Interviewing your Characters

Interviewing your Characters
by K.M. WEILAND

How well do you know your characters? Like the back of my hand, you say? Do you know the color of your hero’s eyes? Do you know where the bad guy went to college? Do you know your heroine’s most embarrassing moment? Can you rattle off a list of your main character’s idiosyncrasies? Typical expressions? Romantic history?

If any one of these questions had you fumbling for an answer, then you’re missing a prime opportunity to deepen your characters and expand your story. Over the years, one of the most useful tools I’ve run across is the “character interview.” My own list started out as twenty or so basic questions regarding physical appearance and personality issues. Now it contains over fifty precise and penetrating questions, designed to get my brain juices flowing and my characters talking.

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/interviewing-your-characters/

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4 Methods for interviewing your characters
by Laurie Campell

If you're having a hard time getting to know your characters, you might want to try putting on your Oprah Winfrey hat and interviewing them. Sitting down at the typewriter for a chat with your hero or heroine is a great way to get to know them. Just pretend you're the hero and type, "Hi, I'm Rhett Butler," and let him start talking. Once you slip into the hero's personality, it's easy to stay in character as long as the interviewer keeps asking questions.

https://www.autocrit.com/editing/library/four-methods-for-interviewing-characters/

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Character Arc Tools - Worksheet & Map
by E. J. Runyon

Think about these characters you are writing about as strangers – even of you know them in real life. Get info about them you wouldn’t have coming out of your head– loosen up when you do these exercises: this is an interview – get down what it is they are saying to you.

http://www.bridgetostory.com/classes/lessons/lesson/3/character-arc-tools-worksheet-and-map

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How to Design and Plan a Character Using a Character Design Template
by Rebecca Ryals Russell

Anyway, someone suggested that I post my master template for planning characters. Here is the best I could figure out how to post. Hopefully this will be helpful.

Before compiling the character information, it is helpful to know what options are available. Hence I designed a Character Design Planner:

https://rebeccaryalsrussell.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/how-to-design-and-plan-a-character-using-a-character-design-template/

the spreadsheets

Character Designer
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3dcOVbdQJwoUGRQZmlNV0JkMkk

Character Organizer
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8jUxa-Mv962Um5HZWNjdHhiOGc
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