I'm pretty sure most of what I do to get into my characters' heads has already been written down here, in some form or another, but I think it's cool to see different methods people use. And how they interact with the voices in their heads. I like that it's not an end all, be all, one size fits all type deal. There isn't any one method that fits everyone, and, honestly, now and again I find myself jumping back and forth between them.

Sometimes, I need silence to get into the right headspace. Sometimes I need music, any sort, just to motivate me to get the words out. And sometimes it needs to be a specific song, played on repeat for days... Just because it suits the character and the mood I want them in perfectly.

Ordinarily, I'd say I'm one of those people who takes aspects of themselves to stick into their characters, and this would not be wrong, but it also confuses me no end when I realise I've gone and written many fantasy creatures of a differing gender and species than myself without batting an eye. Gotta wonder what about that character was an aspect of me, but I'm still sure it's there somewhere, because I write best what I know. This doesn't mean I only use personal experience to express myself, because there's a lot of things I haven't experienced in this world, and definitely plenty I never will in a fantasy world. But I build off what I know. And what I know is body language.

So, often times, if I'm stuck finding the words to explain how a character is feeling in a certain moment, I'll find myself not quite acting it out, but making the expression I want, or doing a gesture I know the character would make and trying to combine them. Somehow, it helps me understand the emotions of that moment by echoing the movements and mimicking what their feelings bring them to do. If that makes any sense at all? I guess it's sort of like how smiling is supposed to make you happy. If I know how a character is reacting but am not quite sure why, I can just take into account the motion and their facial tics and try to go from there. So, yes, I'm one of those people who will be making faces at her computer for no particular reason. Fun times...

I find it works wonders for me to record, or at least remember (I'm usually too lazy to make actual lists), certain gestures and expressions characters make in different situations that shape the way others see them and flavour their interactions with the world. From what it means when they rub their neck to what makes them laugh or why, even just how they talk and what words they use. Even just knowing that a girl plays with her sleeve cuffs so often they're frayed on near every outfit she's got, and whether it's from boredom or nerves or something else. Which, in turn, helps me when I'm doing my silly miming game trying to figure out how to describe a mood or explain an action.