Survey: How far do you go with creating characters?

I write down far less than you do. The only notes I make are details which I might forget but need to stay consistent, i.e. names of siblings, home town. I don't write down their age, gender or appearance. If that isn't fixed in my head, I don't feel like I know them well enough to write them yet.

For my fanfic original characters, I tend to write a vignette featuring them, and I refer back to that to keep their character consistent in the future. I couldn't describe myself or any other person I know in terms of a major and minor good feature and a major and minor flaw, so how's it going to work for a fictional character?

I do see an awful lot of laundry lists here, as if people feel that writing down lots of disconnected qualities will somehow make their character better developed. Often they are so disconnected that they could never work - for instance the shy, confident character who's really clumsy but also wonderful at martial arts and has tightrope walking as a hobby...

For my main or more important characters(those that stick around longer), I like to fill out a resume.

I have them all saved to my computer.

This is what it looks like(blank).

Name:

Current Address:

Date & Place of Birth:

Height/Weight:

Physical Description:

Ethnic Origin:

Parents' Names & Occupations:

Other Family Members:

Spouse or Lover:

Friends' Names & Occupations:

Social Class:

Education:

Occupation/Employer:

Salary:

Job-Related Skills:

Personal Skills:

Hobbies/Recreations:

Personal Qualities (imagination, taste, etc.):

Ambitions:

Fears/Anxieties:

Intelligence & Subjects of Intelligence:

Sense of Humor:

Health/Physical Condition:

Sexual Orientation:

Tastes in Food, Drink, Literature, Music, Decor, and Clothing:

Attitude Toward Life:

Attitude Toward Death:

When I'm explaining a main character's physical appearance, I usually do complete sentences as if writing a police report. For personal characteristics and qualities I will include if they have any accents or beliefs and how they differ from most people.

When I'm working with a not-so-important character, I may go over their attitude and physical description since the rest doesn't really matter.

I like to go the extra mile when developing my characters.

:)

Depending on the character, depends on how deep I get into with their notes and back story. Minor incodental characters, I normally do very little if any for their character profiles prior to writing the book. Important characters and major characters, I go quite a bit more in depth with back stories, though it's rare I ever include the whole background into the main arch.

Most of my character profiles consist of things they are going to do in the story. What they're going to do, gives me a general idea of what kind of personality I can give them. For example, if I say my character is going to betray the kingdom later in the story, I can then make personality and a back story around what he's going to do. I can now make him maybe very opinionated, and maybe come from a family that believes in standing up for what you believe in.

I plan my characters out thoroughly in my head. I tried making note cards about everything about them, but it didn't work. Whenever I create a new character, I start the story by sort of "getting to know them." I notice the difference in the character from the beginning and at the end, but I know that I can fix it in the second draft, when I know all about them.

Well usually each character gets about 2 pages of notes. However, through the writing process I add and change some details.

Most of my notes are about motivation, story goals, ambitions rather than their outer appearence.

I do something similar to you, I have a mix between words and sentances. And the amount of detail I put into a character is pretty much related to their role. I'm thinking maybe I should start developing side characters more... I may use your character profile idea.

Well i am horrible when it comes to writing character profiles...

I have them in my head perfectly, and know alot about them.... but when it comes to writing about them, such as their personality. I just can't seem to do them justice!

So i usually wait until i have written a bit of my story before i start... because that way, if i want them to change, i find it much easier... not that I have much say in whether theychange or not.... It seems they take over my brain :S

MY profiles are faily basic, but I do love finding pictures that look like my character, its amazing when i do. (sometimes I imagine theem SIMILAR to a celeb anyway..

I have fourteen pages worth of information for each main character. This includes physical traits, background & personality, astrology sign & what it means, interview questions (answered by the characters themselves), a character-written about me section, relationships, and a picture of their homes.

I just really want my characters to seem real--I want the readers to love (or hate) them.

Well I have those things in mind when I'm writing the characters. I've never gone so far as to fill out descriptions like those, but at least I know where I'm coming from.

I write in first-person, so I usually just practice thinking like that person after I have the basic concept of them down. How would he think, react to certain events, feel about another person, reply to a snide comment, etc.? What is the best way to annoy him? What is his worst fear? What is his goal in life?

After I get their feelings down, I ask the question why. Why is spoiled milk his worst fear? What incident triggered this? Why is the best way to annoy him to make fun of his missing thumb? Why is all he wants in life to get an apartment that has a refrigerator?

Okay, those were random examples. Good luck.