I have a habit of looking around a couple times a year for any writing software I haven’t tried. There’s one hugely overpriced writing software that doesn’t do a tenth of what Scrivener does – but there’s a few freeware packages that actually come close.
I’ve talked about Ywriter, and of course I’ve talked about Writeway. One I really haven’t discussed is Bibisco.
Bibisco is freeware, and it has a minor group of fans who use only this program. I couldn’t say I was convinced to abandon Scrivener, but I did find one platinum area that makes Bibisco shine.
Bibisco has a character profile system.
Okay, I know I can fill in a template sheet with whatever fields I want (“Crunchy or smooth peanut butter: Smooth”), but Bibisco does it a little different.
Install Bibisco, and open it. It will present you with a screen to open or create a project. Obviously, the project management screen.
Create a new project, and call it Character Profiles.
The third menu option over is “Characters”. It has two groups, main characters and secondary characters. I don’t think I need to explain what that part entails! Create your first character, and it brings you to your Character page. The character page will give you 5 sections. When you open one, it will present you with a couple of different ways to do the interview process (that’s smart).
You’ll get between 12 and 18 questions to fill out. You can be terse at first to just get something on paper – but don’t neglect to go back later and add much more detail.
The psychology subsection has 62 questions on their personality, motivations, etc.
It may seem like overkill – but I guarantee you’ll know your character by the end of it.
Use this one project to store ALL of the characters for all your novels. And this actually will keep you from creating the same character over and over again.
It’s helped distinguish between my laconic protagonist Carpenter, the somber but serious Josiah Bratton, and the relaxed computer geek/marathon runner Blake in three different novels.
It may take a little time, but once you REALLY see your characters, you’ll be able to answer the question, “What will they die for?”
Actors frequently ask directors, “What’s my motivation this scene?” Your characters are asking you the same thing. Forget expensive Character creation software, Bibisco will take care of this for you.
