Wills
Friday 2nd January 2015 4:20pm [Edited]
73 posts
I think it's useful, but only to a point - I wouldn't spend forever and a day on them. Put it this way, it's much more important that you have the plot clear in your head than the minutiae of each character. Spend more time on that before you write for sure, otherwise you'll waffle/be less direct and back yourself into corners. You can be flexible once you start of course, but its easier to change direction when you know where you're going in the first place.
What I have found character work useful for, is actually plot ideas. It might be a throwaway 'like, 'dislike', point of view etc that will unlock a pathway for you in terms of plot. Like I say though, and others have said - the characters will unravel and develop as you go. Go at it like a stream of consciousness/nonsense...don't over think it. You'll be suprised what pops up when you're not really trying to be exact, and it's a nice change from agonising over every syllable in the script :-)
Good luck with it!!