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The Best Way to Outline Your Novel

We have now released a better, bigger, bolder version called plotter's paradise. navigate there.

The perfect cross between an online plotting tool and a step-by-step written course on characters, world-building, and plot outlines.

Forget about not knowing where to start, getting stuck in the middle, or doing massive rewrites later. With this story-planning tool in your hands, your chances of completing your novel will quadruple. 

How it Works

Interesting characters, rich worldbuilding, plot outline, we don't give you answers. we simply ask all the right questions., getting started the easy way, no installation, secure & safe, access anywhere, may the muse be ever with you, manage your ideas, free forever.

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Manage your stories, make us care, cast your characters.

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4-act structure, with you all the way, guided creation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

You might be wondering..., is novelchick free.

NovelChick is free to sign up, manage your unlimited ideas,  and brainstorm. You can also create a story, one hero, and one world article in the free plan.

Everything beyond that point — unlimited characters, plot notes, world articles, and detailed act outlines — is available as soon as you upgrade your account. You can control your subscription from within the platform.

Is NovelChick For Me?

NovelChick works best for writers who:

• Don’t know how to go from idea to full plot
• Are tired of writing by the seat of their pants and getting nowhere
• Need help with their character, worldbuilding, or plotting skills

If you want to write a popular book that sells well—then NovelChick is precisely for you.

Will NovelChick Help Me Complete My Novel?

Yes. When you know in advance where your novel is going and why, you’ll find it easier to complete the first draft, and you’ll need fewer revisions to make it all flow together.

Can I write my entire novel in NovelChick?

Not quite. NovelChick is a novel planning tool, not writing software. We focus on giving you the best tools to plot your stories with success.

When I'm Done Writing My Outline, What's Next?

You can export your complete outline, characters, and plot notes into an editable Word document with one click of the mouse. The resulting file will be your constant guide as you write the first draft.

Will You Help Me If I Get Stuck?

Yes! You can always reach us through the website chat/email in the bottom right corner, or through the support ticket system. We’ll do our best to help you hatch and grow your novel.

Who's behind NovelChick?

More Questions?

Let's do it, ready to plot your novel.

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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

5 Character Tools You Absolutely Need to Know

April 9, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Angela here, happy to welcome Savannah Cordova from Reedsy who has done some sleuthing to find tools that might help you create your characters. Play around with ideas, or take a deep dive into their backstory, personality, and the forces that drive them to achieve meaningful story goals, it’s up to you!

We all know characters are the beating heart of any good story. No matter how original or exciting your plot is, readers simply won’t be able to get invested unless they care about the people (or robots, or animals, or whatever your characters are!). That’s why before you start writing — possibly before you even figure out your plot — you need to create characters that are well-rounded and compelling.

It’s this prerequisite of character development that makes features like the occupation thesaurus so valuable. Because when creating characters, you can’t leave anything out! We’re all “round” in real life, after all. So if some of your characters are mysteriously missing careers, motivations, or discernible personalities, readers are going to notice.

Luckily, there are plenty of stellar tools to assist you with character development and profiling. Here are five character tools you need to know, each one designed to serve a different purpose .

1. The Character Creator

Though this tool is titled the rather general-sounding “Character Creator,” it really encompasses just one aspect of the character: their physical appearance. Though there are plenty of “physical appearance” generators out there, they tend to just spit out a combination of traits (“curly brown hair/green eyes/freckles”) rather than actually showing you what the character would look like. I find it much more helpful to have concrete visuals of your characters as you’re writing about them —  plus it’s just fun to experiment with different physical traits and see how they manifest.

Of course, you can always comb through headshots on sites like Backstage, or use images of your favorite actors or models. This may be best if you need a visual for a character who’s especially tall, short, fat, or skinny; the main drawback of Character Creator is its lack of diverse body types. But everything else is intricately customizable, from face shape to hairstyle to the wide range of accessories.

TIP: If you need help describing your character’s appearance, make sure to check out this Physical Features Descriptive Database .

2. Reedsy’s Character Name Generator

After you’ve checked off character appearances, Reedsy’s character name generator should be your next stop. In the name (get it?) of full disclosure, my team created this tool, so I might be a bit biased as to how cool it is. But seriously — it’s divided by language, archetype, and even various countries’ mythologies, with over a million potential options for character names.

If you want a strong moniker for your protag, you can try out the hero name generator to find one that means something empowering, like “fighter” or “radiant.” Or say one of your characters is Korean, but you don’t speak Korean: you can use the relevant language generator to produce some authentic names. In any case, for those who agonize over picking out character names (and are sick and tired of baby name websites!), this generator is your lifeline.

3. RanGen’s Personality Generator

Now we’re getting into the meat and potatoes of your characters: their personalities. You’ve probably already thought about how your characters will behave and interact with one another, since character dynamics are often pretty intertwined with plot. However, you may not have considered how their outward behavior actually relates to their personality. For example, you might have a character who’s always loud, energetic, and the life of the party — but do they act that way because they’re actually very confident and secure, or because they crave attention and approval? This is where personality comes into play.

As you’re coming up with character personalities, you may wish to consult a personality generator like RanGen’s. It provides lists of qualities pertaining to a character’s friendliness, confidence, emotional capacity, intelligence, and other attributes. But of course, true to the “RanGen” name, this is a random generator — which means the traits may be completely arbitrary in relation to the characters you’ve started constructing, and even in relation to each other. For instance, I got a profile where the character’s friendliness was “callous,”yet their agreeableness was “harmonic” (needless to say, not the most compatible combination).

While character personalities don’t need to be perfectly cohesive — to paraphrase Whitman, they can contain multitudes — you probably shouldn’t have traits that clearly contradict one another. And you definitely don’t want your characters to seem cobbled together at random, especially because their experiences and environments affect them in very specific ways, which a generator cannot take into account. As a result, this tool is best used for brainstorming, rather than creating full-on character profiles.

TIP: Planning your character’s personality using the database of positive traits and negative traits at One Stop for Writers is also a great option, as it helps you describe these traits through behaviors, attitudes, etc.

4. Springhole’s Character Motivation Generator

It’s designed for roleplaying, but this character motivation tool can definitely be applied to the characters in your story. You might have to rephrase certain motivations for them to make sense (for example, instead of “character wants to bring glory to their planet,” you might say “to their family” or “to their community” instead), but otherwise it’s a pretty nuanced tool.

Again, as with character dynamics, you probably already have some idea of your characters’ motivations, as they’ll relate closely to your plot. However, for any characters you’re unsure about, or who might need additional motivations to make them more complex, this generator can really help. It might even spark a subplot or spin-off for a secondary character, who suddenly gets a lot more interesting with the help of motivations!

TIP: For more motivations (and indeed in-depth descriptive characteristics of all stripes), you should check out the Character Motivation Database over at One Stop for Writers . Which brings us to…

5. One Stop for Writers Character Builder

Naturally, I have to give a shout out to One Stop for Writers’ super-comprehensive Character Builder. For those who haven’t tried it already, this is no average character template. Rather than merely providing the minimum number of blank spaces for you to fill in, the Character Builder walks you through the whole process and highlights the importance of connection among every aspect of your character.

You’ll start with the basics: your character’s backstory , which will emphasize how their past experience has led to their current vulnerabilities. This foundation allows you to build their personality , behavior , motivations , and more intuitively from there. Indeed, the Character Builder’s greatest strength is that it truly helps you breathe life into your characters: while all the other tools on this list will give you ideas, the Character Builder will enable you to hone those ideas into consistent, realistic, in-depth characters. Watch it in action :

Best of all? You can try the Character Builder any time because One Stop for Writers has a 2-Week FREE TRIAL .

Yes, all these tools have their own individual strengths — but they’re best used in conjunction with one another. The whole here is definitely greater than the sum of the parts, because the whole is ultimately the character themselves, and that character has limitless potential.

Have a favorite character tool? Let us know in the comments!

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories (and occasionally terrible novels).

You can read more of her professional work on the Reedsy blog , or personal writing on Medium .

Interested in posting at Writers Helping Writers? Review our content guidelines to see what we’re looking for and how to pitch us your ideas.

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Reader Interactions

May 2, 2021 at 10:10 pm

The hero machine link previously mentioned no longer works. I found the female options on your suggested site a little disheartening. I personally like hero forge. There are options for fantasy, sci-fi, “normal”, a huge range of body types, skin colors, and almost too much customization potential 🙂 Otherwise, these all seem like really cool tools! I’m excited to check them all out.

heroforge.com.

May 3, 2021 at 11:29 am

Thanks for letting us know about the broken link and limitations on some of these links, and for suggesting a new one. Happy writing!

August 3, 2019 at 1:46 pm

Yup, I just created a character description crib sheet: https://thgmwriters.com/blog/describe-character-development-crib-sheet/

That should be helpful for somebody who needs to get organized.

August 3, 2019 at 5:11 pm

Thanks David!

April 9, 2019 at 12:43 pm

Tools are great 🙂 And my boyfriend just found this one ’cause I said the Character Creator was very limited. This looks good too:

http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-2-5-character-portrait-creator/

April 9, 2019 at 6:48 pm

Oh! Thanks for the heads up on that one, Donna!

April 10, 2019 at 3:54 pm

Thanks Donna! That one definitely looks to have a better range of body types 🙂

April 9, 2019 at 11:55 am

Thanks Becca & Angela! It was a super fun post to write, since I got to test out a bunch of different tools 🙂 Hope other people find them as useful as I did!

April 9, 2019 at 11:09 am

Thanks so much for sharing these, Savannah! I am a total nerd for new writing tools. 🙂

April 9, 2019 at 9:51 am

What a great round-up. Thanks for putting this list together!

[…] storytellers creating their characters, Savannah Cordova shares 5 character tools you need to know about, Melissa Donovan investigates what makes iconic characters unforgettable, Jim Dempsey writes […]

[…] 5 Character Tools You Need to Know | Writers Helping Writers […]

[…] post 5 Character Tools You Absolutely Need to Know appeared first on WRITERS HELPING […]

Your Story Starts Here

Pluot is the intuitive character and story planning app for writers. Download today.

Unleash Your Writing Potential

Plot scenes.

Build the conflict and outcome of each scene in your outline and easily reorder your scenes through drag-and-drop.

Develop Characters

The heart of your story. Complete detailed character profiles with over 70 attributes available.

Create Locations

The setting for your scenes. Describe your locations and provide their history and residents.

Construct Storylines

Define the plot points of each storyline in your outline, including the inciting incident, midpoint, climax, and resolution.

Create custom items

Vehicles, magic wands, organizations, create whatever your story requires!

Link Story Elements

Create interconnected outlines by linking scenes to your created characters, locations, storylines and custom items.

Attach character, location, storyline and custom item images to help visualize your story.

Weekly Writing Challenge

Each week, you'll find a new writing prompt in the app to flex your creative writing muscles. Submit your story and receive feedback from other users!

Import and Export

Import JSON files and export your outlines to text and Microsoft Word files when you're ready to write!

Available in 20+ Languages

Distraction-free outlining.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pluot is designed for writers of various genres, including novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, animators, graphic novelists, video game writers, Dungeon Masters, and more. It provides a comprehensive plot planning and story outlining tool with detailed character worksheets, scene creation, location management, and storyline development.

Absolutely! If you subscribe to Pluot Pro, you can easily backup your outlines to the cloud and seamlessly sync changes across multiple devices.

If you're not a Pro subscriber, you still have the option to export your outlines to a JSON file, which can be imported on another device. However, please note that this method is not intended for actively working on an outline across multiple devices.

Yes, you can export your outlines to a JSON file for transferring data between devices or to a plain text file when you've completed your outline and are ready to start writing!

With Pluot Pro, you also have the option to backup your work to the cloud, allowing for quick and convenient transfer between devices.

Currently, Pluot is exclusively available on Android and Chromebook devices. However, there may be plans to develop iOS and web versions in the future. Stay tuned!

If you'd like to support the ongoing development of the app, I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a review on the Google Play store listing . Ratings and reviews play a crucial role in the growth of the app, and I value feedback from users like you.

Additionally, there is a crowd-sourced translation project available where you can contribute to improving and adding translations. Your help in this endeavor is immensely appreciated.

Lastly, spreading the word about Pluot would be fantastic. I am incredibly grateful for the positive reception the app has received so far, and I would love for more people to join in its continued growth. By the way, there's also a Discord community where you can connect with other Pluot users!

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Worldbuilding Software for Writers

How Plottr Will Help You Organize Your Worldbuilding

Visualize Your World

• Organize all of the places in your books and series
• Add images, notes, and custom attributes to track essential world and story details without limits
• Categorize, sort, and filter your places however you want (and link them to your scenes)
• Plus, enjoy templates for places – coming soon!

Create Your Characters

• Organize all of the characters in your books and series
• Add images, notes, and custom attributes to track essential character details without limits
• Categorize, sort, and filter your characters however you want, including by the book (and link them to your scenes)
• Enjoy 20+ templates for character development, or create your own!

Take Notes and Tag Everything

• Organize all of your worldbuilding notes across books and series
• Add images and custom attributes to your notes to track essential world details without limits
• Categorize, sort, and filter your notes however you want
• Use Tags to identify items or concepts and link them to your notes, characters, places, and scenes
• Plus, enjoy templates for notes – coming soon!

From Worldbuilding to Outline

• Quickly outline your book with visual story cards and filter by characters, places, and beyond
• Starter templates from Hero's Journey to Romancing the Beat
• Writing to market? Use a genre-specific template
• Create your own plot templates based on your favorite methods

Export to Word & Scrivener

• Export your outline to MS Word & Scrivener in seconds
• Use your outline as the basis of your manuscript

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Help Is Always a Click Away

Plottr is a visual outlining tool built for published and aspiring writers of all kinds – novelists, screenwriters,  playwrights, academics, journalists, writing students, and beyond.

It helps pantsers just as much as plotters. Pantsers will enjoy the series bible and editing capabilities. Trust me, it's really going to help.

Whether you’re an outlining pro or your journey is just beginning, Plottr can help you visually (and creatively) build a plan to write your book!

After you write your first draft, you're still going to have to think about the plot and the character arcs and plot holes, etc. and make it all work together. You can do that after your first draft in Plottr just as easily as beforehand.

When you're on book 3 or 7 or 10 of your series, you're just not going to remember what that one character's eye color was, but your readers will. Having a series bible helps you save so much time!

Plottr Pro has all the features of Plottr but also adds cloud-based functionality such as a web app, automatic syncing across platforms (web & desktop), cloud backups, and real-time collaboration.

It is best suited for writers who plan to use Plottr while connected to the internet, don't intend to manage their files locally, and/or need to collaborate with a co-author, coach, or editor.

For Plottr: You can download Plottr on Windows & Mac.  Backups are stored on your computer and you can sync files across devices using a 3rd-party storage service (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive). 

For Plottr Pro: Plottr Pro is available to download for Windows & Mac as well, but you can also use your browser to use Plottr! That means you can use it on a mobile device, Chromebook, Surface Tablets, and any other device with a browser. It backs up to the cloud and syncs instantly between devices just like working with Google Docs.

We provide friendly and sometimes humorous support to all customers from a real, live person via email even on weekends when you need it most. We try to answer within a day, but often it's quicker than that!

We also offer a full suite of educational resources, including:

• Live group trainings
• Video tutorials
• Written documentation
• Author interviews
• Product demos

You can also view (and contribute to) our roadmap here .

Yes. All versions of Plottr are granted unlimited household licenses. You can use it on as many devices as you own!

For Plottr: It's a lifetime license that never expires! You get updates for life. You get access to your projects for life.

For Plottr Pro: If your account expires, you will no longer be able to access your projects or get updates and bug fixes afterwards without renewing.

For Plottr: Backups are stored on your computer as files and it's easy to revert to any stored backup.

For Plottr Pro: Backups are stored in the cloud and you can also save them locally to your device! It's also easy to revert to stored backups.

Both: Backups are made 2x per session per project. The first time is when you open a project for the first time that day. And the second time is when you're finished using a project.

So you will have 2 backups per project for every day that you have worked on it: one before you made any changes that day, and another after your last change.

For Plottr: Backups are stored on your computer as files and we can't access them (not even in the case of a broken computer) though we can help you find them on your computer.

For Plottr Pro: Backups are stored in the cloud and you can also save them locally to your device! We can help you access them and email you a backup file or just show you how to do it yourself.

For Plottr: You can sync files across devices using a 3rd-party storage service (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive). 

For Plottr Pro: It syncs to the cloud instantly between devices just like working with Google Docs.

We run many different types of events:

• Genre-specific education
• General Writing Craft education
• Plot analysis
• Accountability Groups
• Office Hours
• Writing Craft Book Clubs

To see what events are coming up, check out our events page !

The Plottr Community site is a private community that we host on Mighty Networks. It's not our Facebook group, though we do have one of those and we do enjoy reaching people on there.

This private community site is where we host all our educational events and let you connect and network. It's moderated so that we can maintain a friendly, supportive atmosphere. You can talk with other writers, learn from our coaches, hear some otter puns, and even group into accountability groups.

For right now, only people paying for the education plans (Plottr Pro + Education, or Education only) have access unless you have attended one of our educational events. In the future we will be opening this community up to anyone!

If you already have Plottr Pro and you don't want the education plan, then there's no need to change anything. You get all the same benefits of Pro, just like the Pro+Education bundle.

We have found that writers thrive within a supportive community and that their chances of success are many times greater. For that reason and others, Plottr Pro is being bundled with our educational community.

This saves you more than 30% and it also sets you up for success, and seeing you succeed is what makes us happy!

So for now you can't get access to Plottr Pro without that sweet sweet, supportive community.

Even if you don't use Plottr or Plottr Pro, we'd still love to have you in our education community, so don't be shy! It's for anyone who is willing to be kind and supportive towards other writers and who wants that from others.

You can try out Plottr for free for 60 long days with the free trial!

This should give you plenty of time to try it and decide that it's right for you. Because of that, we don't give refunds after purchase.

If you cancel your subscription to Plottr Pro + Education or Education only, you will still have access until the end of the subscription period, but we don't give prorated refunds for unused time.

Yes, both Plottr Pro + Education and the Education only subscriptions are auto-renewing and we are not able to turn that off.

Yes. Reach out to Support and they can help you with that!

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One Stop's signature Thesaurus collection is the largest description database of its kind.

Whether you pants or plot, our Story Maps , Formal and Informal Scene Maps, and drag-and-drop Timeline Tool make story-boarding, outlining, and character arc planning so easy it’s almost criminal.

Our customized World-Building Surveys and Tutorials can help you build rich, layered worlds that your readers won't want to leave.

If your characters paint themselves into corners or you need to rescue a malfunctioning plot, our Idea Generator is a nonstop source of inspiration.

The Character Builder assists you in building realistic and layered characters.

Get expert, step-by-step help to plan, write, and revise your way to a publish-ready novel using the Storyteller's Roadmap .

Get access to the full One Stop library—including all tools, thesaurus collections, generators, tutorials, and more—with one of our subscription packages.

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Last updated on Mar 08, 2024

How to Create the Ultimate Character Profile [+ Template]

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Dario Villirilli

Editor-in-Chief of the Reedsy blog, Dario is a graduate of Mälardalen University. As a freelance writer, he has written for many esteemed outlets aimed at writers. A traveler at heart, he can be found roaming the world and working from his laptop.

Ask any great novelist, and they’ll likely tell you that good writing starts with good characters. But building characters from the ground up is also one of the toughest hills to climb, especially if you’ve struggled with those all-too-revealing questions:

• Are my characters convincing?
• Do my characters have depth?
• How do I make sure my character  shows progression and change ?

If you’re having these doubts, you might want to turn to the age-old solution: a character profile. 

What is a character profile?

A character profile is a detailed biography of a persona that covers everything from their age and appearance to their relationships with others. By understanding parts of their life that readers might not discover during the course of the story, an author can better understand that character’s life, personality, motivations, and their function within a story.

In this post, we will show you our three-part process for assembling a character profile.

What makes a good character profile template?

Many character bibles present exercises that ask you, “If your character was a color, what color would they be?” For many writers, this is either overkill or a bit too 'woo-woo' for their tastes, and they prefer to create a profile that deals in verifiable facts: height, age, and profession.

Our suggestion lies somewhere between those two approaches, where you build a holistic picture of your character in the context of your story. Our character profile worksheet is in three parts. If you treat a person like an apple, they’re going to have three layers of depth: the “skin,” the “flesh,” and the “core.” (Otherwise known as their physical appearance, backstory, and psychology.) That’s how this character profile template is structured — and if you have a particular area that you’d like to hone, you can skip to it below. Otherwise, this character bible will start with the eagle eye’s view of your character.

The Three-Part Character Profile Template:

• The Outer Layer, or Physical Appearance
• The Flesh, or Backstory
• The Core, or Psychology

How to create a character profile

As another reminder, we strongly recommend our character profile template in a PDF format and fill it out as you go along! Download it below for free right here. 

FREE RESOURCE

Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

1. Construct the character's outer appearance

To be able to identify a criminal, detectives build a painstakingly thorough file of said criminal’s physical characteristics.

That’s the goal of this section, which covers the “skin” of your character: everything from their outer appearance to the way that they speak. Think of it as a kind of offender profile — one that can help you spot your character in the middle of a crowded Times Square.

The Basics 📖

• Place of birth
• Current location
• Nationality

Physical Appearance 👀

What's their:

Do they have any distinguishing features (tattoos, scars, birthmarks)?

What's their preferred outfit?

Do they wear glasses? 👓

What accessories are ALWAYS associated with them (cane, pipe, necklace, etc.)? 🌂

What's their usual level of grooming?

• Smart, very put together
• Untidy but clean

Do they have any distinguishing “tics” and mannerisms?

What's their health like? Do they suffer from chronic illnesses? 🏥

Describe their handwriting (sloppy, neat, careful, unintelligible). ✍

How do they walk? 👣

• Confident, powerful strides
• Lazy stroll
• Fast, walks at a clip
• Distracted, eyes on the ground

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Speech and Communication 💬

How do they talk (rapid, slow, measured, drawl, etc.)?

What's the style of their speech (elevated, educated, peppered with slang, etc.)?

Do they have an accent?

• Stiff, military
• Casual and relaxed
• ‘Turtle,’ tired

Do they gesture?

• Only when agitated or eager
• Doesn’t gesture
• Compulsive “hand-talker”
• Controlled, only to make a point
• Other? If so, explain:

How much eye contact do they like to make (direct, shifty, etc.)?

What's their preferred curse word?

What's their catchphrase?

Any speech impediments?

What are any distinguishing speech “tics”?

What's their laugh like? What do they tend to find funny?

Describe their smile?

How emotive are they? Do they wear their emotions on their sleeve? How easily can others read them?

They have a resting _____ face.

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2. Build out the character's backstory

Characters don’t exist in a vacuum — they’re a product of their environment.

This section in the character template dives a bit deeper into your character and covers their “flesh”: the people, circumstances, and formative influences that filled them out and made them who they are today. It’s the springboard to your character’s biography.

What's the name of their hometown? 🏡

What type of childhood did they have (sheltered, neglected, etc.)?

Describe their education. 🍏

Were they involved in organizations and clubs at school?

• Gay / Straight Alliance

At graduation, they were named Most Likely To ___________ in the yearbook. 🎓

Jobs (if applicable)? What would their résumé look like? 💼

What was their dream job as a child? Why?

Who were their role models growing up? Describe them. 👨‍👦

What's their greatest regret?

What were their hobbies growing up? ⛳

Favorite place to be as a child?

What's their earliest memory?

What's their saddest memory?

What's their happiest memory?

What's their clearest memory?

What are their skeletons in the closet? 💀

If they could change one thing from their past, what would it be? Why? ⏳

Describe the major turning points or “life beats” in childhood.

What are three adjectives to describe them as a child?

What advice would they give to their younger self?

List their criminal record. ⚖

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• Age (if living)
• Briefly describe their relationship with your character
• What are their names and ages?
• Briefly describe their relationship(s) with your character

Children 👶(if applicable)

Extended family 👴

• Grandparents
• Uncles and aunts

What's their family's economic status? 💰

How often do they see their family in a year?

External Relationships 💜 

Who are their closest friends? Describe them.

Who are their other significant friends? 👋

Enemies? Describe them. 😡

How are they perceived by:

• strangers in the street?
• acquaintances at a work function?
• colleagues in the office?
• authority figures?
• friends in their friend circles?
• the opposite sex?
• extended family?

What social media platforms are they on?

• X (formerly known as Twitter)
• Other? If so, explain.

How would they use their social media platforms?

How would they fill out an online dating profile for themselves? ✨

What’s their role in a group dynamic? 💡

Who do they depend on for:

• practical advice?
• emotional support?
• moral support?

How quickly do they respond to emails? 📨

What do they want from a relationship?

Who would be their ideal partner? 💖

Who is their significant other? Describe them. 💕

How many people would attend their funeral?

Part 3. Understand the character's goals and motivations

We’ve come now to the “core”: who your character is deep down.

This section in the character profile worksheet covers the “heart” of your character. If a backstory shapes a dynamic character, this will define them. More importantly, it will help inform the two most important points leading up to your novel: the character’s story goal and what drives them .

Psychology 💭 

What do they do on rainy days?

• Street-smart or book-smart
• An optimist or pessimist
• Introverted or Extroverted

What is their favorite sound? 🔊

Favorite place in the world? 🌎

What secrets do they keep? What are they most afraid of people finding out? 🔒

What do they want the most? 🔍

What's their biggest flaw?

What's their biggest strength?

What's their biggest fear?

What is their biggest accomplishment? 📈

What is their idea of perfect happiness?

What's their favorite quote? 👌

Do they want to be remembered? What for? ⌚

How do they approach:

What is the one object or possession that they would rescue from their burning home? 🔥

What (or who) bores them? 💤

What makes them angry? 💢

What do they look for in a person?

How strong is their moral compass? When, specifically, are they willing to compromise their morals?

List the last 10 books they read. 📚

Which fictional world would they most wish to visit?

If they didn’t have to sleep, what would they do with the extra time?

What are their pet peeves? ⚠

If they won the lottery, what would they do?

Describe the character’s bucket list at the ages of 15, 20, 30, and 40.

List the 10 songs that would occupy their All-Time Most Played playlist on Spotify. 🎵

What is the best compliment that someone ever paid them?

In an elevator, do they push the elevator button more than once? 🚪

What would they want their tombstone to say?

The Present and Future 🔮 

What is their story goal? (answer in a single paragraph)

Story motivation (answer in a single paragraph)

In other words: what does your character want in the story?  And why do they want it?

Every other answer in the character profile template builds up to this. It's critical information to know because it’ll make up the unshakable foundation — and raison d'être — for your story. Whenever you feel like your story is straying off course, go straight back to your character’s story goal and motivation, and you'll find the beating heart of your book.

24 responses

Rachel Mendell says:

02/06/2018 – 12:23

excellent! so much info - thank you.

↪️ Reedsy replied:

07/06/2018 – 04:37

Our pleasure, Rachel. Glad that it helped!

Diane says:

07/06/2018 – 08:50

Wow! I tried to find such kind of list many times. Thank you so much! Creating character is always difficult for me. I imagine tutoriage character but it was not full. With this list Finally I will finish it.

22/01/2019 – 15:37

Nice I was gonna make one myself but this is great since normally I obsess to the point of procrastination.

Gwendolyn Clark says:

13/05/2019 – 00:09

I was never sent a copy to download

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

13/05/2019 – 08:20

Hi Gwendolyn, could you drop us an email at [email protected] and we'll sort you out with a link :)

Sabrina Douglas says:

08/06/2019 – 16:40

I have not received the PDF yet.

10/06/2019 – 13:48

With Gmail, our emails often can be found in the Promotions folder. if it's not there, send us an email at [email protected] and we'll sort you out :)

Tactical Weasel says:

08/06/2019 – 23:18

I was never sent a copy to download either.

Ibidun says:

02/07/2019 – 01:47

This is a developed list of questions for sure. Thank you!

susannelorraineharford says:

21/08/2019 – 08:01

Thanks! Great help in this articke. X peace, susanne

james bolin says:

22/08/2019 – 21:05

This my be a crazy question, but I am writing a science fiction book, and I already made character profiles for my ow use. But, that being said, would it make sense to also include a section in the book that includes all the main characters profiles. It would serve as a reference in case someone wants to know the characters hair color, birth date, and other details. any advice would help thanks

23/08/2019 – 09:04

It would be a somewhat unusual move — but it's not for me to say if it's wrong. Often, you see books provide family trees and brief histories of the 'world' of the story... but that tends to be so that readers can check up on facts that are highly relevant to relationships and plot of the book. In almost all cases, readers won't really need to know things like hair color or date of birth. So, I'd think hard before putting a character stat sheet in your book.

↪️ Nyla replied:

02/09/2019 – 16:12

I don't see why not! Some books did it (sort of); Wings of Fire, Tailchaser's Song, Warriors... I don't think including one would be a bad move. Definitely not something that would kill your story. Keep in mind that I'm a beginner when it comes to books, so I may not know any better. I'm just saying that in my opinion, I don't think it's a bad move.

Satyajay Mandal says:

25/08/2019 – 04:31

You can tweet me to get more updates on the story I'm directing

02/09/2019 – 16:13

What do you mean by "education"? Like what school they went to?

17/09/2019 – 09:02

Yup. Are they a college grad? What did they study? Did they leave school at 18 and take up an apprenticeship — that sort of thing.

27/09/2019 – 14:03

Will i ever get the document to download!

07/10/2019 – 15:48

Hi Sky, if you're still having trouble downloading the template, could you drop us a message at [email protected]? Thanks! Martin

20/10/2019 – 03:56

I will update you about all the details

Max Sangers says:

23/03/2020 – 20:16

I like it, just pls refrain from bad language :)

26/03/2020 – 04:49

No need to refrain from using bad language, if it is assigned to the villains instead of the heroes/heroines

26/03/2020 – 05:02

No need to refrain from using bad language if it is assigned to the villains instead of the heroes/heroines

28/03/2020 – 05:01

This is @*#$ing AWESOME!!!

Comments are currently closed.

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Character Profile Template

Create the perfect character for your story

Creating a character profile is a great way to map out a fictional character's life. No matter whether you're a professional or a hobbyist writer, creating a profile is the best way to define your character's backstory, appearance, traits, goals and flaws. Everything you'll need to create an authentic, and relatable character that enriches your story.

Round-out your characters by giving them a detailed personality that stretches beyond the story itself. Some aspects of their personality won't make it into the story, but will help to inform the decisions they make as the story unfolds.

Once you've imagined your characters, you can map their relationships to understand them from a different perspective. To learn more, check out our guide to creating compelling characters .

This template is part of our guide on How to plan a novel .

• Explore ideas
• Organize visually
• Share with your team
• Gather feedback
• Export to PDF

How to use this template

Whether you’re writing a professional novelist or a hobby writer creating your first screenplay, follow this step-by-step guide to learn the modern process of creating believable and engaging characters in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives.

1. Start with an empty template

The Character Profile template contains empty notes for your ideas and descriptions, plus placeholders for reference images, videos and links. Before you begin, think about the type of character you'd like to develop and how they fit into the story.

Create a new board for your character.

Create a new board

Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.

Choose the  Character Profile  template.

Choose a template 

Each new board gives you the options to start with a beautiful template.

2. Decide on a type of character

A character might start as a bundle of random ideas, traits and plot points from a story outline, so it’s important to bring everything together in one place. A character archetype can help narrow your focus. There are twelve common archetypes or personas that we recognize across literature, mythology, and the human experience:

• The Innocent: Represents purity, optimism, and naivety. The Innocent seeks safety, avoids conflict, and believes in a world of goodness and simplicity.
• The Everyman: Represents relatability and ordinariness. The Everyman is a down-to-earth character who faces everyday challenges and resonates with a wide audience.
• The Hero: Embodies courage, bravery, and a desire to conquer challenges. The Hero goes on a quest or adventure to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
• The Outlaw: Represents rebellion, non-conformity, and a desire for freedom. The Outlaw challenges authority and societal norms.
• The Explorer: Embodies a thirst for adventure, curiosity, and a desire to discover new territories—both physically and metaphorically.
• The Creator: Represents imagination, innovation, and the desire to bring something new into existence. The Creator is often an artist, inventor, or visionary.
• The Ruler: Represents leadership, authority, and responsibility. The Ruler seeks to create order and structure.
• The Magician: Embodies mystery, transformation, and the ability to see beyond the surface. The Magician has access to knowledge and powers others may not possess.
• The Lover: Represents passion, connection, and the desire for intimacy. The Lover seeks love, relationships, and deep emotional connections.
• The Caregiver: Embodies compassion, nurturing, and a desire to protect and care for others. The Caregiver takes care of others' needs and well-being.
• The Jester: Represents humor, playfulness, and the ability to bring laughter and joy. The Jester provides comic relief and light-heartedness.
• The Sage: Embodies wisdom, knowledge, and a desire to understand the world and its mysteries. The Sage offers guidance and insights to others.

Archetypes provide guidelines for behaviors, emotions, and actions that can help push a story. For example, the Explorer is naturally curious, restless, and driven to push boundaries, such as Detective Sherlock Holmes.

Add a note to describe the basics.

Drag a note card onto your board

Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left-hand toolbar.

3. Add specific characteristics

Once you've defined an initial archetype, you can begin to shape the character and make them original. Consider the emotional connection between your audience and your character, and work towards the desired outcome. You may find that switching the age and gender of a character can lead to very different responses from your reader.

Add a note to describe their characteristics.

Consider the character's role in the story and the purpose they serve. Are they the protagonist, antagonist, or a supporting character? Knowing their role will guide you in choosing characteristics that align with their narrative function.

4. Build their backstory

Your character's backstory describes the journey they have taken up to this point. It allows you to explore their fears, weaknesses, and motivations and to define their purpose. You can explain the character's methods and evaluations—why they act the way that they do, the choices they make, and how it drives the individual forward. Are they making progress towards their goal, or making things worse?

Add a note to describe their backstory.

5. Give them quirks, faults, and flaws

Your character should come from an authentic place. That means that the character probably has some contradictions that make them a little out of the ordinary. Are they quick-tempered and easily provoked, leading to frequent outbursts that strain relationships with others? Or are they overly self-critical, constantly doubting their abilities and feeling inadequate compared to others? If a character is too simplistic, it can feel cliched.

Incorporating quirks, faults, and flaws into your character profiles can create more well-rounded and relatable individuals, making them feel human and allowing readers to connect with their struggles and growth throughout the story

Add a note to describe their quirks and flaws.

6. Give your character an arc

A believable character grows and changes as your story evolves. Just like real people, they adapt and respond to life's events.

• The Coming-of-Age: Do they experience a clearer sense of self and purpose?
• The Redemption: Do they confront their flaws, seeking to become a better person?
• The Self-Discovery: Do they unravel, leading to a deeper understanding of themselves?
• Transformation: Does the character undergo a big change, adopting a new life?
• The Acceptance: Do they overcome life's obstacles and gain a fresh perspective?

Consider where your character starts in the story and how they change. Character arcs help convey growth and development making your story even more believable.

Add notes to describe the change in your character.

Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.

7. Add visual references

Even if you're writing a novel, visual references and inspiration can help bring your character to life. There are lots of fantastic sites where you can find great visual inspiration for free, like Pinterest or Google Images .

Use the built-in image library.

Use the built-in image library

Search over 3 million beautiful photos powered by Pexels then drag images straight onto your board.

Add image files to your board.

Upload a file or document  

Click the "Upload file" button or just drag a file onto your board. You can add images, logos, documents, videos, audio and much more.

You're done!

Now that you've created a unique fictional character, you have a great reference to use while writing your story. Use this template below to start inventing your next amazing character.

Start your Character Profile

Bring your characters to life.

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Sites for notes and writing

6. evernote.

This bookmarking tool is a great way to collect moments of inspiration and ideas for your story together in one place, where they can be filed and organized, ready to be put to good use. It might be a ‘how to’ article you want to read, a quote that reminds you of one of your characters, or an image that would be the perfect setting for your next scene. Inspiration strikes in the most unexpected places, but as Evernote is available on almost every platform, you can collect notes wherever you are. You can choose to have one notebook that you throw everything into, or you can set up separate notebooks to help you organize your thoughts and ideas as you go. If you’re working on a novel, why not set up separate notebooks for each character or each chapter?

7. Scrivener

While some writers prefer to stick with the traditional pen and paper or word processor, for others, technology can be a game-changer. Scrivener is a powerful writing tool that allows you to organize your notes, research, and writing all in one place. You can create separate documents for each chapter, scene, or character and easily move them around as needed. You can also set word count goals and track your progress, making it an empowering tool for both planning and writing your work.

8. Storyist

Another popular writing app is Storyist , which offers a wide range of features for novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights. From corkboard view to character and plot development tools, Storyist helps you bring your stories to life in an organized way. It also has a distraction-free writing mode, making it easier to focus on your writing without any distractions. Plus, with its built-in formatting tools, you can easily export your work into a professional-looking manuscript when it’s time to self-publish.

9. Calmly Writer

For those who prefer a clean and minimalist interface, Calmly Writer is a great option. This writing app allows you to focus on your writing without any clutter or interruptions. You can also save your work as you go, making it easy to come back to where you left off. And with its auto-save feature, you don’t have to worry about losing your work in case of any technical issues. It’s available on both desktop and mobile devices.

10. Ommwriter

For writers who need a tranquil and calming environment to get their creative juices flowing, Ommwriter is the perfect writing app. With soothing background music, minimalistic design, and customizable backgrounds, this app offers a meditative experience for writers. It also has a “focus mode” that allows you to hide everything on your screen except for your writing, helping you stay in the flow and avoid distractions. Ommwriter also has a mindfulness timer that reminds you to take breaks and practice self-care while writing.

Writing community resources

In the realm of writing, the adage “It takes a village” is extremely true. Having a community as a writer isn’t just important—it’s essential. While writing is often seen as a solitary endeavor, there’s nothing like the support, inspiration, and feedback from fellow wordsmiths. It’s about belonging to a group that gets the highs and lows of the creative process and turns struggles into shared successes.

Here are a few of our favorite sites to find your village.

11. Catapult’s Don’t Write Alone

The blog Don’t Write Alone was created by the team at Catapult, a publisher and magazine dedicated to nurturing and enhancing writers’ talents. Founded in 2005, Catapult showcases a diverse range of literary works and is now sharing its vast knowledge. The platform offers a huge collection of content, including insightful interviews, detailed essays on the craft of writing, and explorations of the writer’s life. Its mission is to offer comprehensive support and inspiration to writers at any stage of their journey.

12. Gutsy Great Novelists

Are you a novelist seeking motivation, accountability, and encouragement? Look no further than Gutsy Great Novelists , a free online community just for you. With the tagline “where serious creative writers gather to finish their novels,” you can’t really go wrong. Award-winning novelist Joan Dempsey founded this platform to help writers feel less isolated. Members get access to critique groups, lots of online resources, and events and classes that will keep you on track until your novel is complete.

13. Lambda Literary

For writers and readers alike, Lambda Literary is a community-driven organization that champions LGBTQ+ literature. With a mission to elevate voices and stories that have been historically marginalized, this platform offers various resources for writers, including workshops, literary events, and publishing opportunities. It also hosts an annual writing retreat for emerging queer writers, providing a safe and supportive space for creative expression. Sign us up!

15. Writing.com

Writing.com is one of the largest online writing communities out there. It’s a super supportive environment for writers of all levels—and you have a portfolio to store and share your writing. You can also join various groups based on your interests or genres, providing opportunities for networking and collaboration with other writers. Plus, Writing.com regularly hosts contests and challenges to help improve your writing skills and gain recognition for your work. Whether you’re seeking support or looking to expand your audience, this community has something for everyone.

16. Reddit’s r/WritersGroup

If you’re a Reddit fan, you probably already know about r/WritersGroup . This subreddit serves as a testament to the strength of community in the writing process, offering a space where writers from all walks of life can share their drafts, seek advice, and provide constructive criticism. Whether you’re battling writer’s block, seeking feedback on a new chapter, or just in need of inspiration, this is your go-to sanctuary.

17. She Writes

Created by women, for women, She Writes is a supportive community that celebrates their diverse voices and experiences. With more than 32,000 members and 350 groups, it’s the largest online community of women writers in the world! With forums and tons of articles, this platform provides a safe space for women to share their work and receive feedback from other writers. 

18. SFF Chronicles

For science fiction and fantasy writers, SFF Chronicles is a valuable resource for learning, connecting, and honing your craft. With forums dedicated to discussing the latest trends and tropes in the genre, as well as sections for feedback and critique, this is your virtual writing workshop. It also hosts contests and interviews with established authors, if you’re seeking insight and inspiration.

19. The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Imposter syndrome is hard to battle alone. Step into the Insecure Writer’s Support Group , where those whispers are drowned out by the resounding voices of support, encouragement, and understanding. This haven is dedicated to writers at any stage of their journey, providing you with resources, advice, and, most importantly, a community that gets it. Conquer your insecurities by reading their blogs and monthly newsletters, joining their social media groups, and joining their pitch event to find an agent or publisher (every January).

20. Underlined

Formerly known as Figment , Underlined is a website that provides story starters, writing inspiration, and advice from published authors . You can also join a community of aspiring writers, share excerpts of your work, and provide feedback to each other—all valuable parts of the creative life.

Sites for improving your writing

Now that you’re equipped with a plethora of platforms to connect and expand your creative horizons, it’s time to take your writing to the next level. Improving your craft is a continuous, evolving process—whether you’ve just penned your first poem or are on your tenth novel.

Here are the resources you need to refine your skills, find your unique voice, and perfect the art of storytelling. From grammar guides to story structure tips, these sites offer the tools you need to elevate your writing.

21. 750 Words

As with any skill, the best way to improve your writing is to practice, practice, practice. The website 750 Words provides a daily nudge to get your creative juices flowing. Based on The Artist Way ‘s morning pages , the goal is to write 750 words (roughly three pages) every day, without any distractions. By just writing without an agenda and without judgment, you’ll make writing every day a regular productive habit and steadily build your confidence.

22. Helping Writers Become Authors

The Helping Writers Become Authors site, created by award-winning author K.M. Weiland, offers practical tips and advice on story writing, from structure and plot to character identity and dialogue. It’s a great, regularly updated resource to take you from writer to professional.

23. Grammar Girl

Get a grip on the quirks of language and the rules of good grammar with this entertaining and useful podcast based on the hugely popular blog by the same name. Top listened-to Grammar Girl episodes include “Affect Versus Effect” and “Active Voice & Passive Voice.”

24. Coursera

Looking for a more structured approach to learning? Coursera offers online courses on writing, from writing your first novel to academic writing . With options from top universities such as Stanford and Wesleyan, you’ll have access to expert instruction and peer feedback to hone your skills.

25. Masterclass

Masterclass brings together some of the biggest names in writing, like David Sedaris , Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman , for online video courses on pretty much any aspect of writing you’re looking to learn. With a subscription, you’ll have access to their wisdom and techniques for crafting powerful stories that captivate your readers.

26. Critique Circle

Join a community of writers, both published and aspiring, on Critique Circle to get feedback on your writing and provide critiques for others. With tools for tracking your progress, finding beta readers, and connecting with fellow writers, this platform offers valuable resources for improving your craft. Plus, the supportive atmosphere encourages growth and development as a writer.

27. Now Novel

For those looking for a more structured approach to writing, Now Novel offers personalized coaching and guidance throughout the writing process. From outlining and character development to editing and publishing, their team of experts will provide valuable feedback and support to help you bring your story to life. Whether you’re just starting or need help revising, Now Novel offers a community and resources tailored to your specific needs as a writer.

Resources for characters and plot

We’re betting you have more than one favorite character from more than one book. Characters like Elizabeth Bennett, Albus Dumbledore, and Bilbo Baggins live on in our minds long after we’ve turned the final page. Your characters should become like old friends that you know inside and out to add depth and humanity to your story. These are the resources you need to make it happen.

28. Writer’s Digest’s Character Development Sheets

Subscribing to the Writer’s Digest mailing list gets you access to this free worksheet designed to flesh out each of your characters. Working through a series of questions, you’ll develop their key hopes, fears, and skills, their personality quirks, how they might act in different situations, and how all of this will be revealed to the reader throughout your story.

29. The Write Practice’s Characterization 101

This free course from The Write Practice guides you through seven key steps to creating memorable characters, covering important character archetypes, character motivations, how not to introduce a character to your story, and much more.

30. The Novel Factory’s 150+ Character Questions

Building on the idea of character development sheets, The Novel Factory offers a comprehensive list of over 150 questions to help you fully flesh out each character in your story. From physical appearance and background to their biggest secrets and flaws, this resource will help you create well-rounded and dynamic characters that readers will connect with.

31. TV Tropes

Ever come across a character or plot twist that seems oddly familiar? That’s because many writers use common tropes and archetypes in their stories. TV Tropes is a user-edited wiki page that outlines these common patterns and themes found in media, providing examples and analysis for each one. It’s a helpful resource for understanding how to effectively use, subvert, or avoid these tropes in your writing.

32 Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

Need some guidance in creating a fictional world for your story? This list of 123 questions from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America can help you think through all aspects of your world, from its physical laws to its social structure and cultural customs. By taking the time to fully develop your world, you’ll make it feel more immersive and believable for readers.

33 Reedsy’s Plot Generator

When you’re stuck on where to take your story next, Reedsy’s plot generator can help spark new ideas. Simply select a genre and hit “generate” to receive a random plot outline that you can use as a starting point for your own story. It’s a fun tool for getting unstuck and exploring new directions for your plot.

Resources for editing and reviewing

In addition to proofreading for spelling, language, and grammar errors, two other forms of editing should form part of your review process. Developmental editing, which is editing for the structure, flow, and consistency of your story, and substantive editing, which is concerned with clarity, accuracy, and reader comprehension.

When your manuscript or first draft is complete, let it sit a while before reviewing. It also helps to have a second and third set of eyes on your work. Even better, if your budget allows, hiring a professional editor can give your story the polished finish it deserves.

34. Grammarly

Available as a Google Chrome extension or device app, Grammarly works across your web pages and documents as you write to help you catch common writing errors. It highlights and fixes grammar, punctuation, and contextual spelling mistakes. The premium version can also suggest alternative vocabulary choices.

Remember not to rely on online spell checks alone to proofread your work. Always give your text a thorough check yourself, too.

35. ProWriting Aid

ProWriting Aid takes your writing beyond mere spell checks, offering a holistic approach to improve your writing style, tone, and clarity. What sets it apart from Grammarly is its in-depth focus on your writing’s overall readability and engagement level. It provides detailed reports on style, overused words, sentence length variation, and even readability scores, making it invaluable for writers looking to polish their manuscripts to perfection. While Grammarly excels at real-time grammar and spelling corrections, ProWriting Aid is the go-to tool if you’re looking for comprehensive feedback on your structure and style.

36. Hemingway Editor

As the name suggests, Hemingway Editor is an online editing tool and website that will help make your writing clearer, bolder, and more direct—just like the author it’s named after. Simply copy and paste your text into the tool to check for overly complex sentences, overuse of adverbs, and the passive voice. It will also highlight instances where a shorter word could serve the same purpose.

Every writer needs a good editor, and Reedsy only works with the best. Their hand-picked, experienced, professional editors can review your story development, structure, consistency, and style, helping to perfect and polish your manuscript. Reedsy also offers a tool to easily write and format a book , the same way a professional typesetter would. (You can print from their tool with Blurb, too!)

Artificial Intelligence for writers 

AI gets a bad rap, but in our digital age, its emergence is nothing short of a revolution in creativity. Whether you’re battling writer’s block, seeking the perfect synonym to elevate your prose, or plotting a novel, AI-powered writing assistants can offer a wealth of resources at your fingertips. These innovative tools are not doing the writing for you—they’re about enhancing your creativity and offering insights and suggestions that might not have crossed your mind.

38. Sudowrite

Using artificial intelligence, Sudowrite offers suggestions and ideas to help you improve your writing. It can generate plot twists, character names, and even entire paragraphs based on the information you provide. While it’s not meant to replace human creativity and imagination, Sudowrite can be a helpful tool for sparking new ideas and breaking through writer’s block.

Claude has emerged as a dynamic counterpart to ChatGPT, due to its ethical and safer approach to AI. What sets Claude apart is its focus on nuanced, open-minded text generation—working to understand context and intent before replying. It can help you with brainstorming, research, structural analysis, line edits, critique, and even productivity—with writing sprints, prompts, word count, and positive reinforcement. It’s not replacing creativity, but supporting you from blank page to final polish.

40. Jasper.ai

Jasper is another AI-powered writing tool that can assist with plot development, character creation, and even research for your story. Jasper also has a feature that allows you to collaborate with other writers in real time, making it a useful tool for team projects or brainstorming sessions. What’s great about Jasper is that it has a document feature, so you can write, edit, and save your work like you would in Word or Google Docs, rather than chatting back and forth with AI.

Resources for promoting and marketing

Once your masterpiece is polished and ready to shine, the next thrilling chapter of your author’s journey begins: promoting and marketing your book. This can seem like a Herculean task, especially in a world flooded with content. But with the right tools and strategies, you can cut through the noise and get your book into the hands of eager readers.

We’ve lined up the best resources to transform you from a writer into a savvy marketer!

41. Wattpad

Use this storytelling platform to connect with writers and readers around the world, build an audience, and even get discovered. On Wattpad , you start by sharing a story, and then if you build a big enough fan base, you may have a chance to work with entertainment companies and publishers looking to feature your work. Just remember, some publishers won’t print work that appears online, so be sure to do your research before uploading your entire novel!

On this writing and reading hub, you’ll find stories, articles, and inspiration that are curated to your taste and written by people like us. Want to share your own writing, photos, or videos? You can do that on Medium —and potentially earn money. The platform lets you see how your stories are performing and what kinds of readers like your writing. It also offers tips for starting a newsletter, submitting to publications, and curating your work.

43. Kindlepreneur

Kindlepreneur is a treasure trove of resources for authors, especially those venturing into self-publishing. From book marketing and advertising strategies to optimizing your Amazon sales page, author Dave Chesson has got you covered with his helpful blog posts, videos, and courses. He also offers free downloadable templates and worksheets to help you plan and execute your book marketing strategy.

44. NY Book Editors

Need help proofreading your manuscript or marketing your book? NY Book Editors provides editing and proofreading services, as well as an extensive blog full of helpful advice for writers. They also offer a free guide to writing the perfect query letter to help you attract agents or publishers—and plenty of other useful publishing and marketing information.

45. Agency Query

If you want to get an agent or a publisher, use Agency Query to build your list of potential agents and publishers. The website also provides features like tracking the status of pitches sent out to agencies, keeping notes on each agency’s submission requirements, and more.

46. The Creative Penn

The Creative Penn is a website run by bestselling author Joanna Penn . It offers a wealth of information on how to, “write, publish and market your book—and make a living with your writing.” Penn also has a vibrant YouTube channel and podcast where she shares advice for authors, helpful if you are a visual or auditory learner.

47. Publishers Weekly

Stay up to date on the publishing industry and get insider tips from publishers, editors, and literary agents with Publishers Weekly . This website offers news, reviews, job postings, and other helpful resources for writers. They also have a dedicated section for independent authors if that’s you.

48. Storiad

Storiad is a tool designed to help you promote and market your book through social media, website creation, book trailers, and more. They offer various packages for authors at different stages of their careers, from beginners to established writers. Storiad can also help you create a professional author website with built-in marketing tools.

49. BookBub

BookBub is a popular platform that lets you promote your book to millions of readers through daily email newsletters, targeted ads, and featured deals. You can submit your book for consideration or use their blog for free marketing advice and trends in publishing. BookBub also offers webinars, courses, and other resources for writers.

50. Author Marketing Club

Author Marketing Club is a community of authors helping each other promote their work through free and paid book promotion tools, tutorials, webinars, and more. They also offer a powerful search engine that allows you to find relevant blogs, websites, and book promotion sites to submit your work for exposure. Joining this club can help you reach a wider audience and get more readers interested in your writing.

How Blurb can help

From collecting inspiration to the final finishing touches, there’s a whole world of tools , websites, support, and advice out there to help you with every stage of writing your own story and making your own book. You have all the tools you need. Now write!

And when you’re ready to publish and share your work with the world, Blurb can help. Our self-publishing platform allows you to turn your manuscript into a professional-quality book, whether it’s a novel, memoir, poetry collection, or any other genre. With customizable book formats and design tools, as well as tons of options for distribution, we make it easy to bring your writing to your fans.

So what are you waiting for? Start creating and sharing your stories with the world today. We believe in you!

Blurb is your platform designed to turn the dream of publishing your book into reality. Whether you’re crafting a photo book, a novel, or a poetry collection, we’ve got the tools and support to help you professionally design, self-publish, promote, and sell your work.

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14 January 2022

The Best Plotting Tools for Writers and Novels

Outlining a novel can be the hardest part of any writing journey, so having the right tool for the job is absolutely essential. The more complex a story gets, the more insurmountable creating a viable outline can seem. Plotting tools are a commonly requested feature and are on our roadmap for the future, but in the meantime, we want you covered. We’ve road-tested some of the most well-known plotting tools on the market to help you find the right option for you.

Pricing: Free with limits & Premium at €96 per year .

Beemgee is a clean, easy to use plot builder that works like a corkboard with drag and drop capabilities. It has a strong emphasis on character development.

Unlike other plotting tools, character is at the forefront of Beemgee. This is a unique and surprisingly uncommon way to tackle plot structure. It means that when you think of your plot you’re forced into making it character, rather than story-driven.

With a character development tool that takes you through a series of questions to determine their needs, goals, and attributes, it’s easy to build characters with rich internal lives. As you develop each character, you can compare their individual attributes to make sure there’s enough depth and contrast to the protagonists and villains of your story. This helps to build relationships and create conflict.

While the plot developer is visually pleasing and easy to use, it is limited in scope. You can create scenes, but won’t get the same level of guidance and prompting that the character builder gives. If you already have a good idea of where you want your story to go, this won’t be a hindrance. It does, however, rely on a plot idea ready to go from the outset.

The plotting tool allows for colour coding, re-ordering of scenes, and lets you toggle between narrative or chronology views. This is great for writers looking to play with scene orders a bit more. Beemgee offers timeline and corkboard views which is a great feature. Writers have different preferences on how they view their plots, so the choice is always good.

Where Beemgee really shines, however, is in the robust additions you can make to your scene cards. You can tag each scene with attributes like which character will appear, which point of view the scene is told from, locations, plot beats, and structural markers. Each of these tags is filterable and in-depth enough that you can create an incredibly detailed plot in relatively little time. If you write detailed descriptions for each scene card as well, these can be easily exported to create a plot summary that you can use for pitching or querying right off the bat.

While Beemgee does offer a free version, it’s limited in what additional attributes you can assign to your plot and characters. For a freemium model, this isn’t unexpected, but the free version doesn’t allow export. To export any work you create under their free version, you’ll need to subscribe to their annual plan.

Overall, Beemgee is a robust plotting tool that emphasises character development before all else.

• Strong development templates that allow for decent depth and contrast
• Exportable plot summary for pitching and querying
• Export is only available in the premium version
• No free trial of premium features

Pricing: $25 (1 device), $45 (3 devices), or $65 (5 devices) charged annually or $99 (1 device), $149 (3 devices), or $199 (5 devices) for a lifetime licence .

Plottr is one of the most powerful plotting tools out there. It does one thing and does it well. Its no-frills approach means that the emphasis is all about creating a good story – without any other distractions. It’s incredibly versatile with a huge repository of templates for any writer’s needs, which continues to grow based on user feedback. Whether you’re writing children’s books, romance novels, or epic sci-fi adventures, there’s a template to help you do just that. And, it’s as simple as a click of a button to create your own outlines based on story beats.

With an intuitive interface, Plottr is very easy to use with almost no learning curve. On first installation, it also offers an easy guided tour so you know exactly what the software does, right out of the box. It’s available as a downloadable app on Mac, PC, iOS and Android, but a browser-based version is in active development with a beta test well underway.

One of the unique things about Plottr is that the timeline view allows for multiple plotlines. You can create your own subplots or choose a complimentary template to create a secondary narrative. This makes Plottr a fantastic tool for drafting complex stories. You can colour-code your plotlines and go into as much scene detail as you want without the interface getting cluttered. You can even include images for inspiration, links to your research, or tag-link scenes to your characters and places.

As well as the timeline, Plottr also offers an outlining tool. This generates your plot based on the input from your timeline ready for easy export. Also included are a notes section where you can brainstorm ideas, a character builder where you can create characters from templates or simply generate your own, a tab where you can outline locations, and tags to offer a more flexible way of filtering and organising your work. A recent update to Plottr also introduced a series bible, where you can create and organise multiple book story arcs and keep abreast of all your characters, locations, and plot development.

Plottr offers a free 30-day trial with full functionality, so you can try it before you buy. While they do offer a tiered pricing system, the tier is only for the number of devices you need to install the software on, rather than with any limiting of functionality. You have a choice of paying annually or purchasing a lifetime licence for a one-off fee.

If you want a simple, straightforward plotting solution, then Plottr is a great bet. It’s incredibly affordable, and in the same way that Novlr offers distraction-free writing , Plottr offers distraction-free plotting. It’s got no features beyond generating a compelling plot, which works to its advantage.

• Easy to use
• Customisable plotting templates
• Template-based character creation
• Currently only a downloadable app
• No syncing across devices unless you link it to an external cloud solution like Dropbox or Google Drive

Pricing: £17 for a standard licence, or £13.60 for an educational licence.

Scapple is Literature & Latte’s entry into the world of plotting tools. It’s essentially a mind mapping software rather than a dedicated plotting tool, so definitely won’t be for everyone.

Unlike many of the other tools on the market, Scapple is a piece of downloadable software, rather than a web app. The benefit of this is that it can be used offline, unlike browser-based solutions, but the downside is that your work will be tied to whatever device you’ve installed the app on.

The app is incredibly simple. You double-click on the window, type, then click and drag to rearrange to link notes together. That’s it. You can do additional formatting and colour coding if you want, but whether you do or not depends on how in-depth you want to be with your plotting.

Scapple doesn’t do anything more than what you’d usually do in a notebook with pen and paper. It just does it digitally. The digital format does make the information easier to visualise and makes it more accessible, but the downside is that formatting each note does take more time than just writing something down. You also can’t export your mind map in a way that will generate a plot. You can only export to PDF or image, or lose all your formatting and links if you export to .txt or .rtf.

The downloadable app is a one-off price per operating system. There are no hidden costs, which is a good thing, but having to buy the app multiple times if you want to use it on different devices might be a consideration for some writers. Save files are cross-platform compatible, but you will need a separate licence. They offer a free trial on initial download so you can try before you buy.

If you want something simple with no bells, whistles, templates, or distracting elements, then Scapple is fine. It’s a one-off price per download but is limited to a single operating system unless you buy multiple licences. It’s mind mapping software, not a dedicated plotting tool, so it does what it says on the tin.

• Simple to use
• Clear pricing
• Does not require an internet connection
• No plot export to help with story crafting
• A downloadable app that can only be used on the device its installed on
• Not a dedicated plotting tool

Story Planner

Pricing: Free with limits, $15 for 3-months, or $40 annually.

Story Planner is an online plot helper with one of the most in-depth story structure repositories available. It has a handy helper that will take you through a series of questions about your idea and automatically narrow down a list of story structures that will work best for you. Whether you’re writing a short story, a novel, a screenplay, or non-fiction, Story Planner will have something just right for you.

The Story Planner website is very easy to use. You can choose your preferred template from their extensive list or use their planner to help narrow your search. By asking questions about style, what part of your plot your want to work on (synopsis, character development, etc.), choosing the right outline is incredibly simple. It even offers different plot templates based on whether you’re a writer who already knows a lot about your story, or if you just have the beginnings of an idea but need to flesh it out into a workable plot.

The available story plans include the most common plotting templates for novels, screenplays, and non-fiction books. But on top of this, Story Planner also offers templates for story summaries like loglines, synopsis, and chapter plans. This is especially useful for anyone querying, pitching, or sending out book proposals as it helps simplify the process. It also offers character, setting, and worldbuilding tools.

One of Story Planner’s best features, however, is the novel launcher. It’s a 6-step process that starts with your idea, asks you a series of questions, and leads you through the steps needed to write a full outline ready for your first draft. It’s a really great tool, but it may be frustrating to use for some as each step is created as a new template rather than expanding on the previous. Each step takes up a different slot which makes it a little more fiddly if you want to view your progress as a whole and make changes as you go.

Story Planner offers a completely free tier that allows for the use of a single template. This is absolutely great if you plan on taking advantage of one of the many comprehensive story templates they offer. If you want to use one of their character or worldbuilding templates, however, you’ll have to export and delete it before you can use another one. The consequence is that the novel launcher is not available in the free tier as it requires capacity for six templates to run.

With only two tiers, Basic and Premium, Story Planner’s pricing structure is very straightforward. The Basic plan is free, and the Premium tier can be purchased in 3-month instalments for $15 or for an annual fee of $40. As soon as you upgrade to Premium you will unlock all the site’s features and be able to create as many novels as you want with unlimited access to all templates.

• A web app, so it’s available on any device with an internet connection
• Simple pricing structure with no hidden costs
• No detailed linking for character and worldbuilding templates to story outlines
• Can get complicated with multiple templates in use for a single novel

World Anvil

Pricing: Free with limits. £5 (Journeyman), £6.50 (Master), £12.00 (Grandmaster) billed monthly, £14.50 (Journeyman), £18 (Master), £32 (Grandmaster) billed every 3 months, £24 (Journeyman), £32 (Master), £59 (Grandmaster) billed every 6 months, £47 (Journeyman), £55 (Master), £99 (Grandmaster) billed annually.

From the get-go, World Anvil is marketed toward the RPG crowd but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot on offer for creative writers, especially genre writers. The team have been actively adding tools designed specifically for authors, so it’s definitely a market they’re looking to engage with. World Anvil is essentially a wiki-style digital series bible that is absolutely brilliant for those creating complex plots, characters, and worlds.

World Anvil looks complicated when you first log in, but once you get the hang of it it’s not too difficult to learn – it’s surprisingly intuitive. It offers welcome articles and tutorial videos for new users when you first open a module and a brief tutorial for keyboard shortcuts in the dashboard, but you might need to do a bit of trial and error, or watch some of the tutorial videos before you start to really make the best use of it.

The worldbuilding tools that World Anvil offers are remarkably robust. You can set up a full timeline and give your world a history, even pinpointing in what era and on what date your story begins. You can build a world atlas, and create an entire world encyclopedia from character bios, all the way down to magic systems, vehicles, laws, organisations, and even buildings. You can group each article into categories that are easy to drag and drop to order or nest based on hierarchy. You can even set pronunciation guides for articles with complicated names to keep that consistent.

When you create a new article, World Anvil keeps the interface simple. If you look a little further, however, it offers incredibly detailed templates to help you flesh out whatever article you’re trying to write. If you’re creating a character, for example, the templates allow you to go into the most minute detail including their relationships with other characters, through to their mental health, beliefs, and their place in the social life of your world. And every article is linkable, so if you create a detailed magic system and a magical item that can only be wielded by a handful of characters, you can link it to them at the appropriate place in their character information making it incredibly easy to navigate for future reference.

From a usability point of view, of all the tools I looked at, World Anvil was the only one with a dedicated accessibility pop up. You can change the site’s entire look and feel depending on your accessibility needs like up the contrast, highlight links, make the text larger or increase its spacing, pause site animations, use dyslexia-friendly fonts, and even change the size of your cursor or make a line that serves as a reading guide. For anyone with accessibility needs it was one of the most detailed and comprehensive sites I’ve ever seen, so that was definitely a very positive surprise.

There are four tiers to choose from when it comes to World Anvil’s pricing. They offer a completely free tier with most of the site’s basic features unlocked, but there are limits to storage space and article numbers that increase the higher up the subscription tiers you go. The biggest drawback of the free tier is that the worlds you build can’t be made private until you’re a paid subscriber – this means your world will show up in searches and be available for other writers to view, or for RPG players to use in their campaigns.

For writers of genre-fiction, World Anvil is an absolutely fantastic way to keep track of complicated worlds, characters, and plots. Its original design as an RPG world-building tool translates incredibly well for a writers’ needs even if they don’t have a plot outlining tools specifically. While there are certain elements available in World Anvil that may not be relevant to all writers, it’s easy to just ignore those and use what’s useful.

• A fully accessible site
• Incredibly detailed templates to help build world, characters, items, locations etc
• No privacy options in the free tier
• Prompts that are clearly geared to RPG players and not to writers
• No plot outlining templates

Each of these plotting tools does something unique and different, so finding the right one for you will require some trial and error. Do you have a plotting tool you currently use that wasn’t on this list? Let us know what you’re looking for when it comes to outlining and plotting your novels. We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can get in touch on Twitter , Inst agram , or via email at [email protected] .

15 Sites Looking For Writers Now – Byline Included!

There are many sites you can do ghost writing for, and this is fine if you have bills you need to get taken care of. But a reader mentioned to me the other day that she is really interested in advancing her writing career, and to do this she'd like to find more places to write for that will pay her while also giving her full credit for her work.

So I did some research and find places you can write for that will pay you a flat fee for your work while also giving you credit for it.

What is a byline?

If you're pretty new to the writing world, you may be wondering, “What is a byline anyway?”

Basically, this is just a a paragraph, or a few lines, of information about you that appears on articles you write. It gives you credit for the content, and ultimately makes it so you can use your articles in your portfolio since you are credited.

Ghostwriters do not get bylines, and many, many content sites (particularly those lower-paying ones that use writers for SEO and link-building purposes) will not put your name on the content you create.

And this is fine if you're OK with that. But it won't help you grow your writing portfolio.

When you're writing out your byline, you'll want to be sure to include your name, a link to your website or social media profiles, and some interesting tidbits about yourself.

Don't make it overly long — it needs to be just long enough to catch someone's attention, but at the same time you need to realize it will probably get skimmed over if it's a huge block of text.

15 Writing Sites That Pay AND Provide a Byline

1 – Listverse – Read Listverse Review – Pays $100 for lists, and you will get an author byline if your list is accepted.

2 – Bustle – Read Bustle Review – Always on the lookout for interesting content. If your work is published, your name will appear at the top of your article in a clickable link. When clicked, the link takes the reader to a page with your photo and some info about you, and your past work.

3 – Cracked – They will pay $100 for your first accepted article, plus you will get a byline. They get a lot of traffic, so you would also get a lot of exposure.

4 – How Stuff Works – If you are accepted as a contributor for How Stuff Works (not easy to do!), your name will go on your articles and you will have a short bio listed on their author page.

5 – Medium – You can write articles on just about any topic for Medium and get a byline! Many bloggers and authors looking to build up their portfolios and online presences do use Medium for those purposes. Medium will also pay you for your content after a month of consistent publishing on the site.

6 – iWorkWell – From the website, “Do a handful and we'll post your bio on the  iWorkwell Experts  page — linked to every article you co-author, and optimized so you'll be easily found on search engines and get your name out there as an expert.”

7 – Wanderful – This is a women's travel website that will pay you $50 per post, plus publish your name on any accepted content. They are looking for well-written content on destinations and itineraries, travel tips, global issues, and women to watch.

8 – LovetoKnow – Every article you write has your name at the top. Clicking your name leads to your detailed “About Me” page.

9 – Matador Network – This is mostly travel-related content. All your articles will have your name along with a short bio at the end as well as a link to your other Matador content. You'll have to keep tabs on their “opportunities” page to find the writing work when it is available.

10 – Salon – This site publishes content on a variety of topics, and they accept submissions from freelancers. You will be paid and credited for your work if your submission is accepted.

11 – Skyword – Your name goes on all the articles you write for any of Skyword's properties.

12 – The Escapist – Online magazine paying $250 an article.

13 – Mental Floss – Mental Floss is usually looking for writers to contribute lists and/or short features across a wide variety of different categories including entertainment, history, science, and more. They do give you a bio and pay you for accepted content ($125 to $150 starting rates).

14 – Wow! Women On Writing – This magazine accepts freelance submissions. You will receive an author bio and you will be paid between $50 and $150 (depending on the type of article you submit) if your work is accepted and published.

15 – Writer's Weekly – If you have freelance writing experience and you can write about, Writer's Weekly may be interested in publishing some of your work. They also accept success stories. Pay is between $40 and $60, and you will get an author bio on your published articles.

Anna Thurman is a work at home blogger and mom of two. She has been researching and reviewing remote jobs for over 13 years. Her findings are published weekly here at Real Ways to Earn.

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