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As important as history is personality and attitudes. A character's attitudes may grow out of their back story, but it can also be interesting when it clashes with reader perceptions. Do you have a man who comes from a long line of construction workers who is effeminant and hates dirt? Or a white girl from a biggoted family that finds herself attracted to a black man?
I haven't found character maps to be very useful, myself. I tend to approach it from the opposite direction. Instead of developing a character map and then writing according to it, I tend to write first, and as I see certain characteristics coming through, I may make a note of it to keep track.
So long story short, you may want to just start writing. The act of writing itself will help you to decide what you need to keep track of, as well as what you need to know about your character.
Michael
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"Don't imagine that the art of poetry is any simpler than the art of music, or that you can please the expert before you have spent at least as much effort on the art of verse as an average piano teacher spends on the art of music." - Ezra Pound
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