Pendleton Ward, Kent Osborne, and Rebecca Sugar had some great insights to share at New York Comic Con.
On how to create incredibly weird, interesting, yet relatable characters:
Pendleton Ward (at the Adventure Time panel): Fan-fic your friends.
Sometimes it's best to let the relationships and backstory grow organically.
PW: We're playing D&D [Dungeons and Dragons] — we're role-playing the characters as we're writing them.
Use tears minimally, especially when writing children.
PW: When you're an adult, you like to punish them [characters].
Because they'll turn into huge sissies that nag all the time, like the worst Ninja Turtle.
PW: Leonardo sucks.
