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I don't believe in making lists about my characters. Favourite colour, music, and all that. Too much like hard work. Mostly my characters emerge out of a combination of plot and research and human experience. But I do tend to answer four specific questions about my characters...
(I don't always write these answers down. It's often just in my head.)
1. How does this character come across on first meeting? I like to describe them in two sentences - their personality, rarely physical appearance unless it matters to their character.
1. How does this character come across on first meeting? I like to describe them in two sentences - their personality, rarely physical appearance unless it matters to their character.
2. What is surprising about them? I answer this on 2 levels. What is immediately surprising (which is a good way of stopping myself writing stereotypes), and what is surprising on closer acquaintance.
3. What do they want? From life and from my story (sometimes but not always the same). I like every character, even the minor ones, to have a goal. Often I find good sub-plots emerge this way.
4. What are they hiding? Often this is a plot secret, a reveal. But sometimes it can simply lend depth to a character in a way that informs the character's actions in the plot rather than the plot itself.
