What points should a "Character Interview" method for character building hit?
What should a character interview contain to be successful where the goals are: characters with strong voice who are established with a distinct 'personhood' (?) and are generally interesting to follow?
Why I'm asking
A common weakness in my writing method is that my characters don't "pop" when I start. I've had a few successes, but its hard to tell when I start a book who those will be. But, I've worked with writers whose characters do pop right away; sometimes immediately in brainstorm sessions, so this is pre-revision. The answer for me is that I clearly need to change the way I think about people or do more upfront work. I'm aware of some basic strategies: give them quirks, do a character sheet, etc.
But, what I think I'm sorely lacking is character voice. I have heard of methods where you "interview" your characters. You have a series of questions and you write in first person as if you are your character, responding to those questions. By the end you have a maybe twenty page document that covers a lot of the things you'd see in a character sheet, but it's in that characters voice.
I'm hoping that a good checklist of points will help me draw out character weaknesses and start differentiating my characters so they aren't all Mary Sues or the same person wearing another hat.
An interesting character is better than an interesting plot. So if I want to write, I need to master this.
Sub questions
Are there known interview methods I'm unaware of? (Books/websites) I've done some googling in the past and never really come up with anything satisfying or intriguing.
Plot/POV/Circumstance Not Enough
I've been writing long enough to understand that you can play with conflict, pov, and all sorts of other things to shift the tone of a book. In my opinion, these are often patch jobs to cover up weak characters. When you read something like Confederacy of Dunces (which if it's good at anything, it's good at characterization) within a few pages you know who these characters are and what direction they'll stray in in most situations. The author of that book is stretching in ways I'm not; and while plot is certainly an element of the final product, the humor, the whatever -- it's not the source of the identity or voice.
What isn't helpful at this time... for this question.
If you have a method that isn't the interview method that would help me I'd like to know about it, but not as an answer. Leave a comment with a link or enough detail and I'll ask a separate question if I need more info.
There is one thing that comes to mind - the "36 questions that will make you fall in love with someone". It's a slightly …
5y ago
I don't use interviews, per se, but when I think about a new character (obsessively for a week or more) what I am asking …
5y ago
5 Hours, 5 Days, 5 years (ago) Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read this, but an author/writing guide I read su …
5y ago
Expanding on what I said in a comment to @Amadeus's post, I don't like thinking of "talking" with my character as an int …
5y ago
...? Why? To me one of the most important points of the this style is the follow-up question: "Why?". Sure it's great t …
5y ago
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5 answers
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There is one thing that comes to mind - the "36 questions that will make you fall in love with someone". It's a slightly different premise, of course, but the point of these questions is to make a connection to the person you're interviewing. So there might be something you can use there.
Here's the New York Times article about it and here's the study it is based on.
Some excerpts:
If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?
How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?
It's 36 questions, and some are more intimate and probably less useful here, so I'll refrain from pasting the whole list. But you see where it is going. They're very specific questions meant to draw out a specific and personal response.
As you can see, this is based on a psychological study. If you want to do some more digging, I'd suggest to actually start by looking in Google Scholar for similar studies. Maybe the references in the linked study are also helpful. But this is a huge part of psychology, so you might find something that suits your purpose even better.
Generally speaking I would say that questions should be specific, not generic. They should also be relevant to the plot or the world of your book. So instead of the crystal ball question above, you might want to use ideas from your novel. If it is sci-fi, you might ask "Have you heard that they discovered these aliens that live backwards in time and communicate by tachyon streams? What would you like to ask them about your future if you could?" (If instead you're writing a historical novel in the vein of Jane Austen, you might ask them what they know about the trade war in China and what they think would be the solution that could make both parties happy. Again, it's important not to ask simply "What do you think of it?", but to be specific. Their answer can still be "I totally don't care.")
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5 Hours, 5 Days, 5 years (ago)
Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read this, but an author/writing guide I read suggested a simple rule of character interview 5 Hours, 5 Days, and 5 Years. Ask what they were doing at those 3 times and that's all you really need to know about them (according to the system). I don't recall it being explained in any depth. It's the sort of "rule" that is obviously very reductive so it sketches in broad strokes quickly in a way that is relevant to their current character.
5 Hours sets up what the character does habitually. 5 hours earlier this morning they were feeding the kids and getting the husband off to work. 5 hours ago they were still at the office, etc. Describe this activity and you'll learn things like how they get around during the day, what they do for work, who they spend time with – their basic routine.
5 Days is not a precise time, so we generalize into something important that represents what their life has been like in the immediate past. If your story begins at a new job, 5 days ago they were frantic from job hunting and worried about paying bills. If they are starting at new school, 5 days ago might have been the lazy end of summer vacation. If the story begins with a recent relationship breakup, 5 days ago might have been filled with heated arguments and tears. Since stories usually start at the beginning of a situation, 5 Days gives context about how the character's life has just recently changed.
5 Years is another imprecise jump and again not a specific time. The idea is to cross a major life hurdle. 5 years ago they were still a starry-eyed student, 5 years ago they were single with no children, 5 years ago they were just starting an alcoholic downslide. They were a different person under different circumstances 5 years ago. That person had goals, and friends, and a routine that is different than now. They are in a better place, or worse. They have accomplished some of their goals, but abandoned others. Comparing them today and 5 years ago gives a good idea what trajectory they are headed in.
You don't need to fill in every detail before 5 years because at that point it is far less personal – more likely something that happened to them. We can't really describe an adults motives through an experience they had 10 or 15 years earlier, it's not going to meaningfully inform how their goals have recently comprimized, or tell us about the direction their life is taking now. A character was in almost completely different circumstances 5 years ago, but it won't be disconnected from the current situation.
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I don't use interviews, per se, but when I think about a new character (obsessively for a week or more) what I am asking myself is how they would (or did) react in various circumstances.
I would say adapt that to interviews: Characters show their character when they are confronted with problems, big or small, or situations in which they don't immediately know what to do.
So you can ask them things like the puzzle interview questions; What would you do if [something strange happened].
Basically, how do they handle the kinds of minor and major problems they will encounter in their world?
Also, questions about their past, but not a history lesson, a situation they had to handle. For an adult, perhaps "Tell me about the first time anybody asked you out, or vice versa. How did you handle it?"
"When was the first time you rationally refused to agree with your father? Tell me what happened."
You could ask more intimate or sexual questions as well, this interview is private!
"Who is the person in your life you dislike the most, and why?"
"Who is the person you worry about the most in a non-romantic way?"
"Have you ever had a one-night stand? Would you ever?"
And so on. I think of questions I'd expect most real people would refuse to answer, or are embarrassing, but our characters don't get that choice. They might argue a bit, but they are going to have to answer.
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...? Why?
To me one of the most important points of the this style is the follow-up question: "Why?". Sure it's great to know that one specific detail about a character but if you can't answer the why then they are just disconnected facts and not a cohesive character.
Similar to DPT I don't use this method for my main characters. Those characters typically live in my subconscious for so long I would be better at doing an interview as them than as myself. I do use this method for minor characters and more commonly my player and non-player characters for roleplaying games.
What to ask
The questions you ask should be targeted, personal and force your characters to think. The 36 questions to make you fall in love with someone provided by Spectrosaurus's great answer are some good examples. In addition to that type of question, I like to focus on putting my characters into difficult situations and asking what their response would be. Some examples:
You are traveling on a dark road as night, off the road to the right you see as group of people, several large forms surrounding a smaller one. As you pass them you hear a cry for help. What would you do next? Why?
A family member comes to you asking for money. You know they have a history of debt and gambling and are likely to lose it. What would you do next? Why?
Your superior gives you an instruction to do something illegal. You know it is wrong but the risk of getting caught is low. What would you do next? Why?
I tried to keep these somewhat generic, you should tailor them to your setting and themes. Typically I try to include opportunities for world-building information as well as character development.
How to answer
Get inside your characters head. Imagine them in the situation, fill the world with the details and play out the scene. What would they do? What is their priority? Do they saves themselves or jump to the aid of a stranger? How do they do it? What are the instincts of your character and where did they come from?
Again, detail is key. In your answers you want to fill out how they character feels about the situation, what they are thinking and which details are important to them.
Why ask why
As I said before I believe the why in these questions is the most important part. Take the following two answers to my first question above as examples:
What would you do next? I avert my eyes and increase my pace, hoping their don't follow. Why? I'm not strong enough to help them anyway. I'd just get myself killed and help no one.
What would you do next? I avert my eyes and increase my pace, hoping their don't follow. Why? The actions of others are none of my concern. No point risking my neck for some stranger.
You can see the two answers have the same action and mostly the same reasoning. It is too dangerous to intervene and they hurry off. There is a major difference in the motivations of the characters however.
The first example is a selfless character lacking in confidence, they want to help but don't think they can. Contrast that with the second example. This character is self-centred and confident, they could help but chose not to. This is just one, fairly simple example of what you can get from these sort of questions. With some practice this is a quick way to get detailed character development details.
Other thoughts
Something I like to do sometimes is following this up with yet another question: "What would need to change for you do change your mind?" Asking that helps you determine what the boundaries for the character are. "If a had some help maybe..." and "If there was something in it for me" inform as much about the character as asking a whole new question would.
Re-read your other answers. Maybe in your answer to a later question you learned something you didn't know about the character. Go back to your early questions and check if this new fact would change how they responded to that question. This is a discovery process, not a test, you can always change your answers.
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Expanding on what I said in a comment to @Amadeus's post, I don't like thinking of "talking" with my character as an interview. A character might not want to answer a journalist, an interrogator, even a doctor. But a character would open up to a friend. So, "a trusted friend" is how I position myself vis-à-vis my characters.
Similarly, questions like "who is the person you dislike the most" are questions that don't help me. I can't imagine a real person asking or answering a question like that. It feels synthetic. (Questions like this might work for someone else, they're good questions, they just don't work for me.)
The type of questions that helps me most is "what do you think about X". Such questions allow my characters to open up, tell me why they think what they think about X, or why they have no opinion about it. ("Why" is crucial - I agree with @Linksassin there.) Those questions are also open-ended enough to allow the character to take them wherever they're comfortable, wherever they have something interesting to say. Have about 10 varied Xs.
As an example, I "asked" the three main characters of the fantasy novel I'm currently working on what they think about Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera. My prince character was very critical of Riccardo, his trusted friend and advisor found Renato's behaviour unacceptable, and a third friend enjoyed the music and the show. The first two were all too happy to elaborate on their opinions based on ethics and historical precedent, the third shared his love for music. He also commented on how in an opera house there are all the commoners, so he has to stay uptight - he would have much preferred a private showing, where he could have sung along, demanded encores, etc.
I asked the same three characters what they think about Brexit. They all agreed it is the government's responsibility to rule, they were negligent in letting the "commoners" make the decision in the first place. And part of the problem now is that there are a lot of people pushing this way and that - there should be one person making the decisions and carrying the responsibility for them.
It remains to figure out what Xs you should be asking about. I like to split those up: 3-4 questions about in-world characters or events, 3-4 questions about experiences that are completely outside the characters' normal experience (e.g. Brexit for high fantasy characters), and 2-3 questions that are just random, because they sometimes make interesting things come out (e.g. chocolate, or a surrealist picture).
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