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Description
~Basic Bio Breakdown~

NAME: You should provide the character’s full name, even if it’s not what they go by. If they go by something else, include it in the same category like so: Joshua “Josh” Nickelson.
AGE: If your character is in a timeline where it’s simple enough just to list one age or a range of ages for them, then by all means, please do so. If you have a long, complicated series or a lot of time that passes in your book, show a birth year for your character instead—something we can measure things to.
APPEARANCE: This should contain everything there is to know about your character visually without describing every single detail of their outfit. Give us a general idea and try to describe their style instead of a specific outfit. Unless they are in, like, the same significant uniform for an entire story. Describe their skin color, hair color, hair style, hair length, eye color, height, weight, body type and build, style choice, and markings if they have any.
PERSONALITY: This is the most important part of the bio and should be the longest. The minimum for a well thought out, fully fleshed out personality would be around 200 words. But one that’s twice that length is ideal to really show who your character is. List some traits, positive, negative and neutral. List how they perceive certain things. Describe how they react to types of people in good and bad ways. Describe work ethic, morals, and how they make decisions. Describe their mental strengths and weaknesses as a person including maybe worries, phobias, disorders, and flaws. Describe whatever is necessary to the character.
LIKES: Describe their skills and hobbies. They might not be good at something and yet still do it. Describe what kind of people they enjoy being around, where they like to go, and what they like to do. Describe their music style and taste as well as other significant interests. Try to keep this category at a minimum of 100 words.
DISLIKES: Describe their pet peeves, the type of people they can’t stand, close to home injustices that anger them, and other such things they perceive and hate.
BACKGROUND: A good backstory is around 200-300 words. Shorter is better. This leaves plenty of room to describe significant past experiences as well as family members and other important relations. If you’re going to put tragedy and bad luck in the backstory, definitely include positivity and happiness in places as well, to show that your character is not a one dimensional cliché.
OPTIONAL categories to include in your bios that may or may not apply, and certainly don’t have to, are SPECIES and POWERS. It should go without saying that if a character has some kind of powers, they aren’t human any more. Even if their species doesn’t have a name, list something other than human for their species to show us that you’re consistent. A “human” with powers is a contradiction if you really think about it. Listing “electric human” for a person with electric powers will do just fine.