Physical characteristics
Name (It must fit. Don't
call a 98 pound weakling Thor, unless it's some
kind of nickname), appearance, age, voice (sexy,
gravely, lisp), annoying or unusual habits (knuckle
cracking, nail biting, pencil chewing.
I wrote a
fictional piece called "One Per Customer," and
when the main character gets upset, he likes to
throw his heavy glass paperweight through the
office wall. He's a cop, and his office looks like it's
made of Swiss Cheese.), wardrobe.
Mental Attributes
Personality, how they relate to
their relatives, their intelligence and schooling,
fears, wants, goals, dreams, priorities, drives,
skeletons in their closets.
Environment
Where they live (house, trailer,
apartment, condo), it's condition (new, old, dirty),
how it's decorated (salvation army, creative on a
budget, antique, fashionable), their job (politician,
crook - if there's a difference), manual laborer,
computer work), sports, hobbies, friends, enemies,
pets (I have a pet wind-up goldfish in a jar of water.
Low maintenance and high neglect threshold.),
relationships (single, married, divorced, widowed,
dating, kids).
As I said earlier, it depends on your personality and
your writing style. I often don't do much of a
character development because I like to see how my
characters grow and I like to be surprised by my
characters and stories as I write them. Because of
this I sometime have to go back and make changes
in paragraphs, or chapters, but the surprises are
worth it.
So experiment and find out what you feel
comfortable with. You can change it whenever you
like.
Above all, find a way to write that you enjoy.
That's what it's all about.