Develop Your Characters: The Pizza Way.
A post K.M. Weiland posted on her blog, "Helping Writers become Authors" features a method used by many to make more vivid and understandable, lifelike characters. Having understandable characters makes a book more interesting, and creates a bond between the reader and the character, causing a book to become what some consider “good” or “intriguing”.
The Pizza Test involves creating a scenario where the character chosen for development “is asked to join colleagues for a celebratory pizza (or its equivalent for the culture and setting of the story) upon the occasion of a shared accomplishment.” From there, the writer decides how the character would react to certain events such as what kind of pizza he or she would order, and if he would pay.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro developed this test, and has sold over eighty books, and more than three dozen essays, introductions and reviews.
This test can be used as a method/exercise for developing characters, plots, or finding inspiration.
~Sophie.