This month for our Character Development exercise, we are going to look at "interviewing" our characters. I first heard of this way of doing things from J.R.Ward's Insider Guide for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. It really helped me develop my imagination to the point where my characters could "talk" to me. And that way works for me. So today we are going to look at that a little further.
I have personally done this exercise myself. I thought of all the questions for the "interview" myself but today I am going to give you some to think about and you can feel free to add your own also. So I am going to make up a character on the spot and fill this in.
So to start we go to the basics:
Name: Edith Babcock
Date of Birth: September 5th, 1894
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland
Current Residence: New York City, NY, USA
Then I would move on to their family:
Mother's Name: Marie O'Callaghan
Father's Name: John Babcock
Number of Siblings: 2 sisters
Name of Siblings: Maryanne, Ruth
Other Details: Oldest of the sisters.
Finally, I would move on to education:
Grade School: St. Mary Margaret's Catholic Girl's School - Dublin, Ireland
St. Patrick's Catholic School - New York, USA
High School: N/A
College/University: N/A
Now I write more specific stuff that has to do with the timeline.
Current Occupation: Child
Where does this character see themselves in 5 years?: Having a wonderful new life in New York.
In 10 years?: Returning to Ireland to raise a family.
These questions should be applied to when the story is happening. If you are seeing this in 2021, obviously Edith who was born in 1894 is long deceased. But these questions would be about five years from when her story starts.
So that is about it. You want to keep questions in mind, like what you would ask someone you just met, or what a college admissions panel would ask, or what a boss trying to interview a new employee would ask. Anything to help give yourself a little insight into who your character is and why they are that way.
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