Do You Interview Your Characters?

[TracyR]

I've been plotting out my 4th novel (first two are done and making the rounds with agents and/or publishers, third is still in progress) and I've really been struggling with my main character. I've heard of interviewing your character, but I was asking him questions I already knew the answer to.

Sooo.... yesterday, I asked my critique group (there are 7 of us) to send me a few interview questions to ask my character. Because this is a new book, they don't know much about him, so I just gave them a brief bio, told them I had the basics down, and asked them to send him some questions that would reveal his character, his depth.

Man! The questions some of them have already sent me are DIFFICULT. (A couple of them I don't even know the answers about MYSELF!) But as I am answering them - from my character's POV - I'm learning quite a bit about him that is surprising to me. Isn't that funny?

He's not nearly as perfect as I originally thought.

[ToddWBush]

He's not nearly as perfect as I originally thought.

Then congratulations... he's more of a real person now.

[ChaosTitan]

I tend to learn about my characters as I write the novel. It's one of the reasons I now struggle with outlining--I may think my MC will react a certain way at a plot point, but when I actually get to it, s/he may do something completely different that just ruins the rest of the outline.

The deeper and more personal the question, the harder it may be to answer. Especially if you don't know your character very well, yet. I've found that the two most important questions I can ask during a character interview are:

1). What do you want most?
2). How far are you willing to go to accomplish that?

[CaroGirl]

I don’t formally interview my characters. I prefer to think about them as the story progresses. I get to know them while they struggle through the situations I give them, in the same way a reader might. I typically base my characters (very loosely) on people I know, and then change them into unique individuals as I go. I clean up any inconsistencies during rewriting and editing.

This is my method and, for me, formal interviews are a waste of time.

[IdiotsRUs]

1). What do you want most?
2). How far are you willing to go to accomplish that?

I like to add in

3) What do you fear most?


And then do it to them :D

[ishtar'sgate]

I tend to learn about my characters as I write the novel. It's one of the reasons I now struggle with outlining--I may think my MC will react a certain way at a plot point, but when I actually get to it, s/he may do something completely different that just ruins the rest of the outline.

I do that too. I know what my characters' goals are and what prevents them from attaining their goals but I don't delve too much into how far they'll go to get it. I decided against that when I realized people never act as you think they will in a crisis or when faced with a barrier to their goals. I don't even respond as I think I will when really pressed to the breaking point so I push all my characters until they're forced to make a decision and then deal with it. It's been quite a surprise. Some people I thought would be absolute push-overs turned out to be pretty aggressive and vice versa. Extreme emotions like fear, hatred or love often cause people to respond in ways that aren't usual for them. I like that, so I fuel it and push the poor beggars as far as I can then watch them squirm until they explode into action.
Linnea

[ACEnders]

I do interview my characters. I didn't until with my last book, I had a really hard time getting a grasp on my MC. I made her something she's clearly not, and as I began to answer questions - everything from what do you fear the most to what's your favorite color and why - I finally realized that her story was all wrong. Well, not the gist of it, but there was a lot I was trying to force her to do that she didn't wan to do.

So now with my third, the one I'm working on now, i sat down with all of my characters, the ones I knew before the story began and asked them everything I could think of.

Now as I'm writing and getting to know them even more, I jot down things I need to remember as i come to them.

I at first thought interviewing your characters was unnecessary, but now I find it quite the opposite. I may even sit down and re-interview them as the story goes along...since characters are supposed to grow and change.

[yappo]

I don't.

Plot driven author here :D

Sten

[Matera the Mad]

I ask a few questions now and then. Or I set up an informal meeting between two characters and eavesdrop. Some of them can be shy.

[Exir]

I don't interview my characters unless they are celebrities in my story.

For my current story, the characters Ben and Jade came into my mind fully formed. And when I began to write the story from Ben's POV, it is almost as if I am Ben myself! It is as if it wasn't me writing, it was Ben. I don't know if I'm really imaginative or what, but even my tone and style of writing has changed without any conscious effort on my part! It wasn't my writing anymore, it was Ben's.

Perhaps that's an advantage of being young...

[JustGo]

When I heard about this practice, I decided to give it a try, and developed the following interview with a slightly less-than-serious attitude toward it:

JustGo's Generic Character Interview Template

Hello, my name is (insert your name here), and I’m here with Random Interviews United to ask you a few questions. May I have your name, for the record?

How are you today?

What do you do for a living?

I’ve been told that you were recently involved in at least one Plot-Relevant Event. Is this true?

That must have been a life-changing experience for you.

What do you think of the people involved in the recent Plot-Relevant Event(s)?

How do you see this all turning out?

Well, that was very informative. Thank you for your time, and have a nice day!

When I actually used this, I was amazed by the results - the questions are very simple and easy-to-answer, but half the time the character would bring up something about him- or herself that I'd never known before. It's also just plain fun to see their reactions to a few of these things - I've had characters yell at me, break down into tears, treat me like their best friend or threaten to kill me. I find it an entertaining way to get to know my characters better, and I recommend doing it.

[dreamsofnever]

I've posted this link it at least two threads because it's amazing. It's definitely not something you can do in one sitting (and you may not need to do all questions) but there are a lot of excellent questions (100 of 'em here) (http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976908598)

And interviewing your character is a great way to get to know them. Good luck with getting to know this one!

[bluntforcetrauma]

Sure....I talk to fictional characters all the time. Honest.

[Riley]

I've tried interviewing my characters. Every interview felt forced and unnecessary. It was like my characters were screaming to get to the story already. They just couldn't. . . find the words to tell me because I was so busy trying to listen to them I wasn't listening. Make sense?

However, I do make an effort to get to know my characters. I imagine how different characters would react to the same scenes and what not. I also write a profile for each of them. The profile has no fewer than fifty questions I need to answer about the character, ranging from what color the character's hair is to his/her personality in private and public life.

[Michael Davis]

I did something slightly different on my first two novels. I interviewed one character about another, specially the view of the heroine about the hero, and visa versa. It helped to evolve the attitude, exchange, and outward reflection of one for the other. I was recently asked to interview one of my characters for a blog. I decided to use the notes I did for how the heroine (Samantha) viewed the Hero (Eric) and spruce em up a bit providing a little insight into the plot. You can see it here (http://www.mycharacters.blogspot.com/) for this next week if interested. I didn't use this approach for my third novel. Not sure yet which is the best approach. If I had to vote, I'd lean toward pre writing interviews for the main characters at least. Just my thoughts.

[HourglassMemory]

I have interviewed my main character. It's about 9 pages long. And I keep adding stuff every time I think of something I would like to expand. And for that I put the character itself talking. It then becomes easier to think like him when I'm writing the story.

And I have thought of doing something, but haven't quite started it, but I think it would be really interesting and fun.

I've thought of actually doing a sort of BBC documentary, that follows a character around for an entire day.
You know, with the woman commentary in the back round. And then it cuts into the character talking, sitting in the living room, with perhaps a window or a plant out of focus in the back round, and the dog passes on the bottom of the screen.
and then you hear the same woman asking one or two questions, and then it cuts into documentary footage again, of the person walking on the streets, or doing whatever they do during a normal day.
Something that could help is to actually do a scene from your book, but like a documentary.

I've also thought of doing random group scenes, if you're writing with a group(which I am). and I imagine them getting into a plane and finding their seats and how they busy themselves during a many hour trip.
Other setting that I've thought about is buying a ticket for a carousel.
My characters are kinda eccentric, so it's always interesting putting them in these situations.

but I haven't done any of this, no.

[Hollan]

I tried to interview my characters for my current WIP. They lied to me. Now, I find out half way through, one of them is gay and in love with his man servant/henchman. I would ring his neck (not b/c he's gay, but b/c it would have been nice to know earlier!) but he'd probably have my MC kill me.

*shudders in a corner at the monsters I've created*

[Komnena]

Some of mine were supposed to sit and wait to be rescued. They kept doing things that helped the rescuers find them.

[britlitfantw]

I definitely interview my characters:

http://britlitfantwin.livejournal.com/tag/character+interviews

It helps me get to know them and learn things about them that I didn't even realise. It can also assist in developing that character's personality and voice. So much fun. :)

[Constantine K]

I try to get inside their heads, rather than ask them what they're thinking. They could be lying to me anyway.

[Axelle]

Yep, characters often lie. They do what they please anyway, I've given up exercing any control on them. I tried interviewing my MC for fun, but as he ended up shooting me dead, I decided that was not a good idea :D

To get to know my characters better, I usually place them in imaginary situations (by imaginary, I mean scenes that won't feature in the book) and I see how they react. That helps me flesh out their personality.

[Wolvel]

I don't interview, I throw them into the story, and let the situation bring out the character in them.