Kämpa said:

I'll usually have a male & female character if there is 2 allowed to make it more diverse for me, but normally I'd only do a male

ThisIsAPackName said:

I play men because it makes me feel more genderific, but I like to play women when I get a good idea for one that I can't pass up, particularly when I have an option for multiple characters. I especially love playing sibling pairs -- I think I might reuse one of my other female characters who I quite like and give her a different sibling from the one I gave her before, sometime, if I'm to get the chance.

I personally tend to play a strong mixture of anything and everything in between. I only like making characters who are different from each other. I found that "borrowing" a couple of traits from someone I know or know of, and taking a couple of traits from another, and so on and so forth, works well. Placing those traits into bullet points and editing them, then beginning to add detail makes the character seem more... alive, I guess?

To me, if it feels like you're stepping out of your comfort zone or you can't decide if the character is too contradicting, it's more interesting that way. Normal humans contain multiple contradicting traits, but as long as it isn't too contradicting, such as, "He is terrified of water, but loves swimming."

If you can write down different perspectives of the story in different character's point of views, the exact same thing, in completely different words and feelings, you're making a realistic character.

That might just be me though, aha.