# Character profile — template

> One file per character, or one file with a section per character. The useful part is not the
> biography; it is the contradiction. Fill in what the story needs and skip the rest.

## Identity

**Name:**

**Role in the story:** _(protagonist, antagonist, ally, mirror, comic relief…)_

**Age and where they are from:**

**Occupation and what it has taught them:**

**One line a stranger would use to describe them:**

---

## The engine

**What they want (external):** _The goal they would name if asked._

**What they need (internal):** _The thing that would actually make them whole._

**The lie they believe:** _The false belief that explains their worst decisions._

**The wound:** _The event that installed the lie. Keep it concrete, not a mood._

**The flaw:** _How the lie shows up as behaviour that costs them._

**What they are good at:** _Competence makes a character watchable._

**What they are bad at:** _A real weakness, not coy self-deprecation._

---

## Voice

**How they speak:** _(vocabulary, rhythm, what they avoid saying)_

**Three things they would say:**

1.
2.
3.

**Three things they would never say:**

1.
2.
3.

**Physical habit or tell:**

---

## Relationships

| Who | What they owe each other | What is unsaid |
|---|---|---|
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  |
|  |  |  |

---

## Arc

**At the start:** _What do they believe about themselves and the world?_

**The turn:** _What event could change the belief?_

**At the end:** _Changed, partly changed, or broken on the same belief? Choose one and mean it._

**What the reader should feel at the last appearance:**

---

## Notes

- Details to plant early:
- Contradictions worth keeping:
- Questions the draft has not answered: