This article is by Bets Davies.
I’m a character girl.
The question becomes inevitable when you have a novel in your head: Where to start? I used to plunge into a rambling first draft with inconsistencies, reams I had to cut out and reams I had to fit in. Then there are outliners. Plot every important event in sensible order. Me? I begin, continue, and end with character. If I want to be character-driven, I let the characters drive.
It starts with the character sheet. I use Leonard Chang’s but he claims it as intellectual property, so I can’t hand it out. Suffice to say it is single spaced aspects about your character that take up more than a page. You can Google one. Make sure to fill it out in obscene detail.