Questionnaire: Part 2 Blank

Postnatal Information and Childhood

The purpose of this section is to address the character's life immediately after birth through childhood.

From here on, "parents" will refer to the people the character lives/lived with through childhood and adolescence into adulthood, "birth parents" will refer to those who conceived and gave birth to the character, and as before "birth parent" will refer to just the one that gave birth, where relevant.



Did the birth parent(s) keep their child?
If so, was it because they wanted it? Were they pressured into it? Was it expected of them?
Were all parents involved in keeping the child? Were they separated after the birth? Why or why not?
In the case of a single parent, is this normal for their culture? Why or why not?
Was the (birth) parent able to go it alone because they would receive outside support? What would it be?
How long was it before the parent(s) went home with the child? (Unless they gave birth at home)
Upon returning home, who was primarily responsible for the care of the child? The birth parent? The partner? Their parents? A wet nurse? Why?
Was there sharing of duties between parents? How did that go?
Were there any difficulties in providing for the child at first? Why or why not?
Were there any complications after birth which occurred either in the birth parent or the child? What were they? What effect did they have on both of them? (e.g., did the child get sick and become unable to nurse? Did the birth parent get depressed?)
What was the result? (e.g., did the birth parent try throwing their child out a window? It doesn't have to be that drastic; it could just be the child got a cold and everyone freaked out, and then it got better.)

Did the birth parent(s) not keep their child?
Did they give it up for adoption? Why?
Did they pass it off on relatives? Why?
Did they try to kill it? Why?
Did they leave it on someone's doorstep, or otherwise abandon it? Why?
What were the circumstances that determined this decision?
What was the mental state of the birth parent(s) to cause them to make their decision? Were they depressed? Mentally unstable? Murderous? Did they just really hate children?
Who ended up with the child? Were they happy about this?
In the case that they were not, what did they do? Did they keep it anyway? Did they put it up for adoption? Did they try to find the real parents and sue them for neglect?
If they chose to keep the child, how did they treat it? Were they loving? Did they have children of their own already?
What were their financial circumstances? Were they able to provide for the child? Was this a determining factor in their decision to keep it?
How old was the child when its birth parents didn't want it? Newborn? Toddler age? Older? Was age a factor in their decision to leave it or how they decided to leave it?
Did the people the child ended up with keep their given name, or give a new one? Did they have to go through any formal or legal process to do this? Did this lead to any complications? (e.g. maybe they needed the birth parents to be present or sign something, so they had to hunt them down.)
If there were legal matters to attend to before accepting the child into a new home, how long did that take?  Where was the child kept in the meantime?

CHILDHOOD: birth to adolescence, as defined by your character's species and/or culture

What in your character's culture defines a child? What kind of physical characteristics, mental traits, and behaviors make a child?
In just a few words, what were the character's parents like? Did they get along? Did they fight a lot? Did they smother their kid with love, or were they aloof?
Did the character feel loved, parents' behavior aside? Why or why not? By whom?
Were there siblings? Older or younger? What was the character's birth order?
Was the character a twin? Identical or fraternal? Other?
What were relations with siblings like? Was the character picked on? Was the character the center of attention and the cause of sibling rivalry? Was the character passive and always tagging along?
Who was the character's favorite sibling? Why?
Who was the character's least favorite sibling? Why?
Who was the character's favorite parent? Why?
Least favorite? Why?
What about their parents bothered them? Maybe one was too strict, or one just watched a lot of TV, or one always flushed the toilet while the character was in the shower. Make it as petty as you like.
What about their siblings bothered them? Were they jealous of one's looks? Did one always steal their toys? Was one a tattletale?
What kind of sibling was your character? Were they the good-looking one? Were they the toy thief? Were they the tattletale? Did this have anything to do with their birth order?
What kind of child was your character? Obedient? Belligerent? Always demanding attention?
Was the character quick or slow to develop? How about average?
When was the character considered no longer an infant?
When were their first steps taken? First words? Was this considered early, normal, or late for their kind?
Did their development have any effect on how their parents and siblings treated them?
Were they close to any relatives outside the nuclear family? (e.g. parents' siblings, grandparents, cousins, cousins' best friends or children, step-parents' relatives) Who and why?
What was the parents' take on punishment?
Did they favor any child over another, and punish them less?
Did they get physical? How?
Was one parent more punishing than another? Who and why? How did they differ? Did this affect their relationship with their child(ren)?
Did they have a naughty stair/chair/corner/other? Was this effective?
Did they just yell at their kids? Why or why not?
Did they use the soap-in-the-mouth method? Why or why not?
Was their sort of punishment socially acceptable? Why or why not?
How often did the character get punished as a child? For doing what sorts of things?
Was the character allowed to play outside? Why or why not?
Was the character made to eat things they didn't like? Why or why not?
Was the character allowed to stay up late? Why or why not? How late is "late"?
Did the character have to share a room with any siblings? Why or why not? How did they interact in the room? Outside of it?
Did the character have to get parents' permission to do a lot of things? Like what? Why?
Did the character's parents monitor their friends? Why or why not?
Were the character's parents friends with their friends' parents? Did they get along?

Did the character attend school? At what age did they start?
What was the name of the school? How many grades did it include? Were they large or small classes?
Did they attend the same school as their siblings? As their parents?
If siblings were at the same school, how did they interact there? Did they ignore each other? Were they friends?
Where was the school located in relation to their residence? Was it far? Near?
How did they get to school?
How did they get home?
How long were they there each day? How many days a week?
What did they do when they got sick? Did they stay home, or did their parents make them go anyway? What sort of excuses did they come up with to skip school?
Did they enjoy school? Why?
Did they have a lot of friends at school? Just a few close friends? Acquaintances? No friends at all?
How about teacher relationships – were they fond of any particular teacher? Who and why?
How did the teachers treat the character? Why?
How quickly did the character learn? Why?
Did this affect how others viewed them? Did it help them make friends or enemies? What did their parents think?
Was the character ever bullied? Why or why not?
Was the character a bully? Why or why not?
Did the character ever cheat on an assignment? Why or why not?
Did the character ever get punished for doing something against school rules? What did they do, and what was the punishment?
What was their parents' reaction to this?
What did their siblings think about it?
Did they get punished at home as well for doing bad things at school, no matter how slight? (for example, I got detention once for handing in a permission slip late and my mother made me write 500 times "I will remember to hand in my forms on time.")
How good was the character at doing homework?
Did they need help? Often?
Who did they seek help from? Parents? Siblings? Teachers? Friends? Did they have a private tutor?
Did a need for help with school mar their self-image? Did it make them feel inferior?
Did a need for help with school affect their friendships? Why and how?
Were they conversely really smart, and never needed help?
Did they lord it over the other dumber kids? Why or why not?
Did their intelligence affect their friendships? Why and how?
Did they ever skip a grade? Which one(s), and why?
Did they ever repeat a grade? Which one(s), and why?

What did the character do in their free time?
Did they play outside?
Did they play inside?
Were they always with friends, or did they make alone time?
Were they shy? Social?
What was their favorite hobby? Playing cops and robbers? Reading? Drawing? Singing in the bath? Collecting stickers?
What was their favorite toy?
Who did they get it from? When? How did it become their favorite?
Is there any sentimental attachment they still have to this toy?
Was it also the favorite toy of a sibling? Did they fight over it?
Did they keep it in a special place in their room?
Did they ever lose it? What happened?
Did the character ever get injured while playing? What happened?
Did the character ever injure someone else while playing? What happened?
Did their parents try to get them to do extracurricular things? (e.g. sports, dance, playing an instrument, etc.)
If the character participated in something, what was it?
Did they like what they did? Why or why not?
Were their parents' efforts because they thought it would be good for the character, or were they trying to live out their own dreams in their children?
Did the character know how their parents felt?
Did they do extracurricular things because they wanted to make their parents happy, or because they couldn't get out of it?
Did they make any friends through doing activities? Were they close friends?
Did they make any rivals through doing activities? How did they feel about each other?
Did participation in extracurricular contribute to the development of the character's personality? What aspects of personality were affected? To what degree? (e.g. extreme competitiveness might stem from a desire to please one's parents, or it might be natural and only enhanced by doing things like sports.)
If the character did not like their activity, what would they rather have been doing?
Did they ever get a chance to do what they really wanted?
Did they ever feel stressed as children? (This is not a good thing and can lead to negative traits later, but don't avoid the question if it's true; it can lead to interesting character developments further on.)