CHARACTER RESUME

Giving your character a resume can help you understand her/his motives both professionally and personally, even if details of her/his job never come up in the novel. (For an event like NaNoWriMo, it can also give you great filler material i.e. a scene where your character turns a critical eye on her resume and realizes shes not qualified for anything she wants to do, or a scene in which a character describes his life and goes about it very analytically.)

[Insert Characters Full Name here]

[Address] [City, State, Zip] [Phone #] [Email]

OBJECTIVE
[Describe what work your character is interested in, or has done in the past. What are her/his employment goals?]

EXPERIENCE
[List some of your characters work experience. Who has he/she worked for? What positions has he/she held? What were her/his responsibilities? What were her/his achievements?] [Company Name] (City, State) through August 2007] [Job Title] [Responsibilities] [Achievements] [Dates Worked (i.e. May 1992

EDUCATION
[List where your character went to school, her/his degrees, and any special awards/honors] [College/University] [Major, Degree] [Graduation Date (Month Year)], [GPA: i.e. 3.45/4.00] [Awards, Honors] [High School] [City, State] [Graduation Date (Month Year)], [GPA: i.e. 3.45/4.00]

SKILLS
[List skills your character has that are applicable to her/his work and/or career goals.]

Be sure to customize/personalize your characters resume based on her/his personality. For example, if your MC is artsy, perhaps he/she uses special fonts to make the resume more appealing. If the character is lazy/unmotivated at the start of the

novel, what might her/his resume look like (i.e. a sloppy handwriting font, typos, poor formatting, etc.)? Some people include quotes/testimonials on a specially formatted resume/CV to show their personalities; if your MC chose to do this, what might others have to say about her/him?
Below is an example of a characters resume from a novel project titled We the Ordinary. The novel deals with a young girl who grew up in a town of superheroes as one of the few ordinary residents (essentially a reversal of the standard superhero trope). This resume sketch helped to develop what would be her ultimate storyline: well-aware of the towns heroes secret (all the supers have the same weakness: severe food allergies), she plots a two-edged plan to a) get revenge on many of the towns residents for treating her and the other ordinaries so poorly, and b) get closer to the love of her life, Captain Superior. The resume established the fact that she hasnt entirely thought this plan through, and has some major conflicts brewing that might hurt her plan (i.e. her dad is a superhero, on whom she must rely to get the clearances she needs to even start her master plan, and who creates a major conflict for her, in that she might be pitting herself against her own 1 3 St o r i e A v en u e Fi ct o n , P A 1 1 2 0 family).

Sa m a n t h a

An n

D r cey A

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O ECT IVE BJ
To appl y my skil l s as a cul inar y diva to the unique neds of the re ide e s nts of G ammatown. (You al l know e xactl y what I me an, and you know I know what is unique about this pl ace s o l e not , ts pl ay coy.)

EXPERIENCE
I can fil l this in l ate worke at thre r e taur ants, but I want to cate this (yuck yuck) to r Ive d e s r e xactl y what those supe s ned to he r e ar And al l the j obs invol ve the abil ity to pre e dishe for se d par s atte e with a wide var ie of die y re ndes ty tar stric tions and food al l e shich is e rgie w xactl y what thos e s upe s ned to he ! r e ar

EDUCAT IO N
L is t the cul inar y s chool , s kip/ fudge the col l e ? (Don want to l e the in on TH AT l ittl e se t ye ge t t m cre t), de l ist G amma. H igh f.

SK ILS L
* Cul inary godde s s * K nowl e dge of G ammatown re nts s pe iz e neds side cial d e * Wil l dad give me cl e arance Be r tr y & ge those b/ f finis hing this up, too s? tte t