How I do it is create my char with a simple idea of what kind of person they are. Then I figure out how they got to the city where you start out in. (One of my chars had stolen a teleportation item - which doesn't actually exist in the game - to get away from where she grew up.) Half the time I don't know what their history is until someone asks me and I think of more embellishments on the spot.
As things happen to them, depending on the event and the personality, I either have important events change them, or prove that they're unwilling to change that easily. It's hard for me to do really serious chars though...even when all their family has died and such, they end up being the type of people who keep their emotions secret except from people they really trust, or they're just so desensitized that they can still joke around even if it hurts. I guess I like cracking dirty jokes too much, and it's just hard to do that with a weepy tragic orphan. (One char is rather unusual in that she has a sentimental streak a mile wide, but reveals it in ways that most people won't even notice. She's not the weepy tragic orphan, she's the orphan who writes an inscription in memory of her family on a piece of jewelry, and then if she shows it to anyone she threatens to kick their butts if they tell anyone.)
I'm not sure if my chars ever evolve as much as they should in terms of personality, but they generally evolve in their opinions of other people and groups quite fine. Most of them are pretty opinionated folks, even if they keep their mouths shut.
What I hate more than anything are the nice-guy-who-has-no-personality chars. They always smile and nod and talk, but you never get a sense that anything would shake them out of their complacency and make them think about stuff. It's ok to play a nice guy, but he should have things that annoy him and some events that make him a little bit less nice, if not downright mad. Even if you don't create all of his personality at once, eventually flaws should become apparent as he experiences new things. Maybe he brags too much, maybe he's not very tactful sometimes, maybe he develops a distaste for elves because somehow they keep screwing him around. But he shouldn't be 100% nice and boring from beginning to end, and even if he acts like a saint he should at least have opinions.
I think opinions are the key to having a good char, and a char who can develop and change throughout its lifespan. Even if he says he agrees with everyone, he shouldn't *really* agree with everyone. I mean that's boring, not to mention impossible on a socially complex mud. Maybe he doesn't say "Mages suck", but if you know he's *thinking* it, he's going to act a lot more realistic. Especially when he has to choose between having a mage help him and dying. And it's things like that which, in my opinion, create the biggest potential for character development and change.
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