First Steps and Character Sketches

I've finished one book and I'm just giving it a little time to settle before I jump into my revisions and editing.
I'm starting up my next project and hopefully I'll give this one the attention it needs so it grows and is finished faster.
My working title for my new project is: Evangeline, the ghost and a red rose. 
I worked quite a while last night, once my girls were in bed, on my character sketches.  They are a lot longer and detailed than I thought they'd be.

I run into writer's block because my stories reach a dead end or they just fizzle out.  I am notoriously bad at endings.  When I go back and figure out my character's internal and external conflicts, the blockage mysteriously disappears.  Instead of wasting time going back, I'm going to figure out who they are before I start.

I'm on step 1: Character sketches.
I'm really trying to flesh out my characters first instead of trying to figure out who they are as I go.  I figure I'll write about them in a more comfortable way if I know them well.

Physical descriptions -character's full name, age, race, eye color, hair color, and style, build (height/weight), skin tone, and their style of dress according to the time period and season etc. 
Do they have any physical flaws, abnormalities, or disability's?  How does it affect their life and relationships? 
Do my characters have any mannerisms that make them unique? 
Does my character have a certain catch phrase they use all the time? 
Their habits can define them and make them stand out from other characters.

Personality Traits-details about the kind of person they are.  Somber, happy, no sense of humor, sensible, reckless.  Strengths and weaknesses.  Do they have any hobbies?  What do they like to eat/ watch on TV/read?  Favorite color? 
Details matter and the story will be stronger for them.

Background defines your character and makes them three-dimensional.  Tell about the parents, siblings, friends, pets, life-changing events.  Did they have a good/bad/or something in between childhood?  Where did they go to school?  Did they graduate and go to college or to work?  Were they popular or teased unmercifully?  Did they go to church?  Do they think about religion at all?  What kind of vehicle do they drive and are they speed demons or little old ladies?  Have they ever smoked, drank, done recreational drugs?  What do they consider their worst mistake and greatest accomplishment?  What are their goals and have they done anything to achieve it?  Why or why not?

Occupation: What does your character do/ or not do for a living?  How did they get there (education requirements/financial)? 

Internal Conflict: Each main character must have their own internal conflict.  Well-developed internal conflict makes characters more realistic and complex.  It makes the characters more interesting because it helps make them seem more real to the reader, they can identify with the character's internal struggle.  Don't let one of your characters be limited to being just the protector or "healer" of the another main character; it makes them flat and unbelievable.

External Conflict:  The outside or situational conflict that prevents your main character from realizing their goal.  The three best known types of conflict consist of man vs man, man in opposition to society, and man against nature.

Readers only root for characters they care about; someone they can sympathize with.

Don't forget that villains are characters too.  That's where I got stuck on one story; I didn't have a villain.

**I'm using First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner as my research book, so we'll see how it goes.

I have my notebook all divided into sections: Characters (main and secondary), Setting (I want to put pictures and descriptions of all the settings I'm using.  Setting is important too.)  Conflict and theme, and research notes (things to research). 
Hopefully this cuts down on the bits and pieces I always have scattered around.
                                    Another time waster.

I need to be able to find, at a glance, specifics about my characters because nothing bugs me more when I'm reading a book and something changes that shouldn't have (like eye color or the vehicle they own).