Character Development

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine, it involved my take on character development. I know there are many ways of doing this, like writing down the characters life in great detail, give the character a life story on paper. Where they were born, when they got and so on picking out all the life changing events. So you have a sense of what this character would do in any give situation.

Now I may be wrong here so this is not advice more like my experience so far. In other words I withhold the right to change my mind.

Someone has asked me if they can read my novel called Purple.(working title) So before handing it over to someone who has edited a book for someone before. (in other words her opinion has weight)

I could not help but go through the novel again, Just to iron out any spelling mistakes and minor issues. I think it best to leave it in its raw form until i get feed back.It seems each time I go through words I can find more and more stuff. Now I came across a character that I could not remember, I know gosh horror what should it be a cut throat or hung from the rafters. My friend asked me, did I not right a character profile about all the characters first? My answer was no I did not. And this is why. I write of the cuff, let's say I have an idea. Then I will sit down and begin to write, not plot development or characters. Just stat with the place and person, then work through the situation. Other characters might come, new situations will develop or they may not. Then it becomes one of the tens of other two or three thousand word files. Some have a much higher word count. The thing is each and every one of these characters I know inside and out from the start. Each character is fully formed I know what they will do and how they will do it.

As for plot that's a different issue. I will when I work out how I do it tell you. Up to now I don't know If my plots are worthy. That's until I get something published.