A shout out to all you writers, here's something I came up with one day when I realized that one of my characters had no personality. Answering these questions cleared that right up, and I'm pretty sure it would prove useful if anyone was trying to further develop an existing character. Please note that this is not a character generation list: if you try this with a character you don't have some prior knowledge of, I can guarantee you'll just get a headache, or completely useless information.
The Questions
1. What is his/her greatest desire?
2. What is his/her greatest fear?
3. What is his/her stance on religion, mysticism, etc.?
4. What is his/her greatest weakness?
5. What is his/her greatest strength?
6. How has he/she been shaped by his/her experiences?
7. How did he/she get to be where he/she is today?
8. How is he/she intelligent?
9. What would he/she perceive as a threat?
10. What does he/she do when threatened?
11. If that doesn’t work, what does he/she do? (panic reaction)
12. How does he/she solve problems?
13. How does he/she think the world works? (paradigm, honestly and dishonestly)
14. What does he/she think of him/herself?
15. What would a stranger's first impression be of him/her?
16. How would that impression change as the person got to know him/her?
17. How much pressure does it take to break him/her? How would his/her behavior change as he/she approached that breaking point?
18. What is most important to him/her in an honest, relatively functional relationship?
19. What are his/her defining visual features?
20. What are his/her characteristic gestures and/or patterns of speech?
Edit 4/17/2012: This has come up a surprising amount lately, and it's been a bit out of date, so I've come back and revised it.
Kita-Ysabell Community Member 
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