Character Landscape

Personality | Relationships | Physicality | History | Stories

Note: Piper is “Bizzy Cinderella” from the Dreaming Into Action Fables.

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Relationships:

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Physicality:

Focus: scans surroundings to see what she can fix/clean/put back in order. Focuses on tidying in an effort to calm herself.

Breath: light, shallow, chest breath.

Internal Motivation: wants to take care of everyone, because she loves them, because spending her time on others makes her feel fulfilled and allows her to avoid her own life.

Meaningful Movement: checking the inside of her left wrist, to see what notifications she has from her helper-bots.

Speaking Accent: southern belle

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Appearance & Personal Style:

• Piper’s appearance is a little unexpected because she was raised to be perfectly put together at all times but she frequently becomes disheveled as she goes about her day and doesn’t care.
• Eye Color: brown with flecks of gold and amber
• Hair Color: dark honey blonde
• Height: 5’4″
• Weight: 135lbs
• Skin Color: pale, light gold tan, some freckles because she spends a lot of time outside
• Hair texture: soft, wavy
• How much effort do they put into their appearance: medium

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History:

Piper had an idyllic childhood. She was loved, cared for, nurtured. She wants to give that experience to her siblings and her own future children.

• Piper is the oldest, her younger siblings are twins who are ten years younger than her.
• She wants a family of her own, and she volunteers
• What lengths would you go to, to avoid children or to have them?
• What would you do for your family? What wouldn’t you do for your family?
• Do you want to stay close to your family or go as far away as possible?

Because she didn’t experience much conflict as a child, she tends to avoid conflict. She sees herself as a problem solver, so when something isn’t working smoothly she figures out how to fix it.

She doesn’t set boundaries well, and her family takes advantage of that without realizing, because she trained them to expect her to do everything for them.

Adulthood

• What types of internal drama is your character prone to?
• Which characters have high-drama relationships?
• How do your characters overcome past mistakes that could create drama?
• What would your characters do to achieve their goals?
• What does your character have to sacrifice to get what they want? Are they willing to sacrifice that?
• Which colleagues and family members create the most drama through conflict with your characters?
• What hypocritical or conflicting beliefs do your characters have?
• Do you want children? Why or why not?
• If you can’t conceive children, would you adopt or try in-vitro methods? Why?

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Home:

• Small town or Big City? Farm or Factory? Castle? Mansion? Hovel? Commune? Slum?
• Where do your characters come from? What planet? What Town? Did they grow up in a city or a wilderness?
• What are the influences of their culture of origin? Do your characters agree or disagree with their culture? Why?
• How is their lifestyle shaped by the place they grew up? The places they have lived in since then?

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Socio-Economic Status:

• Is your character financially stable? Can they afford to live the way that they do?
• Does your character routinely overspend? Underspend?
• Does your character have a budget? Are they a Scrooge or a miser? Do they give money away as if it grows on trees only to find they can’t pay their own bills?
• Do others believe your character has more money than they actually do? Less?
• Does your character save for emergencies? Why or why not?
• Does your character have arguments with their family, spouse, or significant other about money and what they spend it on?
• Does your character have arguments with their family, spouse, or significant other about how they earn money?
• What would your character do if they found themself in an emergency where they needed a significant amount of money in a short period of time? What would your character be willing or unwilling to do to get that money?

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Occupation:

• Do you have a traveling job or a fixed location job?
• Do you work in government? Private sector? For your family business? For yourself?
• Does your job require a lot of skill? A lot of education? Both? Neither?
• Does your job require certification? Licensing? Government Charter? Continuing education?
• What, specifically, do you do?
• How did you get your job? Were you selected? Ordained? Did you apply or were you coerced?

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Ethics:

• If you’re on a train and you know it’s about to crash into a person on the track but if you pull the emergency brake the train will explode, do you pull the brake? Why? What if it’s not just one person but another train with twice as many passengers?
• Is euthanasia good or bad? Under what circumstances if any might it acceptable?
• What about abortion? Under what circumstances if any is that acceptable?
• What would you kill for? Why?
• What would you steal for? Why?
• What would you whistle-blow over? Why?
• Are there any of these hypotheticals that you think you would do one way but which you discover you actually make the opposite choice when you’re confronted with the actual circumstance?
• Are there any of these hypotheticals where you would change your answer if the other person involved were evil by your definition?

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Appearances:

• The Identity Spell — fable
• The Empathy Enchantment — fable
• The Lore of Words and Pictures — fable
• The Powers of Push and Pull — fable
• The Magic of Systems — fable

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Relationships:

Physicality:

Focus

Breath

Internal Motivation

Meaningful Movement

Personal Style:

• What does your character look like? Is their appearance expected or not? Why?
• Eye Color?
• Hair Color?
• Height?
• Weight?
• Bone Structure?
• Skin Color?
• Hair texture?
• How much effort do they put into their appearance?
• What kind of clothing do they wear? Why? Is their clothing determined by profession? Class? Personal comfort? Social expectations? Legal degree?
• Is their clothing bespoke? Off the rack? Thrift Store? Hand-me-down? Home-made?
• Is their clothing intended to attract or detract sexual attention?
• Could you guess their social status by their style?

History:

Childhood

• How big is your family of origin? Are you an oldest, middle, or youngest child?
• Are you adopted? Would you adopt a child of your own?
• What lengths would you go to, to avoid children or to have them?
• What would you do for your family? What wouldn’t you do for your family?
• Do you want to stay close to your family or go as far away as possible?

Adolescence

Adulthood

• What types of internal drama is your character prone to?
• Which characters have high-drama relationships?
• How do your characters overcome past mistakes that could create drama?
• What would your characters do to achieve their goals?
• What does your character have to sacrifice to get what they want? Are they willing to sacrifice that?
• Which colleagues and family members create the most drama through conflict with your characters?
• What hypocritical or conflicting beliefs do your characters have?
• Do you want children? Why or why not?
• If you can’t conceive children, would you adopt or try in-vitro methods? Why?

Home:

• Small town or Big City? Farm or Factory? Castle? Mansion? Hovel? Commune? Slum?
• Where do your characters come from? What planet? What Town? Did they grow up in a city or a wilderness?
• What are the influences of their culture of origin? Do your characters agree or disagree with their culture? Why?
• How is their lifestyle shaped by the place they grew up? The places they have lived in since then?

Socio-Economic Status:

• Is your character financially stable? Can they afford to live the way that they do?
• Does your character routinely overspend? Underspend?
• Does your character have a budget? Are they a Scrooge or a miser? Do they give money away as if it grows on trees only to find they can’t pay their own bills?
• Do others believe your character has more money than they actually do? Less?
• Does your character save for emergencies? Why or why not?
• Does your character have arguments with their family, spouse, or significant other about money and what they spend it on?
• Does your character have arguments with their family, spouse, or significant other about how they earn money?
• What would your character do if they found themself in an emergency where they needed a significant amount of money in a short period of time? What would your character be willing or unwilling to do to get that money?

Occupation:

• Do you have a traveling job or a fixed location job?
• Do you work in government? Private sector? For your family business? For yourself?
• Does your job require a lot of skill? A lot of education? Both? Neither?
• Does your job require certification? Licensing? Government Charter? Continuing education?
• What, specifically, do you do?
• How did you get your job? Were you selected? Ordained? Did you apply or were you coerced?

Ethics:

• If you’re on a train and you know it’s about to crash into a person on the track but if you pull the emergency brake the train will explode, do you pull the brake? Why? What if it’s not just one person but another train with twice as many passengers?
• Is euthanasia good or bad? Under what circumstances if any might it acceptable?
• What about abortion? Under what circumstances if any is that acceptable?
• What would you kill for? Why?
• What would you steal for? Why?
• What would you whistle-blow over? Why?
• Are there any of these hypotheticals that you think you would do one way but which you discover you actually make the opposite choice when you’re confronted with the actual circumstance?
• Are there any of these hypotheticals where you would change your answer if the other person involved were evil by your definition?

Appearances:

• Novel/Short Story Title