Discovering Your Characters’s Secrets - Interviews that probe deeply

The more complex my characters, the more difficult it is to get the best answers from them. Even 50 rude questions only give me some of what I want. Their evasions can be revealing, but I’ve found with my current characters — who are all smarter than I am — there’s a glibness that hides the truth.

In my non-fiction life, I’ve interviewed a range of people, from Linus Pauling to Steve Allen to Nora Roberts. I’ve had to bring my A game to them. Why not characters, too?

So this week, I’m sharing some questions that provided more of the inner lives for me. Some questions worked for some characters. Some worked for others. I hope you find some useful ones. And if these don’t fit yours? I have some approaches to forming your own questions that might work.

The first approach is providing a prompt rather than a question. “Tell me about…” has given me more wonderful responses than any other approaches, so here’s a sampling of them.

Tell me about the worst advice you ever got.
Tell me about the best advice you ever got.
Tell me about a gift that was important to you, why, and what happened to it.
Tell me about a difficult choice you’re proud of making.
Tell me how you expect you’ll be remembered and why.
Tell me about an interesting pet you’ve had (or why you’ve chosen not to have pets).
Tell me about your most life-changing experience with nature.

Note that the only answer here that would be likely to get a quick answer is the first. The others probably will develop in the process of responding. They invite exploration and most of them don’t prompt for good/bad values.

The second approach is active and focused on preparation. This reveals awareness, planning, and sometimes fight or flight responses that are surprising. It is good to set these up with limits. For instance:

You have two hours. What do you pack for a camping vacation?
or
You have a thousand dollars. How do you spend it for a wedding?

Limits for the following may vary:

How would you prepare for two weeks with no phone or Internet?
How would you prepare for a days-long dust storm?
How would you prepare for a final conversation with a loved one?
How would you prepare for police questioning after you’ve witnessed a murder?
How would you prepare when a bully from your childhood calls and says he’s coming to your house?

The third approach is “either/or.” Sometimes these are dilemmas.

Would you rather spend the rest of your life homeless or homebound?
Would your rather wake up with empathy intact but logic lost or the reverse?
Would you look at the genetic test data answering whether the child you’ve been raising is really yours?
Do you rescue the only copy of a lost Dickens novel or the ninety-year-old serial child abuser?

But these can also explore dreams.
Would you rather win a Grammy or a Nobel Prize and why?
Would you rather have a happy child or the ability to fly and why?
Would you rather have a  billion dollars or create a song that people will still love and sing 1,000 years from now, and why?
Would you rather get sole credit for an app the blocks online bullying 100% or be part of a mostly anonymous team that ends world hunger?

Again, these are example questions, mostly tied to understanding the values, fears, needs, and wants of characters. You can use them as is, but making up your own versions is what will probably reveal the most about your characters.

One final suggestion. Listen to the answers (even though they come from fictional characters). This is something real-life interviewers often don’t do. It’s starkly evident when I hear questions asked that have already been answered. That is unlikely with your characters, but, when you get a “wow” response, it’s easy to be impressed and declare success. Don’t. Ask a follow-up question. Why stop digging when you strike gold?