Character Collages

A character never reveals all their secrets.  Or, do they?  Are there things you don't know about your characters?  Or things you know about them but aren't working into your manuscript?

I've been working on a manuscript for over a year now.  And I'll admit, I thought I knew a lot about my characters.  I'd done those character questionnaires, had conversations with them in my head, watched them grow and develop and stumble and fall as I wrote.  And they took me on a journey, revealing things about themselves as I wrote, things I never intended for them.  But I decided to take my characters to the next level.  Create a collage that represented them, since I (ahem) knew them so well.  And I realized I have a lot more to learn about my characters!

I dug out some magazines.  (Sadly, all I had was parenting magazines, but apparently, that's all I needed!)  I gathered some large index cards, some scissors and glue sticks.  And after a few hours (mind you, I was interrupted by my lil monkey several times) I had a character collage for my major characters.  Voila!

                                      

But here's the weird thing I discovered.  As I was going through magazines I would see something that would strike my fancy.  "Oh yeah, so and so would totally be into that!" and I'd start cutting and pasting.  It wasn't in the story.  Just something I realized is embedded in my character.  Maybe some of those aspects I'll work into my story.  Maybe, some of them I'll just keep between me and them.  After all, I think it's impossible to include every aspect of who they are and their past and their deepest, darkest desires and fears.  They might not even know it all themselves.  And besides, I think they do like keeping some of those things to themselves.

So how do your characters reveal themselves to you?  And are there things you know about them that aren't in your story?