interviewing them putting them in outfits magazine pictures that look like them pretending they are sitting next to you. . .have a conversation with them :)) this CAN be done while driving, but I do NOT recommend that ;-) because you can look like perhaps you shouldn't be driving since you are talking to an invisible person heh :)
Have her/him write a couple of journal/blog entries. What would they say in a blog (that other people might read) vs. in a private journal? Have her/him write an e-mail or letter to another character. Or to you.
Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, has a character profile form on his webpage (www.rickriordan.com) which I thought was absolutely ridiculous the first time I saw it, but about six chapters into my first middle grade novel, when I realized that the minor characters weren't so minor and needed to be fleshed out, the form suddenly seemed genius. And it soooo helps, even if you don't go to the bother of giving everyone a birthdate, favorite color, etc. Good luck! I'm going through the same angst of naming characters for my second book right now. It's the sweetest -- and hardest -- part of writing novels.
I find that the further I get in my WIP, the more I learn about my characters. I have to have something written about them before they start to reveal their traits and quirks. Then I might see a kid out in the world who looks like a particular character, and I will make a note to myself: "wiry kid with dark hair and beautiful eyes who teaches swim lessons looks like [character]."
The character sheets sound like a good idea, too, although I haven't done that yet.
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interviewing them
putting them in outfits
magazine pictures that look like them
pretending they are sitting next to you. . .have a conversation with them :))
this CAN be done while driving, but I do NOT recommend that ;-) because you can look like perhaps you shouldn't be driving since you are talking to an invisible person
heh :)
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The character sheets sound like a good idea, too, although I haven't done that yet.
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