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One of the ways that you reveal character is by getting a character into a situation and seeing what they do.

Often you find the character through the things they say. How they talk about other people, how they describe themselves - which is very rare.

When you put your characters in a dire situation, they often do things that surprise even you, so you have to go back and revise your original conception of who they are.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

The reader is going to imprint on the characters he sees first. He is going to expect to see these people often, to have them figure largely into the story, possibly to care about them. Usually, this will be the protagonist.

What an audience decides about where certain characters come from is really up to them.

Sometimes I know what my characters are moving away from or toward; more often I just wait and see. For instance, though I knew Sinkler in 'The Trusty' was going for water, I did not know that he would meet a fetching young farm wife until I got him into her front yard.

Characters can be mysterious and you're not really sure which way they might turn at a given point.

The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters.

I tend to have a pattern of playing misunderstood characters.