For myself, it depends on just who that character is to me. Did I write them for this project, such as a roleplay, or did they occur naturally and spontaneously on their own and were thus much more organic? The best characters I have ever wrote, worked on, designed or purchased works from were those that were entirely organic - products based upon the reality I experience. Many of them are shadows of real people, the darker sides more often simply because they make for better characters; they are flawed echoes of reality, distorted and twisted for fiction. In many ways, the real confirmation that they have become their own "persons" is when the dream can be made real. By this I mean, to think about them is not to [i]make[/i] them do anything, just what they would actually [i]do[/i]. Second nature put to narrative really.

Others, such as my persona here, are again reflections of the self, but not nearly as twisted or turned. They are characters themselves, but obscured in what is or is not them. This is both intentional and unintentional, yet it is a disguise all the same and adds to the mystique and mystery. It emphasizes their person as an independent agency, not just a thing to be read, but rather understood.