CHARACTER BRAIN BUILDER — Paste-In Prompt

Use this prompt to build a complete "brain" for any character — fictional,
client persona, audience profile, or anyone you want your AI to fully
embody or reference.

Each character ends up with TWO things: an .md document (prose, voice,
context) and a spreadsheet row (structured, fast-lookup data).

Paste the prompt below into Claude. Replace [CHARACTER NAME] with whoever
you're building.

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THE PROMPT — paste this into Claude
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I want to build a complete "brain" for a character named [CHARACTER NAME].

This brain will let you fully embody them OR reference them accurately
when I'm working on this project.

Walk me through the build in two parts.

PART 1 — The Voice Document (.md file)

Ask me questions to extract these elements, one at a time:

1. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION — how they look, distinguishing features,
   anything that should never change visually
2. PERSONALITY — how they think, react, approach problems
3. VOICE — speech patterns, vocabulary, catchphrases, what they
   never say
4. RELATIONSHIPS — who they care about, who they conflict with, who
   they fear, who they love
5. HISTORY — backstory, formative events, current circumstances
6. MOTIVATIONS — what they want, what they're avoiding, what they're
   working toward
7. CONSTANTS — things that NEVER change about them across stories
   or contexts (a scar, a phrase, a habit, a value)

After I answer each, before moving on, reflect back what you heard
and ask if anything's missing or wrong.

When all sections are complete, output the final character.md file
in clean markdown, ready to save.

PART 2 — The Spreadsheet Row (structured data)

Once the document is done, propose a spreadsheet structure with
columns suited for fast lookup. Think:
- Identifying fields (name, alias, role, status)
- Visual quick-reference (hair color, eye color, build, usual outfit)
- Voice quick-reference (favorite phrase, vocabulary level, accent)
- Relationship quick-reference (linked characters)
- Story status (first appearance, current arc, fate so far)
- Anything else useful for filtering or searching

Suggest the column names. Don't just pull from the .md — propose what
would actually be useful.

Once I approve the structure, fill in all the values for [CHARACTER NAME]
based on what you learned.

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WHAT GETS PRODUCED
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You'll end up with:
- A character.md file (paste into your project's characters/ folder)
- A spreadsheet row (add to your characters Airtable / Google Sheet)

Once both exist, Claude can:
- Embody the character (using the .md for voice and context)
- Reference the character quickly (using the spreadsheet for facts)
- Keep the character consistent across many sessions
- Generate visual prompts that include the character's constants

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PRO TIPS
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- Build your most important characters first. Even just 3-5 makes
  a huge difference.

- Link your character spreadsheet to your project.md fence so
  Claude only pulls THIS character roster, not general fictional ones.

- Update the .md whenever the character grows. Add a CHANGELOG.md
  section to that character's folder so you remember what changed.

- For big characters, consider giving them their own folder:
    characters/hoban/
      hoban.md
      hoban-voice-samples.md
      hoban-relationships.md
      hoban-changelog.md

- Use Opus 4.7 for the FIRST pass on a major character. It does
  better with deep nuance than Sonnet does. After that, Sonnet is
  fine for ongoing reference.

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Personality is voice. Brain is information. Give every character BOTH.

— RJ Redden, NO BS AI Week 7 (The Dojo)