Write a portrait, not a CV
A good profile makes a person present through observation and carefully chosen details. It does not merely tell the reader what someone has done. It reveals influences, values, actions and contradictions, so that the reader begins to understand who the person is.
The essentials
Do not begin by turning a life into a chronological CV. Look instead for its lines of force: influences, roots, values and turning points. Nobody is simply admirable or objectionable. A profile gains credibility when it leaves room for the complexity you discover rather than flattening the subject into a label.
Use the mirror approach: compare the familiar image with what closer reporting reveals. Meet the person, speak to people who know them and read existing accounts. What appears different when you look again? This comparison must rest on reporting, not on a contrived attempt to make the subject seem surprising.
Quote and describe. Gestures, posture, habits, speech and movement can reveal what a statement alone cannot. Like a painter, choose details that give the person substance instead of collecting everything indiscriminately. A symbolic image must be observed, never manufactured. Even a tribute becomes stronger when it retains rough edges and contradictions. A profile that removes every complication turns into communication rather than journalism.
Take it to the field
Choose a detail that reveals a quality, then look for what qualifies it. Give actions as much room as statements. The portrait comes alive when the reader can see the person and understand their contradictions.
Your turn
Observe someone you know and record ten precise details. Keep the three most revealing ones, then write a fifteen-line profile without following the chronology of the person’s life.