Indie sci-fi discussion

What process do you go through to create and develop believable, layered characters?

I use a separate document entirely (and keep it old school with a pen & paper) to make a web. It’s something I can look back to, jot down things as they come to mind, and re-draw as characters form more fully.

My characters are like people I know. I start with positioning them in terms of relationship to the storyline, and I may write down key elements of their back story, but as my narrative develops, I get to know them. I imagine their reactions to situations, how they interact with each other, how they would respond differently to similar things. I find I don’t need to write this kind of thing down after a while because they become as familiar to me as real people.
And at that point, the writing process itself becomes the most enjoyable because my character interactions begin to take on a life of their own. I can sometimes be surprised by the way a planned interaction actually ends up panning out! When this kind of flow is at its best, I feel like an observer of these interactions rather than their creator. I love that.

I like to give everyone some backstory and a couple of unique identifiable traits which sometimes are easier for readers to remember than the names. The backstory can come out bit by bit later in the story.

I kept a "character profile" sheet in a separate document for each character. Since I started using Scrivener I've moved them all under a "Characters" node. The profiles detail name, age, gender, physical description, motivations, personal, private, professional histories, relationships, any key descriptive text I've used, speech & movement mannerisms, etc. Much of this never makes it into the story, but it informs everything I write about that character.

On one of my final editing passes, I refreshing my memory of each sheet and confirm the character as written matches expectations.