Sangranor: Characters! My specialty and my favorite part of writing! I too loathe the traditional character profile except as a basic teaching tool, because I too see the value in continuous development as a story writes itself. (I did take a look at your Sonia and Tribune profiles, focusing on the personality and biography segments.)
What I typically do is write a brief physical description -- compelling such that it paints a vivid picture in the mind of the reader, but perfunctory and avoiding purple prose (to avoid boring the reader in unnecessary or uninteresting details.) I rarely, if ever, write anything for a personality, and if anything, typically include quotes said about or by the character to whom the profile belongs, either in canon work by myself or by other people's characters. For biography, I frequently omit significant information and occasionally insert misinformation (though I'm usually kind enough to leave a note to let a reader know that some of the information may be false). I advise against including deeply personal or emotional details about inner conflicts, personal tragedies, and such information, as these are best discovered through writing -- and through character interaction.
Let me provide a few examples.
For one of my characters (Arianne Drulović), the description in her profile reads as follows.
Drulović is a diminutive woman with a square jaw and Slavic features. Short, thick dark brown hair frames Drulović's severe lips and dark, piercing eyes.
This is simple and perfunctory, but it provides the reader with an interesting and engaging description of Drulović's physicality. It is not overly detailed, or painfully described through purple prose, nor does it leave large parts of her physical appearance to the imagination.
For another of my characters (Fatin Farah), the description in her profile reads as follows.
A woman of average height, slim, almost bony and lanky in appearance, which makes her seem as if she is taller than she actually is. Her sculpted features seem delicate, with thin eyelashes over wide, expressive eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a sloped forehead. Fatin's dark brown hair is nearly black, somewhere between wavy and curly, and falls to around her bust. She typically dresses in comfortable, practical Western style clothes, although she sometimes wears contemporary style salwar kameez.
This is a bit more detailed than the previous example, but while it provides more details than Drulović's description, also avoids spending excessive amounts of time describing ever last angle of her face or body. It gives concrete, detailed images of the most important or conspicuous aspects of Fatin's physical appearance, and it does so without purple prose. This one also adds a brief detail about the type of clothing that Fatin most often wears, something that might be a useful, if somewhat superficial, detail to provide -- although in brief, as here.
A third example of description taken from Iqbal Adnan's profile is written directly into the biography without distinction. His profile does not separate his description from personality or biography. The descriptive portion reads as follows.
Adnan is a man of average height with olive-toned skin and dark brown hair. His hair is a few inches long and usually unkempt, as is the scraggly stubble that he passes as a beard. Adnan usually dresses like the stereotypical college student, in jeans, sweatpants, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. His youthful face gives him the appearance of a man no older than twenty-two, though he is almost forty. His small eyes are often ringed with dark circles.
...I was writing this post when someone called me away. I'm really upset right now and can't finish writing. Please bother me to finish writing it later.
Thanks,
Blessings and peace,
Ylanne
