How Do You Come Up With Your Characters?
1) Do you plan them out?
2) Do you pick out their names before you’ve written them?
3) Do you always know what they look like, sound like, etc beforehand?
4) Are you a planner or do you just like to write first and organize later?
This is what I do -
1) I don’t plan except for the general idea of the book, then I base my characters around it.
2) Yes, I like to pick out names, but I am willing to change them if they don’t fit.
3) No, I don’t know beforehand. Most of the time, I’m writing and get to the description part before I decide what they look like. I like to keep things kind of vague so people can imagine the character to look how they want them to.
4) I only plan the idea and general direction for most my books. Then I just write, but I do go slowly because things change. Some chapters and scenes come easier than others.
**********
My characters are their own people. I think I’ve read that’s the case for a lot of writers. It’s not always easy to come up with their history, their fears, their desires and their hopes. Of course, in romances, the main characters will come up with a happy ever after, which sometimes makes it easier to torture them along the way 
I find that planning in more than a general idea of the story leaves me bored. So I ‘go with it’ and just write. Sometimes, what I plan changes, because the direction I’m going will lead to a better story.
Then, the inspiration comes from myself, most of the time. I think all my female characters are slightly based on my own fears, my own past, my own hopes. Especially when it comes to the male characters – who love the heroine and just simply want her to themselves and to love, honor, protect and respect her.
Who could possibly hate that?
So tell me…what do you do?
Bonus Points to anyone who guesses what the title of this post is based on 
