Role biography is a methodology from German and theater teaching in order to elaborate a fictitious figure and to learn about its peculiarities, peculiarities and characteristics. This engagement with a novel figure or theatrical role can help to understand the individual decisions and actions of the protagonist or deuteragonist.
In doing so, we have to work out the respective role of the particular work in order to grasp the exterior, the interior, the characteristics and all the details about past, present and future. Consequently, it is useful to prepare a characterization, a description of the person or a profile in advance in order to be able to derive and write the role biography.
The difference between these types of writing and the role biography is that the role biography is composed of the ego perspective, whereas characterization and co must always be an external description since the figure is described by us.
Note: This means that when we write the role biography, we slip into the role ourselves and describe it from your point of view as it sees itself. It is important that we also consider how the character is in the novel and how it speaks. We imagine that we are the figure ourselves.
Guidelines for role biography
Let us take a look at the possible characteristics, peculiarities and external aspects that we could know about a role. These characteristics are to be understood as a guide.
Guidance and questions for the role biography
General facts and characteristics
Name and first name of the role
gender
Older
Place of birth, current place of residence
nationality
job
Appearance of the figure
Appearance (size, stature, eye color, hair color).
Clothing (favorite clothing, special clothing)
Special features (liver spots, scars, tattoos)
Disabilities, prostheses, physical ailments
Inner values of the role
Moral Values (What does the character think is right or wrong?)
Intelligence (education, degrees, knowledge)
Life setting (Which attitude does the role have to your own life?)
preferences and dislikes
Fears, worries, fears
What makes the figure easy, what does she find difficult, what things she likes, what does she not like?
Conspicuities and peculiarities
Speech (stutter, stammer, dialect, accent)
Mimic & gestures (movements, ticks etc.)
Psychological problems (hallucination, delusions)
Language of the role (important!)
How does the figure speak? (slow, fast, hectic)
What words does the person use? (Foreign words, simple language)
Is it instructive, preposterous, irreverent, hesitant, etc.?
Note: If we write the role biography, we must pay attention that the language of the role biography is consistent with the language of the figure. If our figure is, for example, very well formed, it may be expressed in a certain way.
History of the figure
The past (origin, parents, siblings, education, former friendships, friends from childhood, first love, special experiences, trauma, relationship to mother and father)
Present (hobbies, children, relatives, current life situation, income / merit, leisure activities, housing situation, living standards, relationship / partnership)
Future (hopes, wishes, dreams, plans, plans, goals)
Social relations of the role
How is the figure integrated into the community?
Does she have enemies or envy?
Is it popular or not popular?
Is it active in associations (political, social)?
→ List of possible character traits
Note: Of course, we can not find a correspondence in the respective work on all aspects. Consequently, this guide to role biography is only a suggestion and should be supplemented by you. Further details for the description can be found in the article Person description.
Write a role biography
If we have brought together all the essential facts, characteristics and characteristics of the figure, we can write to it. There are some things to consider.
The role biography is written like a monologue or a letter. This means that only our role comes in direct speech and no narrator emerges.
There are therefore no descriptive adjectives or introductory narrative features as we know them from other areas of writing.
Role biography is always formulated and written in the present. We have to imagine that the character is speaking at the moment.
We should try to elaborate the language of the figure and incorporate it into our formulations.
Furthermore, distinctions of the role should be included in the biography. If a role always cites French proverbs, this should play a role in the biography, if it is chiefly in parataxes