The Birth of a Character

A while back I mentioned what it took to switch a male character to female (David to Dana). As I ended that entry, I said how, before I could rewrite the scenes, I needed to know who Dana was.
There are many exercises for developing a character. Typical ones include answering such questions as:
What movies does your character watch?
What’s your character’s favorite color?
What could be found in your character’s backpack or purse?
What does his/her bedroom look like?
What bands/types of music does your character listen to?
Does your character have any hobbies?

(There are about a million sites with lists to help you think about your character. Here are two good ones: http://www.tarakharper.com/k_char2.htm and http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106 )

All these questions are helpful, but I didn’t even have a clue how to answer these questions because I still couldn’t picture my character. I decided to get inspiration from the Internet.
As my character was a female sled dog racer, I typed in “junior sled dog racer” into google images. Nothing helpful. Probably for protection purposes, there weren’t many photos with children’s faces. Okay, I thought, if I couldn’t find a young sled dog racer, what other topics could I try that would serve my character’s personality (which I didn’t know much about yet)?
I knew this girl was outdoorsy and into animals…4H? I punched it in. Bingo!
I found a terrific picture of three outdoorsy girls holding a pile of weeds. As I studied the picture, two of them were potentials for being Dana. They were very different from one another—a new dilemma. I decided to rewrite my boy scene from each of the two girls’ point of view based on the way they look. One of the girls looked very outgoing and carefree (based on the fact she had no bangs, tousled hair, and a huge (metal) smile on her face. The other girl seemed serious and shy, although she may have a confidence about her when doing something she loves (this girl was thin with long bangs, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a half-smile on her face).
After reading my two passages, I decided to go with the carefree girl—she would make for a more interesting character. What worked out well was that the serious girl would work as my main character, Ana. I now had a picture of my two characters together! Perfect!
So, with a picture of a couple of girls in a 4H garden group, I could continue writing my novel.