For me, character planning varies. I tend to just come up with personalities easily and then roll with it and develop it as I go, that is if I'm actually making a character for a role play. I can't say I spend much time on it beforehand, because I'm developing my character from the start of the role play. Sometimes I'll already have a general idea and base it off of a personality for another character I have with minor tweaks. The most time I spend on my characters are the creations for how they should look, which I tend to change several times even throughout the rp, and the name which I can literally spend thirty minutes trying to think of a good name for one. xD