Character Profiles

One of the gospel rules about writing is that you're supposed to write detailed profiles of your characters.

I'm not sure if this rule is one that's followed by most; nor do I know if it's proven to be necessary or helpful. I feel pressured though to follow it.  And I feel some guilt and insecurity for not doing one before starting my novel.

In the past, I once made extremely detailed character profiles.  I filled out a whole notebook.  I got really into it. Then I never got around to actually writing the novel.

For my recent novel, I wrote down a list of characters and some very basic information.  I also wrote down a few things I already knew about them.  For example, I knew two characters like herbal tea.  So I jotted that down.

Then as I wrote the novel, I got to know the characters and I wrote down facts on the files I started for them.

I finished my first draft last week.  Since then, I've been filling out detailed character profiles.  I'm using one from this forum.  I'm finding that I'm able to answer most of the questions. I spent several weeks with these characters. They feel like family, so I can get inside their head.

I honestly don't know if it will help me with further drafts. There's been very few times, while filling it out, that I've thought.  Oh, I should add that to the novel!

In a way I think I'm doing it, because when I finished with my novel, I was left with a hole in my little heart. Filling out the profiles keeps me in touch with my peeps.

I'm being very clingy.