When you think about your favorite novels, which characters do you like the most? Which ones do you relate to more? Most likely, they are characters that you know inside and out: their motivations, their fears, their strengths and weaknesses. As you build out the characters in the novel you are writing, it’s important to make them memorable so that your readers stay interested. But how can you avoid having a boring character? One of the easiest ways to flesh them out is through character interviews.

What are Character Interviews?

Character interviews are a Q&A between you and the cast of your novel. Note that this is not a character bio. You already know what your character looks like, as well as their role in your novel. Interviews provide an opportunity to flesh out your character, to make them really come alive when you are writing about them in your novel. On top of that, the answers that you get can help you brainstorm plot points.

So what exactly do you do in a character interview? This is your chance to take a deep dive into your character’s motivations and interests, as well as their fears. While not every question you ask may be helpful to your novel, it can help you to refine their personalities. Each character will answer each question differently. Are they hesitant to provide you insights into their deepest darkest secrets? Do they have a PG response or do they use curse words when they speak? Or do they perhaps embellish their reply to the question because that’s just their personality?

Is There Anything I Need to Focus on In My Character Interview?

There is a variety of information you can learn about your characters when doing these interviews. However, there are a few things you will really want to uncover in order to make them memorable:

• Motivations/Goals: What are they trying to accomplish in your novel? Why is it so important to them? Is their something from their history that led to this motivation?
• Fears: What is your character afraid of? Is it preventing them from accomplishing their goals?
• Strengths: What is your character good at? Is this something that will help them in the novel, with either the main storyline or a side quest?
• Weaknesses: What is your character not good at? What could they work on improving – and does any improvement help grow their character from the beginning of the novel to the end of the novel?

How Can I Conduct Character Interviews?

I’ve done character interviews several different ways throughout the years. The most simple way is to use a basic blog Q&A structure. Write down the question and then write the answers for each of the characters you want to flesh out.

Example #1

Q: What keeps you up at night?
Character #1: I often stay up thinking about the future and what will happen next in this war. I’m scared I’m making a mistake in choosing to fight head on. I don’t want to lose anyone.
Character #2: What keeps me up at night? Nothing, because I need my beauty sleep! I get as much rest as I can so I can be at my best the next day.
Character #3: The sins of those who have wronged me. And plans of how I can exact my revenge on them.

If you want to take it a step further, you can write it out as you would in your novel. This can help you with finding your voice, as well as showing how your characters act. Share how they react to certain questions or if they’re the type of person to get restless by staying still for too long. You could also show how they interact with other characters.

Example #2

“Next question. What is your favorite beverage to drink?” I ask, looking back up from the cue card in my hand.
“Currently, I’m absolutely obsessed with the strawberry matcha latte from my favorite bakery in town,” Character #1 replies immediately with a grin on her face. “Something about the way the flavors meld together is just amazing. Plus, I love that it comes with real strawberry chunks as well. Wait a moment. Let me just show you what it looks like.”
She pulls her cellphone out of her bag and starts tapping the screen. A moment later, she turns the phone around to show an image of a pink and green drink in a tall cup.
“And now I am craving one,” she says as she pulls the phone away and slides it back into her purse. “Guess I’ll have to make a stop on the way back home.”
Character #2 shakes his head at her, but there is an endearing smile on his face. “I think we’ve gone there two times in the past week already.”
He shrugs and leans back into the chair.
“But I won’t complain too much. I need my daily coffee fix, and I don’t really care where I end up going to get it.”
He looks pointedly at the empty mug in front of him. Character #1 rolls her eyes in response before pointing a finger at him.
“He does complain, though. Says I’m wasting money going out when I could learn to make it at home. But he still goes with me to the bakery to go grab drinks and treats. I think he secretly looks forward to it.”

If you have any writer friends, you can also role play as your character and ask each other questions. This is one of the activities that we did at our writing retreat last year, where I discovered my character’s motivations for money and how busy her job keeps her before her life changes at the start of the novel. I liked doing this as a group activity because it really got us to think – not only of the answer, but how our characters would respond to each other. We each had certain tones and speech patterns.

What Are Some of the Questions You Can Include In Your Interview?

If you’re looking to get started on your own interview, then here are 50 questions you can use to make your character feel more alive.

1. How do they feel about their current job / position? Are they happy or miserable?
2. What is their favorite word to say?
3. Is the glass half full or half empty?
4. How do they react when they are waiting in a long line that is taking forever?
5. What keeps them up at night?
6. Who do they rely on the most to keep them sane?
7. Who is the first person they would go to with exciting news?
8. How do they feel about camping? Are they a tent person or someone who would sleep underneath the stars? Or are they someone who needs to be cozy in their bed at home?
9. Do they know how to forage for food? How would they cope if they were stranded in the middle of the woods for a day?
10. What is their deepest darkest secret that they could never let anyone find out about?
11. Who was their best friend when they were younger? Are they still friends? If not, why?
12. Who is their role model?
13. Where do they see themselves in five years?
14. What is their biggest dream?
15. What is their biggest fear?
16. Do / did they like school? Why or why not?
17. What is their favorite beverage?
18. What is their favorite food?
19. Do they like savory or sweet treats more?
20. Are they allergic to anything?
21. If they use magic or weapons, what is their favorite spell or weapon to use?
22. What do they keep on their bedside table?
23. What would be the picture on the lockscreen of their phone?
24. Do they believe in ghosts?
25. Do they believe in white lies?
26. How good are they at keeping promises?
27. Would they be an inbox 0 type of person or someone who has 10,000+ unread emails?
28. If they were attending comic con, what character would they cosplay as?
29. What is their favorite novel?
30. What is their favorite song?
31. If they could travel anywhere on vacation, where would they go first and why?
32. What is their clothing style like? Do they have a favorite store? Or a favorite color to wear?
33. What is their favorite color?
34. What is their pet peeve?
35. How would they react to someone being mean to the staff at a restaurant?
36. Are they clumsy?
37. Do they believe in love at first sight?
38. As a child, what did they want to be when they grew up?
39. Would they make their childhood self proud? Why or why not?
40. If they could could meet anyone dead, alive, or fictional, who would they want to meet?
41. What is their favorite memory? How did that help them grow into who they are today?
42. How would they react to suddenly being given a leadership role? Are they a natural born leader or do they struggle to lead others?
43. What are two words that could be used to describe them?
44. If they won the lottery, how would they spend it?
45. How good are they at keeping plants alive? Do they remember to water them?
46. What is their favorite flower?
47. Do they have any pets? If not, what pet do they want to have? Do they want a pet?
48. Are they a people person? Or would they prefer to be alone?
49. What are their biggest strengths?
50. What could they work on improving? Is it a hindrance to reaching their goals?

If you need to dive deeper into any of the answer to these questions, always tack on a “Why?” You might go down a rabbit hole. Or, if you’re seeking more questions to ask, there are plenty of articles online that provide huge lists of character interview questions. You can also join our monthly writing sessions to ask any questions you may have about character building, world building, or general novel writing questions.

No matter what – just make sure that at the end of the day the questions you are asking are useful to you in helping flesh out your characters and making them memorable for your readers.