I love to bake bread. I find the kneading of the dough very relaxing and maybe be a little bit stress relieving. In a way, the process of developing characters is similar to baking bread (although not as a stress reliever if the character(s) aren't cooperating).
When I first start developing a character, I make notes about his/her background, height, hair and eye color, occupation, family, what is his/her hang up(s), and his/her name etc. This is like mixing the ingredients together when making bread.
After I have all of the above characteristics written down, I leave the sheet on my desk for a couple of days in case I have a new and or better idea or come up with more information I think will be relevant. This is like leaving your dough to rise.
After a few days, I go back and massage the information, changing some things, deleting some things and adding more information such as the goal the character is striving to reach. This is like kneading your dough.
I'll leave the newly revised character sheet alone for a day or so just to be sure I like how everything has developed. Again, this is like letting your dough rise.
If I feel like I know the character well enough, I'll start writing their story, sometimes tweaking things as I get further along in the manuscript. The writing of the story is like baking the bread.
Finally I'll have a completed draft and the character(s) have gelled in the way I imagined/wanted them to, then it goes off to a beta reader to see how they like the story and characters. This is like giving your nice, freshly baked loaf of bread to a friend to enjoy. (And maybe keeping a loaf to enjoy yourself as a celebration of finishing the book.)
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