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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43257
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43257
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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.

Original score: 4