My Way of Creating and Developing Characters

My character creation starts in the first (rough) draft of my story.  Often at that level of the writing process my characters will start off very stalk.  In some cases, they may carry many of my own behavioral traits at that level.  While I'm writing, I try putting myself in my main character's body (which is very scant at this level of the writing process) and have the character make decisions in the story that I think they would make in a given situation.  For example, I ask myself, what would J. Doe do if he/she comes home to discover that someone has dismantled the inside of his/her house? 

After I write the first draft, I will create a profile for each character.  In doing this, I will skim over the story's initial draft for each character and, based on their actions and any spontaneously created traits, I will try to determine what that character precisely looks like, and what kind of occupation and past-time interests they are likely to have.  I am sure to write down their main motivation or goal.  Then in writing the second draft, based on each character's profile I will more specifically focus on how they would go about achieving or working towards their goals (this is especially so for the main character(s)), making edits wherever needed in the characters.

--S.R.