Character Sheets Are Ruining Your Characters — Here's When to Actually Use Them | Ep 81
I hate character sheet advice. Here’s why: no one's going to be moved to tears by a character because you wrote down their astrological sign on a character sheet. Here's the actor's trick for what to do instead:
FREE workshop: Lights, Camera, Character! The Actor's Guide to Writing Unforgettable Characters
Sign up free at the Book Finishers Summit — includes a cheat sheet with two Hollywood-tested exercises you keep forever.Read Full Transcript
00:00 Worst Writing Advice on Character
Sophia Chang (00:00)
There's a writing advice that I hate. And that is: "Here's a character sheet. Fill it out, and you'll have a character."
Stay with me. Do not swipe away. I'm going to explain everything, including a better alternative. Welcome, everyone, to the Sophia Chang Show live on Substack. I have my douchey little microphone here — I see all the YouTubers carrying this, and I'm like, I'm gonna do it.
00:25 Why I Hate Character Sheets
I hate this advice — not because character sheets are bad. I have filled out many a character sheet in my time, and I think they're very useful, but only if you do it at the right time. The big problem I have is that people give you a character sheet and you're supposed to fill it out at the beginning, and that is actually not step one. You should not be filling out a character sheet as your step one. That should be like step ten, step four at minimum. This is why.
To me, it's like saying, I am going to write this, this, and this — boom, boom, boom. I'm gonna plan out my scene exactly like this, and it's gonna go exactly like this. And to me, that's a very outside-in way of writing.
Plotters, don't come for me. Don't come for me. I'm a diehard pantser.
If that works for you, and you have made six figures writing this way, then turn the video off — you're way ahead of all of us, you don't need this. For the rest of us still trying to, number one, finish your book, or number two, revise your book, or number three, make sure your editors like the book before you even send it out to a reader — and you want a character that doesn't fall flat, this video is for you.
I'm gonna give an analogy, and this came from my own experience in — you guessed it — Hollywood.
01:42 Why Hollywood Actors Do Character So Well
When an actor gets ready for a part, do you think that we sit here filling out a character sheet of traits — favorite ice cream, favorite color, what was the name of our dog, Sparky? We do not do that. When we need to go in for an audition, the last thing we do is fill out a character sheet.
We don't have time for that. We need to get really deep into the heart of the character right away because we need to embody the character. And that is also what makes good writing — when you can embody the character as an actor, you can also embody the character as a writer. There are a lot of parallels; it'll help you a lot. So what did I do instead? I had to somehow get deep into the character. And that's why you need to go inside, then out. You need to understand where the character's coming from, everything about the character's embodiment.
And that's not going to come from a character sheet. All that deep pathos — you know, I'm not gonna cry because I wrote down the astrological sign of a character on a character sheet. I'm gonna cry in the audition room because I'm fully present and I'm embodying that character.
How are we supposed to do that? You say, "Help me, Sophia." I will help you.
02:58 Lights, Camera, Character!
I have a free — F-R-E-E, free — presentation dropping tomorrow at the Book Finishers Summit: Lights, Camera, Character, the Actor's Guide to Writing Unforgettable Characters. This is an experiential workshop. I'm going to walk you through two tried-and-true techniques that have landed me parts in major film and TV.
Which major film and TV? Well, you can IMDb me, or you can save yourself that trouble — come to the presentation. I will show you this — this booked me parts. I did this in every single audition, and I also do this with my writing. This, I guarantee, will take you from inside out for your characters rather than outside in — no character sheet necessary.
03:48 When SHOULD You Use Character Sheets?
Okay, wait, hold on — you want to know. You're saying, "I don't think character sheets are useless." No — when should they come in? They should come in after you've already gotten to know your character, and you're using it as a way to log what you've discovered.
Definitely keep track on that character sheet, because you do have to remember — hmm, did I give that character weird purple eyes in my fantasy world, or not? So yes, you do need to keep track of your character, but do that after you've already gotten to know them.
Book Finishers Summit — it is free for 24 hours. And don't worry, if you've missed this live, there's a free cheat sheet as well with the two techniques. I'm making this super easy for you. If you don't have time to even watch my twenty-minute presentation — if, like me, the universe thinks that you're not busy enough and it schedules your neurology appointment at the same time as your infusion, so I will literally be doing a doctor's appointment with the line in my arm, fun — and you don't have time to catch it, you can pay to keep the presentation for, like, ever.
If it's not forever, don't come for me — okay, I thought it was forever. It's at link.sophiachang.com/bookfinishers, if you're watching this a week later and you're like, "I missed your free presentation." My cheat sheet will still be free. I'm telling you, everything is free — it's too much, it's too much.
So, we're not gonna do the character sheets yet — just try something different. If you feel like you have a flat character, or you're afraid your characters sound the same, or you really need to deepen and understand the character's motivation, that is not gonna come from listing. You can list the character's wounds all you want, you can list the character's needs, and that's great, okay — but until you really fully dig into that and understand what that really means, it's really just going to be words on a page. It's gonna literally be like a Tinder profile, and we know how much we don't like those.
Try these embodied techniques, this actor's guide, to truly get your characters from the inside out.
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Sophia Chang is a Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow, disabled dancer, and extroverted writer. She hosts The Sophia Chang Show podcast where she shares No B.S. publishing stories and advice she wishes she'd known. Subscribe if you don't want to cry alone.
