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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43520
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43520
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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).

Original score: 2