Self-editing for fiction writers: Character sketches & character continuity

It's been a busy week around here as I'm winding up a couple of editing projects, getting some of my own writing organized, and getting ready for summer holidays.  Part of my organizing was creating extensive character sketches for one of my works in progress.

I haven't always been a big fan of character sketches.  After all, the sketch doesn't end up in the finished work, so there's part of me that looks at it and thinks it's a waste of time.  As an editor, however, I can say that these are one of the most valuable things you can write for your work.

Writing is, for many of us, an organic process.  Many fiction writers eschew outlines, and those who do use these find that sometimes characters develop minds of their own and go off in unexpected directions.  This is one place in the editing process that character sketches can really help.  If we know that we're dealing with a 100-year-old vampire, are we going to expect that same character, on a whim, to start behaving like a whiny teenager?  Likely not.  If we have a complete sketch of that character, we're going to have a far better idea, as writers and editors, of (1) how to identify when a character is behaving "out of character" and (2) how to fix that behaviour so it is in character.

My best suggestion, to improve character continuity and ensure that characters behave and react appropriately, is to make sure that you know what is appropriate for that character.  It might be as simple as creating a one-paragraph character sketch, describing the character from his/her own point of view.  Or it might be more complicated, involving a character "interview" using a tool such as the Proust Questionnaire or one of the many other character questionnaires available online.  Regardless, it's time well spent.  And anything that decreases editing time is a good thing, in my books!