A Goodreads user asked Stacey T. Hunt:

At what point do you consider yourself to "know your characters"? When you've figured out what their motivations, backstories, and character arcs are? When their voice comes to life? Or something abstract like when they "come alive" on the page? And how many drafts does it usually take to get there?

Stacey T. Hunt I suppose it would be the abstract answer—when they come alive. I feel like I know my characters when I can hear them in my head, speaking in their own voice, their own vocabulary, their own inflections. When they start making choices that I didn't foresee or saying things that I didn't expect. As far as when that happens, it varies by character. Jesse and Ashton both came to me really easily, as early as the first or second drafts of the book. Other characters, like Elain, Maloree, and Zander, I didn't feel like I had a strong grasp on until the fourth or fifth drafts of the book.

I also find that, no matter how well I feel like I know a character, they all still have a tendency to surprise me.

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