How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

This past weekend, I fell in love with a character.* Not one of my own, someone else's . And it got me thinking, why do certain characters work for me and others don't? What is it about a character--my own or someone else's --that makes me want to spend time, sometimes endless amounts of time, with those characters at the expense of my housekeeping and my dog and my job and even, sometimes, my relationships with other people? What does it? And after thinking about it for a little while, here's a (partial, incomplete) list of the things that can hook me into a character:**, *** 1. They have a troubled past. I'm a sucker for a character who has suffered in the past and has come out mostly okay on the other side. Not totally okay, as you'll see from the rest of this list, but mostly okay. Most of the time. 2. They have secrets. I'm a firm believer in the idea that everyone has secrets. Sometimes big secrets, sometimes little teeny ones, sometimes e