Many authors delve into the characters of a story before they begin writing it. A little aid to get to know your own characters are characters questionnaires. A list of questions to or about a character. Two of these are available at Gotham Writers’ Workshop:
» Character Questionnaires – Get to Know Your Characters
The first one is structured like a check list. It contains simple questions like “What is your character’s name?”, but also more in-depth questions like “What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?”.
A nice twist has the second collection of questions. It is structured like an interview, so you can interview your own character. 🙂
These questionnaires are probably not revolutionary, but I think they can come in handy as a source for inspiration.
(via kreativrauschen.de)