What if Character Sheets Weren't Awful

For the newest version (2.1) I changed some things so people would be able to understand the sheet without watching this video. I replaced “core belief” with “core urge.” Belief made it sound like a conscious philosophy, which I think was tripping people up. What I really meant to convey was a sense of “I must do this.” “Drive” felt too conscious as well. “Compulsion” too many letter. So urge it is. We urging. 2024 it’s urge or get urged on. I also think my emphasis on backstory was a bit confusing, so I changed some language in the first box - That slot is really just there to communicate that the urge is an adaptive mechanism to get one’s needs met. Just some small tweaks. Version 2.1 on website in resources tab :)

if you mute this video it looks like 20 minutes of angrily pointing at a piece of paper and i thoroughly enjoy that

"You were born confused and screaming" DANG man that hit HARD

I'm an engineer. You can distill anything into a flow chart, even the human essence.

Your character HAS to have a bad thing happen to them. If you’re going for a spoiled naïve character, make the bad thing super minor. “One time daddy’s manservant wouldn’t play croquet with me, so I bribed him to. Now I solve problems with money.” Your character won’t be so hellbent on solving problems a certain way unless they've actually solved a problem that way.

instructions unclear, tried to bring this to dnd night. i rp'd really well but i was useless in combat

Instructions unclear; got stuck at the 'Character Name' field Also it's worth noting that "negative experience" does not have to be inwardly perceived as negative, or even recognized as negative by anyone in-universe- a character could easily just have a history of being positively rewarded for behavior they think is positive, but which causes conflict in whatever new context they find themselves in, thus making it indirectly negative

SO BEAUTIFULLY WORDED. 01:33 "I think arguing about the meaning of a word is childish because the whole point of words is to agree on what they mean so we can USE them to argue about the things that actually matter."

WE MAKING IT OUT OF THE CONFUSION AND SCREAMING WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥 🗣🗣

since most of my characters end up with trauma anyway (i have ptsd lol) i find it helpful to remember that trauma is defined as toxic stress. Not stress that meets an Objective Threshhold, but stress that is too much for an individual to process. something traumatizing to one person may not be to another. so your negative experience doesnt have to be like, The Worst Possible Thing.

Most writing advice on YT pokes your characters gently in the face and ask 'But what do they want?' LSM crams his arm down their throat, pulls out what should be their heart and says 'Oops, no soul.'

This... this is exactly what I've been looking for without knowing it. The way I make and think about my characters is almost akin to roleplaying. I understand them on a subconscious level, but I can't describe them worth my life. Especially trying to define their wants. Any time I've tried to turn to character sheets for help I've gotten questions like "What are their three favourite foods? <3", which really isn't relevant to anything about them. This feels like I've finally gotten a way to get my characters from these nebulous people I can only bask in the vibes of, and into something I can write on a paper. Thank you for this

I understand you're using the pen as a pointer, but alas I have ADHD and suddenly understand how babies feel when they see dangling keys. Also thanks for all your work, this is amazing.

I significantly prefer this model over the old "what they WANT vs what they NEED" chestnut for character description, and I am excited to take this tool and run with it. This is a super cool graphic organizer that helps me model the cognitive process you are using, which is teacher speak for "I'm going to steal this for my classroom somehow." Seriously, I wish I had money to support/hire you. For now, please accept my gratitude and YouTube comments engagement!

I write professionally for a big studio here in town and, dude… this method should be exported to story rooms all over Hollywood. It is the system I have been using for years, but never crystallized into a simple PDF. I’ve been trying to scream “ all character’s behavior is just reaction to insecurities and trauma” to anyone who would listen, but I just seem crazy

When people say you can't distill the human essence into a flowchart, what they're failing to recognize is that the complex version still has a strong throughline, it just has a lot more little branches that, while yes they're more complicated, don't radically change the trajectory of that through line. Impactful experiences shape a person in ways that are visible with a broad brush. Go figure.

HOLY SHIT DUDE you released this while I was in the middle of struggling figuring out my characters' core beliefs and arcs. Timing was fucking immaculate. Thanks a thousand times over broski.

I am not a psychologist, but the part about addictions jumps out to me since it's often stated that people become addicted to things is because they make their bad feelings go away. Being addicted to porn or gaming while procrastinating on homework is innately about avoiding the unpleasant emotions around homework. Basically I'm saying that maybe instead of addictions/habits, there could be a specific carve-out for "how does my character avoid confronting the problem", since an easy way for this template to be accidentally misused is something like "my wife died a year ago, and to prevent this from happening again I must smoke a lot of weed" which is kind of its own thing.

“Most people aren’t aware that their core beliefs are coping mechanisms”

I think it can work for an innately evil character. To them the negative experience could be something or someone who stopped them from doing their evil acts so the core belief is how they believe they must behave to ensure they can do their evil act. Like a serial killer who was caught harming an animal as a child could then have a belief about whatever stopped them which then informs their MO. Basically you can adjust the moralist meta thought that exists prior to the negative experience for such a character.