Most novelists don’t know their characters well enough when they start writing their novel. The problem is that you get to know your characters by writing about your characters.
If you get to know your characters by writing the first draft of your novel, you’ll write the first 200 pages before you really know your characters. And that may mean you need to thoroughly rewrite the whole book.
That seems inefficient. Isn’t there a faster way?
Yes, there is. If you use my Snowflake Method, you’ve already got a nice tool for getting to know your characters. But not everyone’s brain is wired to use the Snowflake Method.
So what if you’re not a Snowflaker?
If you’re not a Snowflaker, you can interview your characters. That’s a great way to get to know them. And in fact, even if you are a Snowflaker, you can also interview them, and it’s a great way to fill in some of the missing details in your Snowflake document.
How To Interview One Character
First, let me thank one of my very first friends in the writing business, John DeSimone. I met John at a writing conference in 1990, and we quickly became writing buddies. We talked on the phone often over the years. John introduced me to my first agent. And he also was the first person to tell me about interviewing his characters.
John later got an MFA in creative writing, and he taught writing for years. He’s organized writing conferences, worked as an editor, and worked as a ghostwriter. And of course he’s published some novels. You can see what he’s up to at his website.
Interviewing a character is extremely simple. Here are the steps:
1) Decide which character in your novel you want to get to know better.
2) Open up your word processor and start a new document.
3) Ask your character any question that comes to mind. A good one is, “What’s your main problem at the start of this novel?”
4) Let your character answer, however long or short they want to go.
5) Ask another question based on that answer. You can be friendly or antagonistic, or both, or neither. Pretend you’re writing a feature article for your favorite news outlet. Make your character talk. Listen to how they express themselves. Continue until you’re done.
Which Characters Should You Interview?
I find it useful to interview any character who gets significant air time in my novel.
Definitely interview your lead character. One of the hardest parts of writing a novel is figuring out where your story is going. When you interview your lead character, ask them where they think they’re going. Then in your story, force them to go somewhere else.
I think it’s even more important to interview your villain. Why? Because it’s all too easy to make your villain a two-dimensional bad guy with no redeeming features. When you interview your villain, you have a chance to dive deep, to figure out why they’ve gone bad. And how they justify their actions. How they convince themselves that they’re actually the good guy, the hero of the story. When you know that, you’ll automatically have a better story.
It also makes sense to interview any viewpoint characters. If you’re writing even one scene from any character’s point-of-view, it really helps to know how they think. And you learn how they think by listening to them talk. You get them talking by asking them questions.
An Example Character Interview
OK, enough theory. Here’s the beginnings of a character interview with a guy most of you are familiar with, Luke Skywalker, from Star Wars. This is not an official interview. Luke is not my character, and I had nothing to do with the Star Wars movies. This is purely for educational purposes.
This is how I imagine I’d get to know Luke if I was just starting out to write the very first Star Wars movie, and if I didn’t really have a good idea where the story was going.
In this interview, I’ll use my initials (RI) and Luke’s initials (LS). And away we go…
RI: Hi Luke, you’re a young guy working on a farm. Tell me what you’d like to be doing in five years. Where do you see your life going?
LS: Don’t get me started! I’m going nowhere. I hate working on this farm. This is the most boring planet in the galaxy. And I’ll probably die of boredom before I’m thirty.
RI: Why don’t you just leave? You’re not helpless.
LS: I can’t leave! I owe it to my Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. They raised me when I was an orphan, and now I have to help them keep the farm going. Even though I hate it.
RI: I don’t get it. Yes, you owe them something, but you’re not an indentured servant. You’re an adult, and farming isn’t in your blood. Can’t they hire somebody? Or get a few droids to help out?
LS: They can’t afford to hire anybody. And droids are expensive. So I’m stuck here. My best buddy went off to join the rebels last year, but I’ll be here forever.
RI: Explain to me about the rebels. Is there something going on I don’t know about?
LS: What cave did you crawl out of? Don’t you know? The whole galaxy’s in revolt. The evil Emperor has finally gone too far. There are whole planets that have rebelled. There’s something called the Rebellion, which I’m not supposed to talk about, but it’s real. And it’ll be over before I ever get off this planet to join.
RI: That sounds great! The Rebellion will knock off the evil Emperor, and you’ll be safely here, away from danger—
LS: What are you talking about? The Rebellion hasn’t got a prayer of winning. There’s this new thing called the Death Star. It can knock out a planet with one giant zap. And then on to the next one. Everyone’s terrified of it, but nobody’s doing anything about it.
RI: Well, then obviously you don’t want to get involved. If the Rebellion has no chance of winning, you’d just get yourself killed, and that would be—
LS: NO!!!! I can’t just do nothing. That’s stupid and lame and wrong. I could help. I’m a good flyer. I could go to battle and fight the Evil Empire.
RI: With all due respect, you’re just one guy. I’m sure you fly very well for a farm boy, but you’re not military-trained, and anyway one guy against the Death Star doesn’t sound like a fair fight. If you want my advice, don’t get involved.
LS: I don’t care! I’ve got to do something! You make me sick, talking about running and hiding.
RI: Hey Luke? Chill, OK? Frankly, you sound a little childish. You talk big about fighting the evil Emperor and taking on the Death Star, but you can’t even stand up for yourself and tell your uncle you need to get off the farm. I think you’re all talk, no action.
LS: You don’t talk to me like that, you hear? Cause if you do, I’ll … um …
RI: You’ll do what, Luke? Throw milk on me? Tell the teacher I called you names? I don’t think you’re the violent type. I don’t see you using force to get what you want.
LS: Wait, what did you say?
RI: Are you going to throw milk on me?
LS: No, after that. The part about using force. How do you know about that?
RI: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
LS: You never heard of The Force?
RI: No, what’s The Force?
LS: Well, I’m not supposed to talk about it. Uncle Owen would be really mad. But I heard a rumor that there used to be these amazing guys called the Jedi Knights. And they mastered something called The Force. And they were like, unbeatable in battle.
RI: Sounds like an old wives tale, Luke. Maybe you should get back to milking cows, or whatever you farm boys do on a desert planet. Because look, I already told you what your real problem is, and—
LS: My problem is I’m stuck here on the farm!
RI: Sorry, no. Luke, your real problem is that you think you’re stuck here on the farm, and you can’t see that there’s absolutely nothing holding you here except your own scaredy-cat self. You say you want to leave, but you don’t really. You’re a bratty little kid, Luke. You don’t want to leave bad enough to just do it, and consequences be damned.
LS: Not true! I should … punch you for that!
RI: Yes, you should. But you won’t. Because you’re just a whiny do-nothing kid, and you’re never going to amount to—ouch! That hurt! Hey, come back here, and I’ll punch you right back! Where do you think you’re going?
LS: I have no idea. But I’m out of here.
What Are You Waiting For?
Are you itching to start your first interview with one of your characters? What are you waiting for? You have a whole universe of potential characters waiting to be discovered.
Go to it. And may the …
No, no, I’m not using that cliche. It’s been done to death. But remember one thing. At one point in time, nobody on the planet had ever said, “May the Force be with you.”
Until George Lucas met Obi-Wan Kenobi. I like to think they met in a smoky bar, had a bunch of drinks, talked about life and war and philosophy and love and power and fear and hopes and dreams. And about two hours in, working on their fifteenth beer, Obi-Wan Kenobi said something about the Force.
And George was listening.
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