101 (Though More Like 51) Character Questions

And, the grand second half.

Character Development Questions #6 - Physical Appearance

1. How does this character dress? How would they choose to dress, if all options were open to them: In standard dun brown robes with his Clan's crest on the chest, like most Suzume, with a green traveling cloak and straw hat usually. Not much of a fashion guy.
2. Do they have any tattoos: Nope.
3. Do they have piercings: Nope.
4. Do they have scars: A few, but no more than most people.
5. Do they alter their appearance in some way on a regular basis: Nope.
6. Is there something they'd choose to change about their appearance if they had the opportunity to: Maybe be just a little bit taller. He's not really that sensitive about it, though he does think it'd be nice. 
7. Is there something about their appearance they're particularly proud of/happy with: Rather fond of his hair, nice and thick.
8. Objectively, are they physically attractive? Fairly plain? Unattractive: Somewhat plain, kind of rugged looking.
9. Do they have an accurate mental picture and opinion of their physical appearance: He kind of looks like Korean actor Song Kang-Ho, actually. Just a little bit younger.
10. How much time do they spend thinking about their physical appearance: Little to none.

Character Development Questions #7 - General Knowledge

1. Can they navigate their own local area without getting lost? To what degree: Exceptionally well, given his wandering nature.
2. Do they know who the top politician or monarch is where they live? What about elsewhere: Only regionally, given how xenophobic the homeland is.
3. Do they know if/where there are any major conflicts going on right now: Pretty well informed.
4. Do they know the composition of water: Well yes, the playful water kami.
5. Do they know how to eat a pomegranate: Um...
6. Are they good with the technology available to them: Not a whole lot of technology to speak of.
7. Could they paint a house? Without making a mess of it: Probably, yeah. Did a lot of such work while young.
8. Could they bake a cake? Would you eat it if they did: I, uh... don't really trust Asian confections.
9. Do they know how to perform basic maintenance on the common mode of transportation: Never really got on well with horses.
10. Do they know the price of a loaf of bread: A few zeni, probably.

Character Development Questions #8 - Specific Knowledge

1. Do they have a specific qualification in a narrow area: Magic! Also, outdoorsmanship.
2. Is there something they do or know exceptionally well that most other people don't: Again, Oriental wizardry.
3. Do people often comment on a particular skill or area of knowledge to this character: Not really. Tends to keep his skills to himself.
4. Is there an area this character could be considered top of their field or a genius in: Nope, pretty average for what he is.
5. Have they deliberately sought to gain knowledge in a specific area: No, his education was pretty general.
6. Do they speak more than one language: Just the one, but again, xenophobic culture.
7. Does their cultural background effect what they would be expected to know: Basically.
8. Have they ever been publicly acknowledged for being well-versed in something: Not really. He's a bit too humble for such things.
9. Have they ever been bullied for knowing a lot about something: Not exactly, but plenty of bullying in his past at the hands of his older brothers.
10. Do they actively seek new knowledge, or let it come to them naturally: Definitely the latter.

Character Development Questions #9 - 'What if...' Questions

1. What if they'd been born with a different biological sex: Well I guess they'd be a bit of different person, so I don't know? Probably not too different, pretty egalitarian setting in that regard.
2. What if they'd have more or less siblings: Any more would probably be bad, already has five. Less would be bad, as he'd be under more scrutiny.
3. What if a key formative event in their past had gone differently: Um, probably be a happier and freer fellow if not for the arranged marriage declaration.
4. What if they lost a limb: Would probably cut into his Wizardly Woodsman image somewhat. He'd probably find some other excuse to shirk marriage, though.
5. What if someone close to them died unexpectedly: Pretty devastated, if say, it was his father or sister. He'd probably man up and get married/take responsibility.
6. What if they'd been born 50 years earlier? 100 years? 1000: Probably not much, as fantasy settings are kind of... static.
7. What if they'd done something completely different on the morning when the story starts: Well, then he'd be shirking his samurai duty, which is a very Shamefur Dispray.
8. What if they found enough money to make them wealthy for the rest of their life in a bag: Um, brief period of hedonism before appropriating it among his clan.
9. What if they were stranded and deserted: He'd survive, most likely. Pretty resourceful outdoorsman.
10. What if they were betrayed by someone they trusted: Again, pretty devastated. Probably dip into depression.

Character Development Questions #10 - Miscellaney

1. What did they have for breakfast this morning: Tea and rice.
2. What ridiculous belief/s did they have as a child: That the sky and weather changed depending on the mood of the Emperor, and whether or not he was sleeping.
3. Do they like marshmallows: Don't think he's ever had any.
4. Do they sleep on their side, front, or back: Side, usually. Sometimes back.
5. Do they work better with sound or silence: Relative silence, some ambient nature sounds, I guess.
6. Do they have a strange obsession with something minor: Slight interest in foreign goods, but not much.
7. Do they like art: More simple and traditional work than anything.
8. How fast can they run: Faster than most.
9. Do they prefer to sit on the floor or on a chair: Well, based on ancient Japan, so...
10. What do they want, right now: Some social freedom. Or a nice bath.

Question 101 - Why Should The Audience Care About Your Character?

Haha! This is a character I made for a tabletop game, so I get to circumvent this question. But, let me think... He's pretty human, I guess. And, a character at odds with his culture always makes a good protagonist in a setting where the culture's pretty foreign to the reader.

Cover to Cover

Imagine an incredibly long book, with tons and tons of main characters. The book itself starts as an illustrated children's book, following the lives of several of those main characters as children the same age as the reader, and several adult minor characters. Throughout the book, most of the characters interact with each other, but still live their own lives.
As the narrative goes on, the illustrations drop off and the writing style grows more complex, till it reaches your standard "young adult" fiction level, in which the characters are now in their early teens, and the nature of their lives changes accordingly. Each character has their own perspectives, upbringings, and view of each other character, and these mature and develop with the story.
Later, it transitions slowly to standard fiction, to deal with each of the characters' adult years, though I'm not sure how much longer it would go on from here.
I suppose it would work better practically, but not thematically, if it were a series of books. Quite a long one, with the idea being that a kid would read the series, maybe a book or two a year, for a lot of their life, with the end goal of it being to nurture a love of reading, a sense of empathy, and all that. All in all, the idea seems a little beyond me in scope. Kind of like the work of Henry Darger, but hopefully less crazy.

A Story Idea That Has Likely Already Been Done, and May Not be That Interesting

So there's this fellow named Jack. Young and curious, and the son of a very open-minded and permissive Christian/Jewish couple, Jack finds himself very interested in the nature of faith, of god(s) and of religion in general. He begins to study as many of them as he can, and each one he encounters lets him gaze upon whole vistas of truth and enlightenment that he never knew were there. He comes to a conclusion that few others do, that there is more than just a shred of truth to every faith, but that all of them are completely true. He throws himself into book after book, to learn as much as he can and be as faithful as possible.
But, as Jack does so, he begins to notice some things. The first is that he's not a genius with an eidetic memory, and he tends to forget much of what he learned as he moves on to new areas. The second is that many, many contradictions appear when trying to believe in everything. Contradictions both on the surface, and hidden deep within, but not just inter-faith contradictions, but intra-faith ones as well.
So, Jack disregarded all the contradictions, as pitfalls on the way to being truly enlightened, and that only through true study and understanding would those dark spots be properly illuminated to him. The "true study" was of course the bigger problem; Jack just couldn't keep all of it in one head. And so he had an idea. He typed up a table on his computer, listing every known god or other worshiped entity/concept, and assigned a number to each one. Some numbers had subcategories, denoting different sects. He then planned to take a random number generator, find a random god, serve it and study its teachings as best as he can, and do it all again the next day. Over and over again until he reached this "true enlightenment".
And so our tale begins. Fate was kind to Jack today, now not so young. He eased himself up off the floor, scattering empty bottles of wine to and fro. Jack had served Bacchus the day before, and was lucky to have the relatively vague faith of Technopaganism to serve today. He remembered, a few months back, trying to meditate and focus on the Tao the day after the worship of a particularly demanding Shinto goddess of mirth and revelry. It had not gone well.