A Guide for Creating a Persona Or Character
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A Guide for Creating a Persona or Character by Cathy Johnson http://www.living-history.net/Fort/FTPERSONAGUIDE.HTM
PART A. THE BASICS
Creator of the Character (your name)
1. WHO ARE YOU?
Character's name:
Age:
Year of Birth:
Economic Status/ Station in Life (poor, middling, gentry, aristocracy?):
How do you make your living?
Do you do more than one thing?
Are you free, indentured, or slave?
Where are you or your people from (country of origin)?
How did you get here, and when?
Religion:
Education? Do you read? Write? Cipher?
Where or how did you learn? School, home?
Married?
Name of spouse?
How long?
Describe the relationship.
Children? Their names, or ages?
Parents' Names?
Occupations?
Are they living?
Here or Old Country? What other people were significant in your youth (brothers, sisters, other relatives, family friends, teacher, priest, sachem, playmates)?
What kind of house do you have?
How well furnished? Describe it-a brief overview of what you have.
Why do you live where you do?
Have you lived there long?
Are you in the military? Why?
If yes, what is your rank?
Did you enlist, did you buy your commission, or were you pressed into service?
What did you do before you became military?
If you are commissioned, how did you get your rank?
Are you married? Where is your wife?
Are you Indian?
What nation?
What is the governing system? (Patriarchy, matriarchy, what?)
Where do you live?
Where do you hunt?
Are you successful?
Do you trade with the whites?
Are you at war with anyone, and why?
What is the role of women in your nation?
Name what the most important thing that happened to you - this needn't be told to anyone else.
2. LEISURE TIME
How do you spend your days? What are the household's routines (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)?
What are your favorite pastimes? Think about what you might do in the morning, afternoon, evening.
Do you go to a pub or ordinary, canteen, ball, fete? Stay at home reading to the children? What? Bible, Shakespeare's plays, Beggar's Opera, what? (There are a number of lists of books that were available for sale, both new and secondhand, and a few were mentioned even in backwoods cabins.)
What do you do for entertainment? Is there any time for such things? If not, why not?
3. APPROPRIATE CLOTHING and PROPS
Clothing/Accoutrements
Describe. For your own records, if nothing else, document what you wear or carry. Try to make sure it is appropriate for the date you have chosen to portray. Out of date styles might still be worn by poorer people (or older ones), but obviously you wouldn't wear something that hadn't come into fashion yet.
Consider appropriateness for your character-could you have afforded it, would it have been available, common, rare, bizarre? Would your character have reason to be unusual? (Actor, musician, beggar, etc.)
Think about your work in relation to your clothing-do you do genteel work, or dirty. Are your clothes too clean and pressed? Are they too dirty for your locale or activities? How often do you wash them?
Think about the differences in terminology-in English a woman's undergarment is a shift, in French, a chemise. In Ireland it's a smock. A man's shirt is also a chemise in French, and a sark in Scotland.
Equipment/Personal Possessions:
Where might you have come by your accoutrements? Bought, traded for, gift, stolen?
Who made your weapons? What condition are they in? What age?
PART B. ADDITIONAL PERSONAL HISTORY
1. INTO THE WORLD
When did you leave home and under what conditions?
How did you make your way in the world right after leaving home?
How did you survive?
Were you apprenticed then? Indentured? At what age? To whom?
How were you treated?
2. DEVELOPMENT
What things have shaped you between then and now? (occupations, travel, marriages, etc.) Take into account world events, health, local politics.
PART C. DAILY LIFE
1. LOCAL GEOGRAPHY Map or describe the area where you live: natural environment--terrain, rivers and lakes, seacoast, flora and fauna built environment--your house, other houses, town roads, ordinaries, etc. social environment--ethnic and religious groups, social hierarchy
2. SOCIAL NETWORK
Who do you routinely interact with (friends, acquaintances, relatives outside of your household)?
What do you do when in company of these people?
What monetary system is used and how does it work? Do you pay with money, time, or barter?
3. LOCAL POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
How is your locality governed?
How does this relate to the higher levels of government (provincial/national)?
What issues concern you directly? Which affected your family?
4. MOTIVATIONS
What do you look forward to in the immediate future?
What do you look forward to in the more general future?
5. MISCELLANEOUS
When, where and why do you travel?
How and where do you get food and sleep? What do people eat, drink and wear?
What are the costs of day-to-day living?