Ultimate Character Questionnaire

Basics

What is your name?
What is your name’s origin and meaning, and how was it chosen?
Any nicknames?
How tall are you?
Who do you live with or near, if anyone?
Where is your residence and what is it like?
What is your hometown and local culture like?
Who are your parents?
Are you married, single, seeking a relationship, avoiding romance?
What is your class/income level?
What is your income source and/or occupation?
What is your education?
What is your worldview/religion? What is your level of devotion to that philosophy?
What are your current life problems?
Who (or what) are your enemies?
What are your priorities in life?
What is your goal in life? What is your motivation for this goal?
What is your goal in this story? What is your motivation for this goal?
What changes do you undergo by the end of the story (emotional, physical, philosophical, relational, etc)?

Mind

What is your central philosophy in life?
What moral code do you follow and why?
What is your outlook on life?
What do you wish would happen to you?
What do you want to hide?
What languages do you know?
What do you worry most about?
What are your phobias?
What are your insecurities?
How is your self-confidence?
What is your political stance?
Do you like what you do for a living? If so, why? If not, what do you wish you could do instead?
Where do you feel most at home?
Who do you look up do?
When and where were you the happiest?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
How do you feel about showing your emotions?

Body

What kind of creature are you (elf, human, alien, etc)?
What are your abnormalities (deformity, birthmark, allergies)?
What is your figure like (thin, muscular, pudgy)?
How fit are you?
What is your hair and eye color?
What is your hair texture and style?
What is your face shape and features (freckles, big eyes, zits, reddish cheeks, birthmark, etc.)
How old are you?
What kind of colors do you wear?
What kind of clothing do you wear?
What kind of clothing do you hate on yourself/others?
What accessories do you frequently have?
How do you feel about your appearance?
What is your skin like (smooth, pale, dark, rough, tight, saggy, scarred, etc)?
How is your health? Any problems? What was your health like as a child?
What are your common movement habits and demeanor (swaying, graceful, snapping, wringing hands, staying perfectly still, glancing around, stumbling, etc)?
What is your race/ethnicity/nationality?
What food do you usually eat (amount, kind of food, what times of day)? What food do you like to eat?
What do you like to drink?
What is in your refrigerator?
What do you smell like (cologne, sweat, musty, cats, etc)?
What would you change about yourself physically if you could?

Past

When and where were you born?
What are your past occupations and career goals?
As a child, what did you want to be and do when you grew up? Did you do it? How do you feel about that?
What are your greatest accomplishment?
What are your greatest failures?
What is the worst thing that ever happened to you?
What is the best thing that ever happened to you, or your most cherished memory?
What do you regret?
What do you remember most about your childhood?
What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
What did you dislike most as a child?

Personality

What are your vices?
What are your virtues?
What is your typical attitude?
What are your quirks (only eats raw meat, collects action figures, always wears rubber band on wrist, etc)?
What are your hobbies?
What would make you smile?
What would make you laugh?
What would make you cry?
What makes you calm down?
What makes you revved up?
What do you do when you are happy?
What do you do when you are stressed?
What do you do when you are upset?
What do you do when you are angry?
What are your habits (good or bad)?
What is something you can’t resist?
What is something most people do not know about you?
What are your areas of expertise?
What is hard for you to do?
What special skills do you have?
What weather and physical conditions do you like?
What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted?

Relationships

Who would you ask for help in a tight spot?
Who’s company do you enjoy?
How often do you see family and friends?
How do you interact with other people (cold, awkward, friendly)?
Who is your family and what are they like?
How do you feel about your parents and how do they feel about you? What is your relationship with your family like?
What is the person you are most dependent on (your dad, the welfare office, your personal maid, your seeing-eye-dog, your mailman)?
If you could convince any one person or group of people of one thing, what would that be?
What is the main quality or aspect you look for in a person (good looking, is talkative, seems helpful, has money, etc.)?
How does your race/ethnicity/nationality or that of your parents influence you and the way people see you? Is your heritage significant to you or are you removed from it?
What is something people often misunderstand about you?
Can people get the gist of who you are when first meeting you, or is your true self so hidden we would need to know you for a long time? Or somewhere in between?
Who and/or what sort of people like you?
How do you feel about other people’s worldview/religions?
How do most people see you?
What kind of friends and associates do you have, if any?
What person or group of people do you dislike the most, and why?
Are you dominant, submissive, or somewhere in between?
What is your reputation?
How do you greet people (if you greet people at all)?
How do you feel about and treat authority?

Speech

How do you speak (speak loudly, quickly, whispering, interrupting, talkative, etc)?
Are you dominant or easily unnoticed in a conversation, or somewhere in between?
What words and phrases do you use frequently (omg, dude, like, um, for pete’s sakes,)?
What expletives do you use in surprise or irritation (swears, gasps, yowza, etc)?
Do you speak properly or often use slang and bad grammar?
Does your speaking style change when you’re around certain people? If so, how?
What is your accent or dialect?
What is your pitch and voice texture?

Situations

What are the five worst things possible to happen to you?
How would you prepare for a hot date?
How would you tackle a big research project?
How would you react in a fight?
What do you do when you’re bored (go crazy, tap your fingers, hum)?
What are you or would you be embarrassed about?    
What is the first thing you do every morning (go for a jog, check your phone, take a pill, check your own pulse, etc)?
What would you do with 5 million dollars?
If you could teleport anywhere, where would you go (Hawaii, your mom’s house, the theatre, that old barn you used to play in, etc)?
What is your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?
What are your holiday traditions?
What do you spend most of your day doing?
How do you want to die (suddenly, alone, with a certain person near you, etc.)?
What is the worst you’ve ever been injured or sick (broken arm, cancer, hang nail)?

Objects

What object(s) do you like to keep near you?
What is in your backpack, purse, or closet?
If there was a fire in your house and you only had time to grab whatever you could carry, what would it be?
What is your most valued possession (for a reason other than monetary value)?
Do you still have any possessions from your childhood?

Random

How well do/did you do in school?
What is your symbol?
What is your desktop/cell phone wallpaper (or, if you had one what would it be)?
What does your signature look like?
What is your theme song?
What are your most used bookmarks on your web browser?
What is something that really annoys you (loud people, music that is too quite, when your mom vacuums at three in the morning, the sound of trickling water)?
What is the place you hate the worst (standing in line at McDonalds, the salon, Toledo Ohio, etc.)?
What is your favorite kind of entertainment and what type of content do you like (books, movies, comics, romance, sci-fi, humor)?
What is you favorite celebrity or historical figure?
Who are your most recent emails/calls/texts from and what did they say?
What were you doing before this story started?
What time period do you wish you lived in? Past, future?
If you were and animal, what kind would you be?
Do you have any special powers? If so, what are they, how do they work, and where do they come from?
Do you or have you ever had any pets?
Do you dislike any holidays? If so, why?
What is your most common method of transportation?
What are your three favorite songs?
And finally… the most important question of all….What is your favorite color (and why)?





Want more of this sort of thing? Some of these questions were inspired by links found here: http://writeworld.tumblr.com/post/40722654734/this-is-a-towel-character-questionnaires

19 thoughts on “Ultimate Character Questionnaire

  1. Wow! I see you got inspiration elsewhere, but did you come up with this yourself? I usually don't get very far with character questionnaires, but this is amazingly comprehensive. 🙂

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  2. Thank you vey much!

    Some questions are just pretty common questions, like name, family, residence, and some I just noticed popping up a lot in questionaires like “what's your favorite celebrity?” and “what food do you like?” so I threw them in ^_^ and some I just made up off the top of my head like “what holidays do you dislike?”

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  3. Thanks so much, Laura!

    I'm planning a Basic Storytelling class for homeschoolers here at my local library–it's a 6 week class beginning Sept 24th and will run right up to NaNoWriMo!

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  4. This was wonderful to read!! So many character questionairs are simple, eye color, hair color, hobbies, interests, residence, full name. So refreshing to read this, and beneficial as well, thank you so much! Pinned.

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