Interviewing your character for realism

[Arielcat]

Of course, my post was just one way an author might go about characterisation and wasn't intending to be prescriptive – anything that works for you is what works best. As you said, you have character consistency on point by the sounds of it, but for those that struggle with this, knowing this much detail about their characters 'off the page' may help. I can imagine it'll be useful for long series with loads of characters, too. And the list can be as extensive as you like.

There could be a happy marriage of those ideas – write your story and let the characters organically develop and just keep a few notes on key characteristics.

Another type of list I feel isn't mentioned much is one that's set up as a table, one side having traits and emotional reactions on one side, and 'How I will show this in scenes' on the other. this would be a good way to ensure characters have enough differences.

This is interesting but what often actually happens (in real life too of course) is a lot less "planned and organized" than that.
Character B says X, character A does Y, and all of a sudden you as the writer know more about them and have found out what they would say or do.
However.
If I realize that I don't already know how to actually exactly *show* that to the reader, then I can see some possibilities available that I might do some brainstorming to help me figure out how to show that particular thing a bit better or a bit more believably to other people.
Usually though I would probably just let it happen.
Some characters do tend to do better if you just let them each behave in their own natural way.
(Just like actual people too of course.)
(Well, maybe not exactly *just* like, but close enough.)

 

[The Dark One]

Yes.
At the same time there are also other factors that are possible.
For example, if a particular character is actually supposed to be acting out of character, then you'd better make sure that the audience knows that, because otherwise the desired impact upon the audience isn't going to happen, and the emotional impact upon the audience will be practically none.

What if your character is an unreliable narrator? Do you want the audience to know? Surely yes, but not straight away.

My most successful novel was told by a seriously unreliable (first person) narrator who revels in lying to others but also lies to himself. It wasn't easy to write but very satisfying. I never really talk about it here though as it wasn't fantasy.

The reason I don't need to do much work developing characters these days is that whenever I have the key sparking idea for a plot, the main character and at least one important character quirk will come to me in that instant. The plot and the character are bound together so tightly that the plot could simply not work without that exact character.

From my perspective, I can't stress enough the importance of plot-link to character.

 

[Arielcat]

What if your character is an unreliable narrator? Do you want the audience to know? Surely yes, but not straight away.

My most successful novel was told by a seriously unreliable (first person) narrator who revels in lying to others but also lies to himself. It wasn't easy to write but very satisfying. I never really talk about it here though as it wasn't fantasy.

The reason I don't need to do much work developing characters these days is that whenever I have the key sparking idea for a plot, the main character and at least one important character quirk will come to me in that instant. The plot and the character are bound together so tightly that the plot could simply not work without that exact character.

From my perspective, I can't stress enough the importance of plot-link to character.

Exactly.