So, how much of your character should you write out before you start your story? As usual, there is no set standard, and it's based upon personal preference. Personally, I only come up with names, appearances and some basic starting out qualities. Of course, the name and appearance doesn't apply to the main protagonist in the reader insert versions of my stories.
For the main love interest in my stories, the yandere, their basic qualities entail what kind of yandere they will be. Will they be violent, manipulative, quiet, strategic, a combination of those traits, etc., and will their values over the course of the book change, or will they stay unchanging in their beliefs and actions? As for the other characters, it varies a lot on how much I develop beforehand since I often don't plan out the middle part of my story too much before I begin writing. Some characters, I don't even plan out until I'm in the middle or at the end of the book. Therefore, this will be better explained through some examples.
There will be some spoilers here for "Infectious Intent" if you haven't read the story yet.
In "Infectious Intent," Vincent and Krista hadn't been planned out at all before I reached those points in the story. All I knew was that the protagonist needed some help to get out of the cabin while the creature was gone, and I knew that the protagonist's rescuer needed to have some compassion to understand the situation in a somewhat rational manner and help her. Vincent developed out of those details, and I made him into a father figure and family man so that he could better understand why the protagonist was placed into such a difficult position.
As for Krista, I wanted the protagonist to have further transportation to Dunnuuna after Vincent had left, but I didn't want the transportation to be easy either. I wanted there to be one more final, minor antagonist before the final fight with the creature at his grandfather's cabin. But, this character also had to establish some trust between the protagonist and them in order to get the protagonist to enter their vehicle. Krista came out of that. Krista being one of the creature's obsessed fans also gave her the incentive to mess with the protagonist and bring her to Dunnuuna in the first place.
For both of these cases and several others throughout my other stories, I like developing the characters later on in the story so that the environment in the story presently shapes them. They become more adaptable to the changing environment and can fit the needs that the story requires at the time to get from point A to point B. Another reason why I don't develop all of my characters before I start writing my story is because I like being unsure of what will happen next in my stories too. It makes the story suspenseful for me as well and helps to keep the excitement of writing the story alive from beginning to end for me. It's like having multiple "Aha" moments rather than just one, which I personally find more enjoyable. Anyway, I hope that this helps!
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