A character who acts
Connect what your character wants to the tactics, risks, and choices that move a scene.
Build a character profile through goals, relationships, and choices in scenes. Edit a worked example or start blank, then download your Markdown worksheet.
Give each claim about your character something a reader can see: an action, a relationship under pressure, or a choice with a cost.
Pressure
Make the usual tactic harder to sustain.
Choice
Take an action and give up an alternative.
Consequence
Change what must happen in the next scene.
Follow one original character from an opening tactic to a pressured choice. These are planning possibilities, ready to change when you write the scenes.
Start with the person and the part they play in this particular story.
Connect what they want to the belief guiding their choices.
Show how the character acts, what that costs, and who pushes back.
Write actions and dialogue a reader could point to in the draft.
A decision earns its place when it changes what happens afterward.
Useful output, not a score
Connect what your character wants to the tactics, risks, and choices that move a scene.
Replace a trait such as generous or controlling with an action another character can respond to.
Copy or download your own worksheet as Markdown and keep it beside your story.
Name a concrete goal, the belief behind it, and a relationship that makes the easy choice harder.
Write an opening action, a pressured choice, and its consequence. Use the worked example to see how a claim becomes something a reader can observe.
Copy or download the profile. Draft the scenes, then revise the worksheet when the character surprises you.
Include what the character wants, what resists them, their usual tactic, an important relationship, and a choice that reveals them. Add biography when it changes how they act in the story.
This worksheet is for fiction writers planning novels, short stories, and screenplays. It focuses on dramatic choices rather than game statistics or combat rules.
Yes. The blank worksheet and completed example are available together as a Markdown download. You can read the example and download the file without running the browser editor.
No. Use the final choice to test whether the character changes their approach, holds their ground, or exposes a contradiction. A supporting character may need only a clear objective and a revealing action.
Pick a birth year or period, then roll a cast of era-accurate given names from US birth records and English period lists. Private in your browser.
Open toolTurn Fountain sections, synopses, scene headings, and opening action into an ordered visual story map with clean Markdown export.
Open toolCreate actor-ready rehearsal sides from Fountain: filter by character, select exact scenes, include directions, or mask the role's lines for cue practice.
Open toolDownload your character profile and keep it beside your draft in Plot.
Start with any question. Your Markdown preview updates as you write. Download a copy to keep with your draft.
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# Character profile worksheet
Use these prompts to connect a character's goals and behavior to choices in scenes. Fill the parts that help your story, then revise them as the draft changes.
## Place the character in the story
Start with the person and the part they play in this particular story.
### Character name
What name do other characters use for them?
[Write your answer here.]
### Story role
Whose choices does this character drive, support, or oppose?
[Write your answer here.]
## Give them something to pursue
Connect what they want to the belief guiding their choices.
### Immediate want
What specific result are they trying to get, and what will show they got it?
[Write your answer here.]
### Possible need or change
What might they learn, refuse to learn, or hold onto? A character can remain unchanged or change for the worse.
[Write your answer here.]
### Guiding belief
What do they believe they must do to succeed, stay safe, or belong?
[Write your answer here.]
## Turn traits into behavior
Show how the character acts, what that costs, and who pushes back.
### Usual tactic
What do they actually do when someone blocks their goal?
[Write your answer here.]
### Cost of that tactic
What does this approach put at risk for them or someone else?
[Write your answer here.]
### Relationship under pressure
Who wants a different outcome, and how does that change their interaction?
[Write your answer here.]
### Contradiction to dramatize
Where does what they claim conflict with something they do?
[Write your answer here.]
## Find the scene evidence
Write actions and dialogue a reader could point to in the draft.
### Opening behavior
What action first shows their usual approach, before the story tests it?
[Write your answer here.]
### Pressure scene
What obstacle makes the usual approach harder to sustain?
[Write your answer here.]
## Follow the choice into the next scene
A decision earns its place when it changes what happens afterward.
### Defining choice
Which available action do they take, and which alternative do they give up?
[Write your answer here.]
### Consequence
What changes because of that choice, including any new cost?
[Write your answer here.]
### Next scene to write
What must someone now do that they would not have done before this choice?
[Write your answer here.]