Editing SHELTER:Charlotte Devereux (section)

=Questionnaire=


'''Name three traits you'd like to see in your character:''' independent, resourceful, sophisticated

'''Name three traits your character doesn't like to see in others:''' boorishness, proselytising, submissiveness.

'''Where was your character born and when?''' In New York City in 1973.

'''What is your character's ideal speciality?''' Field work. Blending in, shadowing, conducting surveillance, lifting ID cards and breaking into places.

'''What does your character look like?''' Claudia Black. Athletic, attractive, and hardened. Tall, with black hair and grey eyes.

'''Does your character have any quirks?''' No, she's rigorously eliminated them, in order to avoid giving herself away when in the field.

'''What does your character love most?''' A challenge.

'''What are your character's favourite things?''' Mountaineering, painting, driving fast on the open road. Anything that challenges or tests her abilities.

'''What was the most important event in your character's life?''' The day she decided she wanted to be a spy. She'd been talking with her favourite uncle at a family get-together after he caught her eavesdropping on him and a visiting friend of the family, and he managed to gently suggest it as a potential career without actually coming out with it. She's almost certain he's in the business too.

'''What does your character think of espionage?''' She not only thinks it is essential for the security of her country, but for the most part, she enjoys the challenge and sense of achievement the work provides.

'''What is your character's motivation?''' To do something extraordinary with her life.

'''What is your character's family like?''' Wealthy, conservative, dignified, “old money”. Her father was a Senator, and prestigious social gatherings and dinners were a common occurrence when Charlotte was growing up. Her mother is still alive, but struggling to come to terms with her husband's death. And her younger sister Nicole now lives in Boston, where she works as a doctor and is married with children.

'''What are your character's personal views?''' She is an atheist, and a hawkish Democrat. Economically conservative and socially liberal.

'''What are your character's values?''' Self-respect, integrity, personal perfection, winning, political values, religious values, happiness, sex, love, friends, family, reputation, beauty, justice, career success, power, money, possessions, justice, fame.

'''What is your character's greatest fear?''' To reach the end of her life without ever achieving her full potential. Never doing anything important with her life.

'''How does your character feel about her nation?''' She's proud to be an American and loves her country. Charlotte is a firm patriot, who holds to the maxim “my country, right or wrong”. She may not agree with everything its government does, but that doesn't change the fact that she loves the country and what it represents. She's always taken JFK's famous words “ask not what your country...” to heart.

'''What would your character change about herself?''' A lot of things – she's a perfectionist, who sets herself impossibly high standards to live up to. At the moment, she wants to get fitter – she believes she's lost the edge.

'''Does your character have any dark secrets or hidden shame in her past?''' She slept with her sister's husband once, back when he was her fiancé. Her guilt over that, and her increasing contempt for the man has meant that she has largely cut herself off from her family, avoiding them except at Thanksgiving etc. She's knows he's cheated on her sister with other women since, but can't raise the topic without permanently harming her own relationship with her sister.