[You may] say you've already figured out your characters, but if you can't get them to talk to you then you aren't really listening to them. Find out how honest they are, are they loyal, what is their social habits? Ask yourself questions like in an interview and don't be mad if they don't give you an answer right away. Spend sometime in the world in which they exist. Figure out the laws they have to live by, how would the laws affect their choices? What is the ultimate point of the story? How is the character going to work towards this ultimate goal? What kind of obstacles are they facing, what obstacles have they faced, what has made them who they are today? It takes a lot of time to really listen to the character, try and talk to them, strike up a conversation. You say you already know the, how about you try to get to know them. Bring how they look and their mannerisms to the front of your mind, ask them question you "already know the answers to" sometimes they'll tell you something different and suddenly you realize they aren't who you thought they were. What are their deepest secrets? Do they have a horror in their past they try to hide? What if one of them is afraid of heights? How do they cope? Do any of your characters have any type of an addiction? How do they respond to other people? Bring two characters to the front of your mind, watch how they interact with each other, carefully observe their attitude... I had to do this same process with my characters just a couple months ago and my story and its point changed completely. The characters suddenly felt real and they had attitude, I loved watching them all sitting together because they were all just so different. Each one has a different background or a culture they come from and it affects who they are. I put a Russian in the same room as a Native American, I put a Chinese person in the same room as someone from Botswana, Africa. It's amazing how different these people really are, their cultural background is beautiful on its own, but as they have to figure out several at a time as they grow together as one, it's a spectacular sight to behold. They've become my creations and therefore my children, I hug them tight in my mind and show them just how loved they are when they've had a life where death is eminent, I feel their pain as though it is mine, I cry with them, I cry for them, I listen to their stories and their jokes. Their laughter is bright and I love it when I see them smile, I hate it when I see them frown, when they fall in love-I fall in love with them and they are really just an extension of me as a person. Take the time to really feel with your characters otherwise you and them will never be one.
You have to remember, your characters and your world are just an extension of yourself. Everything you know, you characters know. Your emotions should be tied to theirs if you're writing properly, if even for just a few seconds you have a twinge of pain which is only a part of your character is feeling, you have connected to them.
It's not unusual for writers to talk to themselves either, so if you don't, consider picking this hobby up. Set yourself down in one of your characters shoes and as you wander around doing whatever you normally do, picture people in front of you, preferably other characters you have created. Move around, talk to them out loud, reply to yourself out loud, switch who you are by suddenly standing in a different position and responding to where you were just standing moments before as though you are still standing there. If you act it out, you are more likely to portray your characters more realistically. Writers have multiple personalities, if they were tested most of them could probably be put in Insane Asylum's. Writers just tend to be less harmful or dangerous when they have multiple personalities.
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