Character profiles: what to include in them

[unknown_user]

I’ve seen a bunch of character profiles in different webcomics, so I’ve been thinking about creating my own character profiles for a while already. Besides, some time ago I made a survey with a question of how to improve info sheets. And one reader answered that they would like to see info sheets about particular characters. So I've become even more enthusiastic about this idea.
But when I'm trying to implement it, I'm stuck, because I don't know, what exactly to include in these profiles.

There is the list of things, which others often include in these profiles, which I've divided by groups (this division is nominal and express just my own opinion, so if you are not agree, it's ok):

1. Non-informative: Height, weight, size of clothes (sometimes size of breast - for girls), blood type, date of birth, zodiac sign.
   In my opinion, these things give nothing to actually understanding the person, so for me they are more like information noise (if you are disagree, please, explain, why and what is their significance). I never thought about them in application to my own characters, cause I don't even care.

2. Informative, but not suitable for profile: sexual orientation, temperament.
   These things look more significant, and I have the answers about them in application to my characters. But for me it looks more interesting, when such an aspects are getting discovered not at once, but gradually, through the plot development, behavior of character in different situation and their interactions, shown in the comics itself.

3. Informative and at least partially suitable: 1) education and profession, 2) age, 3) abilities and skills ( magic, if it's a fantasy ), 4) convictions, 5) past, 6) relationships.
   I know the answers for my characters as well, but I don't know, how to express them good. So, here is a summary of the obstacles I encountered in attempts to invent the detailed description of each item from this list:

Summary

1). First of all, education and professions in futuristic setting differs from that, which we know now. So, I've decided to firstly clarify all of this in extra info sheets about professions themselves. But will I really need to say anything in profiles after that?
2). I don't know, what to say about characters ages. Because of some specific physical and mental features of them, as well as existing of such a things as stasis and anti-age technologies, many of them are aging not like us. All these nuances give their age ambiguous meaning, so the formal number of years, which they have existed from the moment of birth, don't mean consequences for their personalities and bodies, which we accustomed to.
3). The most significant abilities of my main characters are actually spoilers. They are planned to be revealed in key moments of the plot, giving it a new twist and surprising a reader. But if I will list only insignificant abilities, it will be somewhat weird and very incomplete...
4). Their convictions are not that simple to be described in one sentence. Also they will change with time. So I'm stuck here, too.
5). Their past is a big, big spoiler. So, I really can't tell much about it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
6). Their relationships and feeling to each other shouldn't be strictly determined, but instead I want leave them to for reader's estimation and judgement.

So... what can I do? How to make informative and interesting, but in the same time, not-spoilery character profiles? Which else points should I consider?
How do you yourself deal with it, from your experience?

[Rodimus13]

Non-informative: Height, weight, size of clothes (sometimes size of breast - for girls), blood type, date of birth, zodiac sign.

Well you said if I disagree...

Hubby and I talked about this one and well... we have to disagree depending on what kind of comic you are doing. The last two items (3 if you are Japanese) give you horoscope data. For those that follow and know that information it allows you to, as the writer, show how they are mostly going to be OR have you go "look they are going to defy societal expectations". I think many people who read manga outside of Japan include blood type because it's in manga. In Japan, your blood type is/was believed to greatly influence your personality- much like how many people in the west believe zodiac sign would affect it. So people choosing to include that most likely know what the signs mean and can use it as a way to show "Hey, IN GENERAL the person will be like this."

If it is a comic where time progression is shown, if you know the birthday of the character it could indicate when a birthday related story arc may come up- or give hints why a character is really upset/excited or even lead to "Oh hey they just turned 18... they aren't going to listen to the other adults now are they?" situation.

Height and weight can be useful so you know if a shorter character is really shorter or if they just SEEM shorter because others are so dang tall. It can also act as a nice reference for any fans who want to draw the character correctly with their OC's, or even just as a basic reminder for the writer/artist.

informative, but not suitable for profile: sexual orientation, temperament.

I think this one is important if a romance or drama is going on at all. Sometimes characters do things that "don't make sense", but if you know their temperament it can make a touch more sense. It can also draw attention to key exceptions that are rooted somewhere in their past. For example, I can be a pretty friendly warm person and tend to gently but firmly move my students away from not OK topics. The second someone starts to joke about suicide I scare the heck outta them because I shut it down hard and fast- not my normal MO. Why? Because of something in my past. Temperament lets you know how the character should be acting normally so attention can be drawn to the odd behaviors.

Orientation can be important since there are many types: Straight, Bi, Gay, Pan, Ace (more I think?). Knowing this means that without having to drag the story out and sit and do a story time about what these terms mean and why that character won't kiss that person helps. It lets you know what the basic boundaries are and why they maybe feel uncomfortable around certain types of people.

So... what can I do? How to make informative and interesting, but in the same time, not-spoilery character profiles? Which else points should I consider?

It depends on the story you want to tell, what elements are important to you, and what's going on in the story. Put the names of the characters you want to do a profile for in a hat and draw them out randomly and then in 30 seconds introduce them to your friend. That's enough time to get some good info out, but not enough for spoilers. And I'd still say include height. Without common standardized items we are familiar with- it helps put their height into perspective for reasons stated perviously.

Remember, the profile is just a quick way to introduce your character to new readers. It gives them a rough idea so you don't have to drag anything out more than needed and they know what to expect a little bit.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

You know, things you deem uninformative maybe are the interesting ones to some people. For artists, they can use weight and height as reference for their art. For fans it's a priceless info when they find their birthday are the same with one of my characters, when they find out a character's height is very tall and it's amusing, or when they share same blood type.

For physical information, the unimportant physical information can be useful for setting in fantasy/ science fiction. Such as a new unknown blood type (in the planet my story set in, the rare O- blood type in the earth is the most common), a race with unusual height, etc. It can also be significant for cultural and magic system. For example if there is fertility festival so people fuck and born around same time, or zodiac is important determinator of magic type, etc.

For me, I tend to mix up the non-informative technical details and informative partially suitable, along with some 'fun fact' trivia (such as what is the cat breed they like, favorite food, do they play instruments, etc.). You can also make some cheesy or humorous description just for the sake of it in place of spoiler part, there are so many ways to do it without spoiler.

You can go look for online character profile for references.

[Kelheor]

Well, it really depends how much would you like to write about the character =)
I always assume that I have 1 page (with a full body drawing) for that. I would probably put age, height-weight, date of birth and zodiac sign (maybe), profession, abilities, things you can not imagine character without (what does he always take with himself when he is out of home), favourite color, favourite song, frequently used phrases or jokes, special features like scars/stuttering/tattoos, some important facts like "ran away from home at 5 y.o, maaaybe sexual orientation, but if it is important for people to know .
You can always think about "tag yourself" game and write all the things you can! I've never made an actual character profile, but the tag yourself was great to make

[Kann]

All you need to include in character profiles is pretty much determined about how much a reader should know about a character from the start.

I include date of birth and height because that's a fun little information for me and who knows? Readers might need it someday. Zodiac sign can be guessed from the date of birth so I didn't really feel like including it and I have no idea how much should my characters weight if they are a certain body type and certain height. xD
(I'm a little tempted now to include blood types.)

Sexual orientation and temperament are the things that are better for me shown in the plot instead of written in the character profile, but if someone wants to include it in them then it's fine.

Age and magic are actually quite important for me. Character is something I just drop in form of trivia. xD

2). I don't know, what to say about characters ages. Because of some specific physical and mental features of them, as well as existing of such a things as stasis and anti-age technologies, many of them are aging not like us. All these nuances give their age ambiguous meaning, so the formal number of years, which they have existed from the moment of birth, don't mean consequences for their personalities and bodies, which we accustomed to.

If technologies used for stoping the aging are commonly used, then yeah, character's age might be just a fun fact instead something that has an importance to the story.

[unknown_user]

Hubby and I talked about this one and well... we have to disagree depending on what kind of comic you are doing. The last two items (3 if you are Japanese) give you horoscope data. For those that follow and know that information it allows you to, as the writer, show how they are mostly going to be OR have you go "look they are going to defy societal expectations". I think many people who read manga outside of Japan include blood type because it's in manga. In Japan, your blood type is/was believed to greatly influence your personality- much like how many people in the west believe zodiac sign would affect it. So people choosing to include that most likely know what the signs mean and can use it as a way to show "Hey, IN GENERAL the person will be like this."

I don't know any serious research, which would show any reliable dependency between horoscope data and personality. So, I consider such a beliefs as an extension of ancient superstitions, which turned out to be persistent and survived centuries just because of systematic cognitive biases of people (for example, the Barnum effect).
As a result, I have no knowledge, nor any interest in researching details of horoscope-related beliefs. I don't even remember all of Zodiac signs, because I don't care. So this info gives nothing to me, and it's boring to me to think about it in application to my characters.

If it is a comic where time progression is shown, if you know the birthday of the character it could indicate when a birthday related story arc may come up- or give hints why a character is really upset/excited or even lead to "Oh hey they just turned 18... they aren't going to listen to the other adults now are they?" situation.

I don't think that readers will really bother to remember and subtract the year of birth of the character from the current (for comics events) date, to learn their age. It is easier to just specify their current age directly.

Height and weight can be useful so you know if a shorter character is really shorter or if they just SEEM shorter because others are so dang tall. It can also act as a nice reference for any fans who want to draw the character correctly with their OC's, or even just as a basic reminder for the writer/artist.

I still don't understand, why is this important. For me, only their relative body sizes have significance, so long as these sizes stay in boundaries of normal peoples bodies sizes (if we don't consider robots and fantasy races). Also I don't care if my characters will be drawn a bit taller or shorter, than I imagine them, in fanart, while their sizes compared to each other stays correct.

Sometimes characters do things that "don't make sense", but if you know their temperament it can make a touch more sense. It can also draw attention to key exceptions that are rooted somewhere in their past.

Yes, that's true. I just like to reveal and explain such a things gradually, during the plot events.

Orientation can be important since there are many types: Straight, Bi, Gay, Pan, Ace (more I think?). Knowing this means that without having to drag the story out and sit and do a story time about what these terms mean and why that character won't kiss that person helps. It lets you know what the basic boundaries are and why they maybe feel uncomfortable around certain types of people.

I just think, that all this things may be revealed from characters interactions themselves.

Put the names of the characters you want to do a profile for in a hat and draw them out randomly and then in 30 seconds introduce them to your friend. That's enough time to get some good info out, but not enough for spoilers.

Oooh... this suggestion is too hard to implement. I always was very bad in "elevator speeches". My brain explodes, when I try to invent them, so these attempts give me nothing but perplexity and headache.

Remember, the profile is just a quick way to introduce your character to new readers. It gives them a rough idea so you don't have to drag anything out more than needed and they know what to expect a little bit.

Yes, but I'm still not sure what and how to include.

[unknown_user]

For physical information, the unimportant physical information can be useful for setting in fantasy/ science fiction. Such as a new unknown blood type (in the planet my story set in, the rare O- blood type in the earth is the most common), a race with unusual height, etc.

Yes, this sounds reasonable. Blood of people with high-level cybernetic enhancements inside their bodies has significant differences from blood of usual people in my setting (it will be explained more detailed later). So... this difference can be described roughly like a new "blood type".
It is not really a blood type in strict biological sense, but some analogue, which can be easier understood by reader, than long boring sophisticated list of differences from usual blood. Of course, I will add this long boring sophisticated list in any case - for the most meticulous readers and for my own pleasure. But probably a more simple concept of "blood type" will be enough for a readers, who will not want to go into the details.

It can also be significant for cultural and magic system. For example if there is fertility festival so people fuck and born around same time, or zodiac is important determinator of magic type, etc.

Yes, this is true if this is justified as a part of setting. My setting haven't such a things, so I didn't think about them in such a context.

You can also make some cheesy or humorous description just for the sake of it in place of spoiler part, there are so many ways to do it without spoiler.

I've wanted to ask for a long time already... what does "cheesy" mean in context of fictional works? I know just that cheese is a type of food, for example, pizza can be cheesy. But people use this word in obviously different sense here.I found some other description in online dictionary, but it wasn't like how people here use it.

[unknown_user]

things you can not imagine character without (what does he always take with himself when he is out of home)

This sounds like a very good idea. I will include it.

[Kelheor]

In my opinion, these things give nothing to actually understanding the person, so for me they are more like information noise (if you are disagree, please, explain, why and what is their significance). I never thought about them in application to my own characters, cause I don't even care.

They actually do nothing, but it's a common info, think about it as a police information and mugshot =) It's just for people to know and maybe for people to relate to something, maybe someone think it's nice he has the same birth date as the character.
I personally won't include blood type (but it's useful for Asian readers, like zodiac sign for Western), clothes size (no actual reason and it wary a lot? if character wears only oversize clothes, just write that or any type of his favourite outfit), breast size (because this kind of things are only useful for hentai, otherwise why?), definitely not race\nation if it isn't important to mention because of some traditions or culture reasons. The same with orientation, you probably can clearly see whether the person is into a boy or a girl or into anything else right now, if you can not - it's not important.
What else? Ah, favourite song\food\whatever. No need to write too, ofc, but maybe if your character is a big fan of heavy metal or folk, you can write that and maybe even some theme song for a character. Or maybe he loves his gramdmom's cooking the best.
So to say, maybe it's better to stick to some random facts, not to follow classic road of birth date-height-orientation.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Something cheap and ditzy? In this case I meant to use it purposely for humorous reason, like making the intro sounds cliched or stupid af for the sake of fun.

[Azifri]

I personally dislike character profile sheets that give too much personal info. It feels like the author is telling me what image to have of the characters, instead of doing it in a narrative way during the story.

A while ago some friends and I were goofing around and made profile sheets similar to those in old MTV shows, that were all nonsense xD
Something like:

Desquicio
- Ate ants in kindergarten.
- Forgets to put on his belt.
- Likes French fries with ranch sauce.

This post made me remember about those sheets. Maybe I should post them

[vothnthorvaldson]

I generally like character profile sheets more for the art than for the info.

The only time I like the info is when that info looks pretty casual, but in fact give you indirect and/or inconspicuous clues for further developments in the comic. The only problem is that people may have forgotten about the sheet when they read that later part of the comic, so the sheets have to be published at the exact right time, not too soon, not too late.
I'm also thinking to do profile sheets for my characters, and I'm going to go for what I just described (I think?)

[joannekwan]

The only time I've really liked 'character profiles' in a webcomic were these from We Lurk in the Woods

We Lurk in the Woods :: FOREIGN AGGRESSIVE ENTITIES: B RANK | Tapas

First, the information is relevant to understanding beings in the story we wouldn't be familiar with otherwise.
Second, it's presented in a handbook format that totally fits in with the world of the plot.
This is a great quick way to present the info when including it in the story might sound more stilted like person A explains to B what monster C is, even though they are working in a unit together to stop monster C and should already know their attributes.