Rising Star Adventures and Beyond

Protagonist profile

Oct. 03: - Character: Protagonist Profile ▼

Draft a profile of your protagonist. Include detailed information such as name, age, physical attributes, occupation, education, culture, religion, family, relationship status, personality, likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness, motivations and desires. Use Google Images to find an image of your character. The point of this exercise is for you to get to know your character inside and out before you write your novel. If you don't know your character, how can you expect it of your readers? Flesh out your pre-story character in detail. Keep in mind that your protagonist will grow in some way during your story. For more serious character profilers, here is are two optional, very extensive templates: "Character Interview / Profile Sheet" and "(Another, Very) In-Depth Character Profile" . Also, here is a "Traits List" to draw from.

https://www.alamy.com/45-year-old-helen-walker-widow-of-police-motorcyclist-pc-m...

This was as close as I could get to my mental picture of my fictional character, Ruth Walker. She is average height. She might be a little bit overweight, but not too much. She has shoulder length brown hair that is starting to show signs of gray.

Her husband, Mike, recently died from cancer. Her husband had been the money maker. She is just a simple house wife trying to learn how to live without her husband's support, income, and companionship. She had married Mike fresh out of high school so never saw a need to go to college because her precious Mike had taken care of her all these years. He was supposed to grow old with her.

Mike had been tall, 6 feet and 4 inches tall to be exact. He had just the perfect tan from working outside. His hair had already turned mostly gray as he had been 4 years older than Ruth. He had just finished college when they had been married. He had developed his own business. Mike had flipped houses for a living.

Ruth had lived in Sherwood, Texas her whole life. She was just a simple, small-town, country girl who loved riding horses, going to see the rodeos, and could out-shoot the best of them in the yearly shooting contest. She loved her coffee, iced tea, and southern, home-cooked dishes. She loved fresh vegetables out of her garden. She had lived on 4th Street with her husband since they had been married in a little 3 bedroom house with a big yard. There was an old huckleberry tree in the middle of the back yard that practically shaded the whole yard. She had a porch swing on her front porch and had rose bushes and flowers placed strategically around the house. In the front yard there was a bird bath and feeder so they could watch the birds while relaxing on the porch swing. In the corner of her backyard was where she had her garden.

She was a Christian since she was 10 years old. She loved God and her church, the little First Baptist Church on the edge of town. She worked with the girls in the youth group regularly. She was like another aunt to all of them. They had nicknamed her Auntie Ruth.

Ruth's parents had passed away four years ago in a car accident. This had been a difficult time in her life. Her two daughters were away at college, and she couldn't be prouder of them. Her brother and his wife were missionaries in Africa. While she was proud of her family, she felt all alone. No one was there with her to walk her through her grief.

Ruth volunteered once a month to help serve food in the homeless shelter. She was well known and well liked in the community. She eventually discovers her husband had a lean against their house and the bank is threatening to take it. So she gets a job at the local grocery store as a cashier. She has to sort through all of her husband's business property and decide what had to be done with it all. She has no idea what she is doing.