The Best Character Template Ever (100+ Character Traits!)

So you have an awesome story and want to bring it to life with some incredible characters, but organizing all those character ideas in your head can be tough!

I know, I’ve been there. We’ve all been there (trust me, I did a very legit survey of us all).

To help, here is a very thorough list of more than 100 different character traits you can use to understand more about your character than you do about your friends and family. Fill out this template with as many or as few details as you’d like. You can even grab your fillable PDF at the bottom of this article.

Readers will sniff out a half-baked character from a mile away, and you better pray they never find a poorly written character in your book. Luckily, this template will help you avoid both of those pitfalls.

How to Use This Template

Hopefully, this template is, for the most part, straightforward. But there are some options that might give you some pause. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to quickly go over the different sections of the template.

In general, the traits get deeper and deeper into the abyss of your character’s soul the further down the list you go.

Demographics are your basics. This is the sort of information someone could likely glean from a short conversation with your character or what the government might gather from a census.

Physical appearance is what someone would notice about your character if they looked at them. This goes beyond just hair, eye, and skin color, though. Things like your character’s gait or their fashion style can add a lot of depth for your reader.

History allows you to understand a character’s past. More importantly, it allows you to understand how that past affects their actions in your story. Some of this information might never see the light of day, but it allows you to craft dynamic, complex characters.

Psychological traits are those that aren’t readily apparent to an onlooker but are critical to how your character operates in any given situation. This is where you start getting deep with things like flaws, desires, and traits that make people (or non-people) who they are.

Communication is not only important for things like dialogue and writing, but they are easy ways for you to differentiate between your characters .

Strengths, weaknesses, and abilities are very vague terms but are quite important. This is especially true for genres like fantasy or sci-fi, and these traits can be helpful when crafting your main characters, including villains.

Relationships are important for characters, even if it means highlighting how alone they are. Relationships can go a lot further than immediate friends, family, or partners. Try and take some time to think about exactly who is involved in your character’s life.

Character growth is the most important category in this template. Here is where you include things like arcs, archetypes, conflicts, goals, and motivation. You need to pay attention to this section, because these ideas will be the ones that make memorable characters.

So check out the template below and think about how you can use it to build your characters. 

The Best Character Template Ever

Demographics

1. Name:
2. Age:
3. Sex/Gender:
4. Ethnicity:
5. Occupation:
6. Socioeconomic status:
7. Education:
8. Other notes:

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Physical Appearance

1. Eye color:
2. Skin color:
3. Hair color:
4. Height:
5. Weight:
6. Body type:
7. Fitness level:
8. Tattoos:
9. Scars/Birthmarks:
10. Other distinguishing features:
11. Disabilities:
12. Fashion style:
13. Accessories:
14. Cleanliness/Grooming:
15. Posture/Gait:
16. Tics:
17. Coordination (or lack thereof):
18. Weaknesses:
19. Other notes:

History

1. Birth date:
2. Place of birth:
3. Key family members:
4. Notable events/milestones:
5. Criminal record:
6. Affiliations:
7. Skeletons in the closet:
8. Other notes:

Psychological Traits

1. Personality type:
2. Personality traits:
3. Temperament:
4. Introvert/Extrovert:
5. Mannerisms:
6. Educational background:
7. Intelligence:
8. Self-esteem:
9. Hobbies:
10. Skills/talents:
11. Loves:
12. Morals/Virtues:
13. Phobias/Fears:
14. Angered by:
15. Pet peeves:
16. Obsessed with:
17. Routines:
18. Bad habits:
19. Desires:
20. Flaws:
21. Quirks:
22. Favorite sayings:
23. Disabilities:
24. Secrets:
25. Regrets:
26. Accomplishments:
27. Memories:
28. Other notes:

Communication

1. Languages known:
2. Preferred communication methods:
3. Accent:
4. Style and pacing of speech:
5. Pitch:
6. Laughter:
7. Smile:
8. Use of gestures:
9. Facial expressions:
10. Verbal expressions:
11. Other notes:

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Abilities

1. Physical strengths:
2. Physical weaknesses:
3. Intellectual strengths:
4. Intellectual weaknesses:
5. Interpersonal strengths:
6. Interpersonal weaknesses:
7. Physical abilities:
8. Magical abilities:
9. Physical illnesses/conditions:
10. Mental illnesses/conditions:
11. Other notes:

Relationships

1. Partner(s)/Significant other(s):
2. Lover(s):
3. Parents/Guardians:
4. Children:
5. Grandparents:
6. Grandchildren:
7. Family:
8. Pets:
9. Best friends:
10. Friends:
11. Rivals:
12. Enemies:
13. Colleagues:
14. Mentors/Teachers:
15. Idols/Role models:
16. Followers:
17. Strangers:
18. Non-living things:
19. Clubs/Memberships:
20. Social media presence:
21. Public perception of them:
22. Other notes:

Character Growth

1. Character archetype:
2. Character arc:
3. Core values:
4. Internal conflicts:
5. External conflicts:
6. Goals: 
7. Motivations:
8. Epiphanies:
9. Significant events/plot points:
10. Other notes:

Craft Amazing Characters With Dabble

Creating characters your readers will love (or love to hate) has never been easier than with Dabble. By keeping all of your notes about characters and your plot just a click away from your manuscript, you’ll be able to write a story that is bound for the bestseller lists.

You can click here to grab a PDF copy of this template, or you can just copy and paste the categories you want from this article directly into your Character Notes in Dabble.

That’s not all! We also have a handful of other resources that can help you make some awesome characters. Be sure to check out:

1. Our complete guide to creating characters
2. 101 character goals
3. A metric ton of character ideas you can use with this template
4. 65 character development questions
5. 20 original character interview questions
6. A downloadable character profile

The best part? You can add all of these into your character’s folder in Dabble. Your character will be more real than you or I.

Enough dilly-dallying, time for Dabbling. Click here to get started with your totally free, no credit card required trial of Dabble and build your amazing characters today.

Happy writing!

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