Character Bios

So I've just fallen in love with Community. I mean I'm proper head over heels, walking along the beach at sun-set, already imaging our future together in love with Community. The meta-humour relating to TV tropes and movie cliches is right up my sub-plot, as are the relentless pop-culture references, and, it's just a great sit-com, with a bunch of characters you can't wait to hang out with.

The Wikipedia page on the cast and characters is a perfect example of how to write short character bios. Obviously the more you know about your characters the better, but the few lines featured on Community's Wikipedia page sums up each character's major personality traits, their flaws and their subsequent room for growth.

Annie's bio jumped out at me, it reads -

"the youngest member of the group, a compulsive over-achiever, relentlessly organised and comparatively innocent. Annie was extremely unpopular in high school and formerly addicted to Addarall, which has caused her to be very insecure and desperate to prove herself in a variety of extra-curricular groups despite already being considered naturally intelligent and attractive by others. She is normally kind and docile, but can quickly turn obsessed or throw a tantrum when she fails to achieve or is denied something she strongly cares about, even if it's about something as simple as a pen."

This last line reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's 8 rules to writing, the third states - "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." Characters with wants, aims and desires are essential because this is the centre of conflict - your character wants something, but something or someone gets in their way of obtaining it - voila! - conflict. Your characters' specific traits will set up the point of conflict for single scenes, whole episodes and a full season's narrative arch. For example Jeff wanting a date with Britta; this isn't only the over-arching point of conflict for series 1 but also the set-up for the show itself - Jeff creates the study group where our loveable bunch of misfits come together and become close friends, so he can be closer to Britta.

Using Wikipedia's Cast and Characters section is a great basis for writing your own character bios, try reading the entries for your favourite shows, see how they sum up David Brent, Tim Bisley and Phil Dunphey's strengths and weaknesses, then get off the bloody Internet and start writing!