CreativeFree tool
Character Questionnaire From Your Notes
Tell River what you know about a character. Get a 28-question questionnaire answered from your notes, with gaps filled as clearly marked suggestions.
Free to start · Opens in your River workspace, ready to edit and share
What makes a character questionnaire useful
Most questionnaires fail in the same way: they collect facts that never touch the story. Knowing a character's favorite color or star sign rarely changes a single scene. Knowing what they want, why it matters now, and what they believe about themselves that is not true changes almost every scene they are in. A good questionnaire spends most of its questions on desire, fear, flaw and relationships, and only a few on surface details such as looks and tastes.
Answers matter most when they connect. A past hurt teaches the character a false belief; the belief protects them from a fear; it also blocks what they need; and the story's pressure forces them to face it. When those links hold, the character's choices feel inevitable rather than convenient. When they do not, the character starts doing whatever the plot needs, and readers usually notice the strain long before the writer does.
You do not have to use everything you learn on the page. Much of a character's background stays implicit, shaping how they speak and what they avoid rather than appearing as exposition. The value of filling in a questionnaire is that you stop guessing about the character in the middle of drafting a scene. When a choice comes up, you already know what this person would do, and why, under enough pressure, they might surprise themselves and the reader.
How it works
Character questionnaires are useful, but filling in dozens of blank questions is slow, and the answers rarely connect. Here you share what you already know about a character, as a few lines, notes or pasted pages, and River answers a 28-question questionnaire from it. The questions cover basics, past, wants, fears and flaws, relationships, voice and arc. Answers drawn from your notes are written plainly, so you can see at a glance what you have already decided.
Where your notes are silent, River proposes an answer that fits the facts you gave and marks it as a suggestion, so nothing invented passes for your own decision. The answers are built to connect: the hurt in the past explains the false belief, the belief blocks what the character needs, and the flaw causes trouble in this story. At the end, River lists the open questions only you can settle, each with two options to weigh.
It suits novelists who have a character half-formed and want to see the gaps, and writers revising a draft where a character's choices feel inconsistent. If you paste pages, River also notes contradictions it finds, such as an age that changes between chapters. Pick a role if you like, because a villain, a mentor and a love interest need different questions emphasized. Everything lands in a document you can edit, extend and keep beside your draft while you write.
Share what you know
Write a few lines, paste notes or pages, and pick the character's role if you like.
River answers it
It answers 28 questions from your notes and marks every gap it fills as a suggestion.
Settle open questions
Review the choices only you can make, each offered with two options to consider.
Keep it handy
Edit the document as your character grows and keep it beside your draft while you write.
What you get
- Twenty-eight questions across basics, past, wants, fears and flaws, relationships, voice and arc
- Answers taken from your notes written plainly, so you can see what you have decided
- Gaps filled with answers that fit your facts, each clearly marked as a suggestion
- Answers that connect, so the character's past, beliefs, flaws and choices make sense together
- A closing list of open questions only you can settle, each with two options
- Contradictions flagged when you paste pages, such as a changing age or backstory detail
Common questions
Will River change the details I already have?
No. Every fact you give is kept exactly. River answers from your notes first and fills only the questions your notes leave open. Those answers are marked as suggestions and are built to fit what you have already decided, so you can accept, edit or delete each one without untangling anything you wrote yourself.
What are the 28 questions?
They fall into seven groups: basics such as name, age and work; the past and the hurt that shaped them; wants and needs; fears and flaws; and relationships. Two more cover voice and habits, including a line only they would say, and their arc from start to end. Most questions focus on what drives choices in your story.
Does it work for villains and minor characters?
Yes. Pick the role and River leans on the questions that matter most for it. A villain's answers explain why they believe they are right; a love interest gets a life and goal of their own; a mentor gets a reason to help and a limit. For a minor character, a few lines of notes are enough to start.
Can I paste chapters instead of notes?
Yes. Paste pages or drop in a draft and River reads them for everything the text already establishes about the character, then answers from that. It also lists any contradictions it notices, such as a sibling's name or an age that changes between scenes, so you can fix them before a reader does.
Should I know all of this before I start writing?
Not necessarily. Some writers plan characters in depth first; others discover them while drafting. The questionnaire helps either way. Before a draft, it gives you a working sense of the person. During revision, it shows where a character's choices drift from who they are. You can leave suggestions unresolved until the story tells you the answer.
Built by
Chandler Supple
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.