Character Sheets

So I found a "fiction writer's character sheet" online some time ago, which is your basic multi-page fill-in-the-blanks biography of your story's characters.  With such fields as "expletives" and "source of greatest embarrassment" in addition to the usual height/weight/etc., it makes it very clear that there's a lot more to your character than you might at first imagine.

My first section of chapter one features the first character I detailed from a vague sketch.  I couldn't write a word until I had done so, and even with this little biography, I was only able to manage 500 words.  Although I expect this will expand in further drafts, the fact is those 500 words flowed easily.

Section two of chapter one focused on the character I eluded to in my previous blog.  He's one I detailed a long time back, but even with a character sheet, I just can't seem to write well about him.

What I know now: he's not conflicted in some way that will be tested during the story.  He's plain vanilla.

So writing will cease until I know two things: who my protagonist really is, and who my main villain really is.  Some writers are capable of designing these two things as they go, but I am clearly at a roadblock.  I know, in general, who the bad guy is and what he seems to want.  I know who the basic hero is and what he wants to prevent.  But what hinders either of them?  The big conflict is the MacGuffin, so to speak.  The real story is in the characters - it's what we care about.  I have to know them, so that you can care about them.  And I can't charge into this book until I know them - not just the surface, but the tortured, neurotic chewy center.