Fan,
Heres a quick run down on how I did my character. My character thinks hes a pure mortal, but hes actually a minor talent. Since this is your first time doing any RPG's ive broken the descions down with their reasoning so you have something to compare yours to.
8 Refresh/Fate (Hence forth known as r/f), 30 Skill Points (if your a pure mortal you get two more refresh points to use, but if your a pure mortal the only "powers you can buy come from the "stunts" portion of the RPG book).
I then spent Fate Points on the following,
-1 r/f on +5 skill points (GM Fiat), because my character, Ian Fabian, needs to know a little about a lot as an FBI agent. I see my character as being more skillful then "stunt" driven.
-1 r/f 1 I know just the guy, but we have to find him first: when gathering info contacts +2. (was I know just the guy +1 Contacts, +1 Time increment change, change allowed by GM)- Since my character investigates the weird it stands that hes fairly well connected, but the weird like to stay off the radar, so i got to do a little digging to find em.
-1 r/f Is that all you got (no pain no gain) 2 additional mild consequences. - he hunts the weird professionally, got to be able to take a few bruises if you hunt monsters.
-1 r/f scene of the crime: +1 investigation and one increment faster - ahh, because im a special agent, this was the first stunt i thought of when i made my character.
-1 r/f On your toes, +2 for initiative: Again in my line of work sometimes the big nasty thing with claws really is coming to eat you. Better be ready for it.
-1 r/f Monster Killer: due to training and knowing how to fight those that things that go bump in the night add +2 to guns when fighting the weird (and only the weird). - Worked this one out with Ren. He liked the idea so we kept it. An alternative was +1 to guns and +1 to Discipline (for fear).
Now for the power that keeps me from being human.
-1 r/f (2 -1 for the catch) Inhuman recovery (catch: ?) - will recover from any wound. can shrug off one minor consequence. heal at one increment lower (severe to moderate), the thing is my character has no clue he has this, where it came from or why. From his prospective its ahh well maybe that gibbering nasty only got me for a flesh wound, but man i could have sworn it cut to the bone....o' well.
Leaving me a grand total of 1 refresh/fate (have to keep one or your just a goon) for the start of the game. Basically that means the GM can compel me though my aspects and i cant fight back. I also cant influence "fate" to help me out (re-rolling dice ect). We can earn more r/f as the game goes on, but starting off we have a slight up hill battle to climb.
Your stress tracks don't change, permanently (well unless you loose a hand or something). They may go down if you suffer a defeat of some sort, but will bounce back to there full capacity at some point. Your Skills determine your starting stress. The big ones are, Conviction, mental stress; Endurance, physical stress; and Presence for Social Stress.
Does that help? How about your Aspects, you having an OK time coming up with those?
