A true magician never reveals his secrets

After writing for nearly seven years, I have learned that there are certain tricks that kick my creativity into hyper-drive. These tricks are often the reason for my best work, and after realizing this, I became rather curious...

What are your techniques for 'getting into character', PA?

THIS MAGICIAN'S TRICKS
I find that it depends on the character that I am role-playing as,
but there are few that I find apply to every one of my characters -
such as caffeine. I find that Diet Coke works well for me, so long
as I drink it on an empty stomach, and before I begin writing.
The caffeine is stronger that way. It stimulates my brain, and gets
the creative juices flowing.

Vito requires that I listen to classic rock. If I don't obey this
law of his, he simply will not allow that I include him in my posts.
Supernatural also seems to work as motivation to write as this
character. =P Shocker, right? There was a time when I watched
fan-made Chuck Bass music videos as well (since the character
had a big influence on Vito when I first created him), but after the
writers of that show turned him into a softy I have steered clear
of them; nobody wants to see Vito go that soft. That would
be rather sickening.

Calvin is quite a fan of Doctor Who; if I watch an episode of
the show before writing, I am certain to produce a post/thread that
I am proud of. Primeval (the television show, not the horror movie)
also helps; Connor Temple played a big role in the creation of Calvin.

Nerissa is quite different than the rest of my characters; she
is based off of Batman's "Poison Ivy", and because of this, I always
feel as though I have to reread my favorite Poison Ivy comic books
before I reply to any of her threads.

Now, I know what you are thinking about Paris; "Red is a fan
of Doctor who, and therefore, that must mean that Paris was the
result of a late-night marathon", right? Wrong; I chose David Tennant
as the playby for this character simply because I adore his acting.
Everynow-and-then you may spot one of the Doctor's quotes in one
of Perry's posts, but that is merely my way of allowing David to
turn to the camera and say "Yeah, that was me!" Actually, I find
that when I am writing as this genius right here, I have to listen to
classical music. Why? Well, because Paris enjoys classical music,
of course. There really is not other reason. In fact, I actually can't
remember how I figured that out...

Ne'Os I really have to be in the mood to RP with Ne'Os correctly and by correctly I don't mean my usual posts but the ones that can go for paragraphs. Usually I have to have watched a movie or a t.v. show with a really good bad guy in it but sometimes I can just be in that mood if I really try. Otherwise its pretty much going with the mood I am in at that moment. Though I am trying to get my rp to the level. I suppose their maybe more contributing factors but I don't know what those are when I write it just comes to me.

There is no trick. I'm the one behind my characters, pulling all their strings.

I write my characters based off what I know about them, which is everything. All of my other characters have entire histories (often going back generations) that haven't been written anywhere. The only things I write down are names, because I have hundreds of character files (not just for this game) and it's easy to forget which relative goes with which character.

So I don't need a technique for getting into character because I don't need to get into character.

However, I do use techniques for writing in general. I like to listen to Tim Minchin's youtube videos because his similes and metaphors are so unique. I like reading Virginia Woolf because her prose is so poetic. I listen to art theory lectures because if you learn to apply those sorts of analytical techniques to roleplay it's a good way for coming up with interesting plots.