WHAT WAS I THINKING?! (NaNoWriMo Prep Day 1)

I have fully committed myself to writing 50,000 words (about the equivalent of the Great Gastby) during the month of November. All of my friends have abandoned me, except for one who is still on the fence. (I'm looking at you qwertydotme!)



Ok, the friends abandoning part isn't true. My good friend +Anna Castagnaro created a character for my NaNo planning. So, a big thank you to her! We ended up using a huge questionnaire courtesy of The Internet Writing Journal's The Lazy Scholar (Shown below).
  
Basic Statistics

Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Socioeconomic Level as a child:
Socioeconomic Level as an adult:
Hometown:
Current Residence:
Occupation:
Income:
Talents/Skills:
Salary:
Birth order:
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse (describe relationship):
Children (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant Others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:
Physical Characteristics:

Height:
Weight:
Race:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Glasses or contact lenses?
Skin color:
Shape of Face:
Distinguishing features:
How does he/she dress?
Mannerisms:
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.)
Health:
Hobbies:
Favorite Sayings:
Speech patterns:
Disabilities:
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):
Greatest flaw:
Best quality:
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Educational Background:
Intelligence Level:
Any Mental Illnesses?
Learning Experiences:
Character's short-term goals in life:
Character's long-term goals in life:
How does Character see himself/herself?
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?
How self-confident is the character?
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
What would most embarass this character?
Emotional Characteristics

Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?
How does the character deal with anger?
With sadness?
With conflict?
With change?
With loss?
What does the character want out of life?
What would the character like to change in his/her life?
What motivates this character?
What frightens this character?
What makes this character happy?
Is the character judgmental of others?
Is the character generous or stingy?
Is the character generally polite or rude?
Spiritual Characteristics

Does the character believe in God?
What are the character's spiritual beliefs?
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?
If so, what role does it play?


This helped me so much in creating a realistic main character, especially since I need real world problems for the character to have. 

Other ways that I create characters is stealing them from real people. My family and various friends have been in my stories and they don't even know it. Mostly because I don't really let anybody read my writing, but still, they will never know. 


So, back to the main question. WHY DID I COMMIT TO THIS? 

Why? Well, I suppose it's because I love to write. Writing is like this amazing wonder activity that let's me forget about the world that I was born into. It let's me trade this world (which kind of sucks) for a world that I created (which can also suck sometimes).

So, in conclusion, today, we have covered how I make my characters . Next time we will focus on how I create my settings!

Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Night!  (Happy Writing!) 
Anna Grace