Adding flesh to the bones!

• Right, so you've written up your character sheet and you now may want to make your character more interesting by including a personality and a backstory. This can easily be done in a few steps. It's a good idea to do it on a word processor.
• Take into consideration of your characters gender first, and what colour eyes and hair they have. If you haven't yet just fill it in the character sheet. Now think of some physical features, maybe some battle scars? What sort of physique does the character have (those high in dexterity can be tall and slim, those high scoring in strength can be "stocky" for example.) Anything in particular about the eyes? A unique hair style? It's generally the face that gains alot of attention in this domain.
• Now think about personality characteristics, this is closely linked with alignment so be careful. Consider the alignment as two seperate spectrums that interact with each other i.e good vs evil and lawful vs chaotic. A lawful good character would not be horrible to every person he meets. Nor would an chaotic evil character radiate politeness! I drew up a quick table of characteristics I think are relevant to each alignment:

Good characteristics.

Friendly
Happy
Nice
Helpful
Considerate

Giving
Sharing
Selfless
Supportive
Loving
Trusting
Protective

Evil characteristics.

Horrible
Untruthworthy
Selfish
Inconsiderate
Dangerous

Scary
Terrible
Cold
Rude
Arrogant
Irresponsible
Rebellious

Lawful characteristics.

Law abiding
Justice
Rules
Black and white views
Strict
Rigid
Punishment
Fairness

Chaotic characteristics.

Freedom
Liberty
Equal
Flexible
Rules are just guidelines
Adapting
Choice
Unhindered

• The characteristics can be swapped around a bit but they are there to get you thinking about what sort of personality your character has. If your character is a true neutral character (a very hard character to roleplay!) then consider characteristics from all domains. Any other alignment with neutral in (neutral good, neutral evil, chaotic neutral and lawful neutral) should take attributes from the opposite end of one spectrum, whilst taking a mixture of another. For example, a neutral good character would take elements from Good, Lawful and Chaotic.
• Now you have a personality you can now continue writing the story. As many of us know life's experiences shapes us as to who we are today. So to write a biography for your character, it'll be a good idea to start about where the character was born. Was it in a small town? A big city? Born in the wild? What about the parents? Does the character know his mother or father? Did they die in a tragic accident? Did they get kidnapped and never seen again?
• After deciding how and when the character was born, start building up your story by integrating aspects of the character's personality and physical looks and explain how they came about. Does your character have a scar because as a youth something dangerous happened? Is the character cold and emotionless because he or she never knew their parents? Is the character selfish because he was rejected by peers?
  
  If you're not sure about it, then maybe submit a draft on the forums and see what everyone else thinks.
  
  Done? Great, head over to Roleplaying tips to grab some ideas about how to roleplay to make your session more fun!