In the past, I’ve never really cared for character
interviews. I couldn’t understand how knowing my character’s favorite food
would help me know the deeper part of them. I focused more on what was the most
influential moment(s) in their life and how did they react to that situation.
It was a good starting place, but I’ve since learned that it’s
not everything.
For Commissioned, I decided to give character interviews a
chance. At least try them out. When I got to questions like: What’s their
favorite music, I still rolled my eyes. Does it matter? They’re living in a
fantasy world with Asian influence. But since I’d decided to try it, I made up
music they liked.
Turns out, one of my characters played the flute… and that
ended up becoming a major plot point in the story. I just hadn’t realized it
yet.
It was helpful, but I didn’t realize how helpful until this
week. After finishing revisions on Commissioned, I’ve been going through book
2, trying to figure out what went wrong. It took a few days, but I realized I was
missing a vital character. So I did the same thing as before. I found a picture
on Pinterest to give me inspiration and started the character interview.
Halfway through, I got to the question: What are her
religious beliefs?
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| Character interview with Tsetseg Manda |
The answer blew me away. I knew I was missing a major part
of the climax to the third book, and she’s it. She’s the fodder that builds the
emotional conflict for one of my characters. I just hadn’t realized it yet. And
if I hadn’t done the character interview, I’m not sure I would have ever known.
So yes, I’m definitely converted! Character interviews make
the character more than one dimensional, and even when the questions seem
pointless or superficial, the answers may not be.
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