kitchen wall. Stepped back and saw patterns – lotta pink near “trust issues,” bunch of green around “mechanical stuff.” Grouped related notes with pushpins till the wall looked like a detective’s conspiracy board.
Making It Click Together
Spotted contradictions that needed fixing: had “loner” circled but also “throws big parties.” Realized – duh – she hosts gatherings but watches from the corners. Revised to “socially observant but rarely engages.” Also noticed missing pieces: no flaws beyond “temper.” Added “avoids vulnerability like the plague” and “terrible at apologies.”
Big mistake – tried using fancy character template I found. Wasted an hour fighting dropdown menus before tossing it. Made a simple table in my doc instead:
- Left column: Core traits
- Middle: How they show up
- Right: Weaknesses
Typed “Loyalty” on left, “Will punch anyone bullying friends” in middle, “Ignores red flags in relationships” on right.
Final Tweaks and Testing
Read every trait aloud pretending I was Grace. “Patient with animals but snaps at humans” – yup that tracks. Cut four generic ones like “intelligent” because obvious. Asked my dog-sitter (who doesn’t read fiction) to read it. She said “Who’s the motorcycle chick? I’d avoid her but call her if my car broke down.” Perfect reaction.
Took me three coffee-fueled afternoons and one shredded printer paper rage-quit. But now when I write Grace, I just glance at that list taped above my monitor. Still adding notes in pencil when new ideas hit – yesterday scribbled “steals hotel shower caps” because weird habits make her real.
