AI Influencers

2.7 Workshop: Write Your Own Character Bible

Seven chapters of decisions, assembled into one artifact. Work through the steps in order and you end Part II with a file that Part III can be built against.

Budget two to three hours. Do not research, do not generate anything, and do not open an image tool. This is writing.

Step 1: the positioning sentence (15 minutes)

From 2.2, fill in:

[Persona] helps [specific audience] [achieve a specific outcome or feel a specific way], unlike [the alternative they currently have].

Then check the three constraints: no "AI" in the sentence, specific enough to exclude someone, and the alternative is a real option the audience uses today.

Write it at the top of the file. Everything below should be consistent with it, and if it is not, the sentence is wrong or the section below is.

Step 2: the three acts (20 minutes)

From 2.4, three sentences:

  • Before: where she came from and what it cost
  • Now: the present project, in progress
  • Toward: what she is working toward, and what stands in the way

The third one is the test. If it is vague — "growing", "getting better", "building something" — the persona has no narrative and the account will plateau. Make it specific enough to fail at.

Step 3: the six sections (60 minutes)

From 2.3, fill in the template. Copy this structure into your file:

## Identity
name / age (and whether it advances) / origin / current city / languages / occupation /
relationship / family and friends (named)

## Physical
height / build / head-to-body ratio / distinguishing marks / hair (length, color, texture) /
face attributes (the ones the reference plate will hold) / hands (nails, jewelry) /
voice (register, pace, accent, verbal tics)

## Style
palette (3 + 2) / brand posture (fictional or real) / four occasions and what she wears to each /
seasonality (hemisphere, what changes)

## World
home and recurring objects / neighborhood and the recurring cafe / work / transport / pets /
twenty places, three objects each

## Voice
sentence length and rhythm / words she uses / words she never uses / register /
emoji and punctuation habits / five opinions specific enough to argue with /
what she never says / how she handles being wrong

## Canon
ten facts, each falsifiable in a single post

Two fields in that list are worth doing slowly.

Twenty places with three objects each. This is your content engine, and it is why section four is worth an hour on its own. If you fill it out and find you have eight, stop and add twelve — this is the single highest-value half hour in Part II.

What she never says. Negative space defines a character faster than preferences do, and it prevents the specific slip that ends a persona's credibility.

Step 4: the ten canon facts (20 minutes)

Write them, then run each through two tests:

Is it falsifiable? "She is kind" fails; nothing can contradict it. "She does not drink alcohol" passes. "Her sister is never named in a caption" passes and is countable.

Does it resolve a decision? Does this fact tell you what to do in a scene, a sponsorship, or a comment reply? A fact that resolves nothing is decoration.

Ten facts that pass both tests will handle most of the next year's ambiguities for you.

Step 5: the twelve-month map (20 minutes)

From 2.4, fill in the table: season, event, appearance, content consequence, for each month. Include:

  • At least two planned low points
  • At least one appearance change, scheduled
  • At least four empty months

Then write the header:

| Date | Fact established | Where | Constraint it creates |

Step 6: the consistency test (20 minutes)

Twenty questions the persona must answer without hesitation. Answer them in her voice, in one or two sentences each. Any question you cannot answer reveals an unspecific field above.

  1. What do you do for a living, and how long have you done it?
  2. Where did you grow up, and what do you miss about it?
  3. What are you working on right now that is not finished?
  4. What did you fail at recently?
  5. Who is the person closest to you, and what is their name?
  6. What is the first thing you do in the morning?
  7. What do you drink, and at what time of day?
  8. What is in your bag right now?
  9. What do you wear when nobody sees you?
  10. What do you think about the thing most people in your field disagree with you on?
  11. What are you bad at, and are you trying to fix it?
  12. What did you spend too much money on?
  13. What is your relationship with your phone?
  14. What do you do when you are angry?
  15. What is the last thing you cooked or ate that you made yourself?
  16. What do you do on a day with no obligations?
  17. What is your opinion about the thing your audience argues about most?
  18. What would you never post, and why?
  19. What is the goal you have not told anyone about?
  20. Someone asks if you are real. What do you say?

Question 20 is the disclosure mechanism from 11.3, in the persona's voice, and if you cannot answer it fluently, the answer will be worse in public.

The hesitation rule: if you have to think for more than a moment, the underlying field is underspecified, and you will improvise in public. Go back and fix the field.

Step 7: the distinctiveness test (15 minutes)

Take the positioning sentence and the space section from 2.1 — and the reference accounts from your 1.6 teardown. Then answer:

  • Which of the twelve teardown points would describe your persona and the reference account equally well?
  • If someone showed a stranger one post from each, could they tell them apart?
  • What is the one thing about your persona that no account in your niche has?

If the answer to the third question is "nothing yet", you have a competent persona and not a distinctive one. That is survivable — chapter 8.4's launch plan works with competence — but say it out loud rather than discovering it after a month of publishing.

Step 8: file it and stop

Save the bible in the persona's folder (00-bible/ per 3.6's tree), with the positioning sentence at the top and the canon at the bottom where it is easy to reach. Version it. Do not touch it for a week.

The week matters. A bible written and immediately revised is usually one you are still deciding about, and the revisions will be stylistic rather than substantive. Come back after normal life has made you forget the reasoning, and read it cold. What you cannot remember the reason for is what is underspecified.

The gate

  • accepted? Move to Part III.

Checklist before you answer yes:

  1. The positioning sentence passes all three constraints.
  2. The third act is specific enough to fail.
  3. All six sections are filled, including twenty places with three objects.
  4. Ten canon facts, each falsifiable and decision-resolving.
  5. The twelve-month map has two lows, one appearance change, four empty months.
  6. All twenty consistency questions answered in voice, without hesitation.
  7. The disclosure answer (question 20) is fluent and written down.
  8. You can name one thing no account in your niche has — or you have consciously accepted that you cannot yet.
  9. The bible is saved, versioned, in the persona's folder.

Eight of nine is not a pass on item three. The is the difference between a persona you can publish from for a year and one that runs dry in month two.

What you leave with

A complete character bible: positioning sentence, three-act backstory, six filled sections including the prop closet, ten falsifiable canon facts, a twelve-month map with planned lows and empty months, a timeline register, twenty consistency answers including the disclosure, and a distinctiveness verdict you have stated deliberately. Part III builds the workshop that renders her.