Character development - peculiarities?

Gala said:

I don't do this with every character, but they do sometimes whisper their dirty little secrets to me in the night....

I also automatically place my chars into one of the four personality quadrants. Yeah, I've possibly had too much therapy <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif" />

Click to expand...

I love this - I'm fairly new to fiction writing, but I do this also. I wonder if a colorful past (of the writer) doesn't make for more colorful character creation?

I've never done a character chart. I once started one on the mc in my first novel, currently shelved pending more editing, but gave it up as a fruitless exercise. The characters in my current novel most definitely all have their own traits/peculiarities. However, some of them are more vague than others; just a feeling of something about them. I didn't plan out their traits - they wrote themselves. I don't think this will always happen, though. I know there will be times when a character will seem flat and I'll have to use some of those lovely exercises.

I love the variety of input on these forums, by the way!

Whoa, five-year-old zombie thread alert.